Technology Update

Researchers in the US and the UK have succeeded in synthesizing high-quality 2D semiconductor heterojunctions between monolayers of molybdenum selenide and tungsten selenide – two new and technologically important materials. The junctions are the 2D analogues of epitaxial 3D semiconductor heterostructures, which make up most modern light-emitting diodes, lasers and high-speed transistors…. http://nanotechweb.org/cws/article/tech/58453 WSe2-MoSe2 heterostructures

Recent experimental observations of nucleation, the point where a solid first forms, contradict the predictions of classical nucleation theory. As a result uncertainty exists over a number of possible mechanisms for the formation of crystals from liquids. Now a team of researchers have used transmission electron microscopy to observe the formation of the mineral calcium […]

Devices made from resonating graphene “drums” could be used as sensors in applications such as mobile phones and also as memory chips in quantum computers. So say researchers at the Kavli Institute of Nanoscience at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands whose resonator works using a phenomenon called optomechanical induced transparency….. http://nanotechweb.org/cws/article/tech/58477 The […]

Cadmium telluride nanocrystal colloids could be used as the photovoltaic “ink” in solar cells, according to new experiments by researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the University of Chicago. Devices made using CdTe layers as thin as just 330 nm have a sunlight-to-power conversion of efficiency of 10% while those made with 550 nm thick […]

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in the US have succeeded in fabricating organic photovoltaic (OPV) devices from water-based dispersions of polymer nanoparticle spheres using an innovative technique that allows them to control component assembly at different length scales. Devices made using the new technique appear to be as good as those in terms […]

Researchers in California have measured the elastic properties of atomically thin heterostructures made from molybdenite and tungstenite for the first time. These new, technologically important 2D materials and their heterostructures could be ideal for making flexible optoelectronics and photonics devices…. http://nanotechweb.org/cws/article/tech/58302 In the lab Two-dimensional semiconducting transition metal 

Multilayers of tungsten selenide – a new, technologically important 2D material – can strongly emit light if strain is applied to them. This result, from researchers at the University of California and the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, also in California, means that such strained structures might now be used in applications such as LEDs, lasers […]

Lead halide perovskites can be used as light-emitting semiconductors in an LED structure, according to new experiments by researchers at the universities of Cambridge and Oxford in the UK and at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich, Germany. The light emitted by the perovskites can be easily tuned – something that could make the devices ideal for […]

Gene therapy can offer an effective treatment for drug-resistant radio-insensitive cancer. However, progress has been hampered by the difficulties in developing an appropriate delivery mechanism. Now researchers have demonstrated for the first time that magnetic nanoparticles provide safe, effective and targeted “suicide-gene” delivery to cells of a particularly prevalent and highly resilient type of liver […]

A new solar cell made from carbon nanotubes (CNTs) that is nearly two times better at converting sunlight into power than the best previous such cells has been unveiled by a team of researchers in the US. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has already independently certified the performance of the device – a first […]

A nanogel of a naturally occurring anticancer compound called triptolide coated with folate could be used to treat hepatocellular carcinoma, the most common form of primary liver cancer. So say researchers from Korea and Singapore who have found that the compound can be selectively taken up by tumour cells and once there lose its coating, […]

Silicene, a two-dimensional honeycomb lattice of silicon atoms with similarities to graphene, has attracted interest both in terms of the fundamental physics behind its properties and new technologies that might exploit them. However, a stable form of the material has proved elusive, making it hard to pin down its characteristic properties and possible applications. Now […]

Infrared thermal emitters, which convert heat into light, are used in a number of applications, including chemical analysis, biosensing and thermal imaging

Researchers at Stanford University have developed the first non-invasive imaging technique able to detect micron-sized cerebrovascular structures

Researchers at the Kavli Energy Nanosciences Institute, the University of California at Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, have succeeded in boosting the performance of a new type of solar cell

A redox shuttle mechanism could help increase the amount of hydrogen produced by photocatalysts

Complex nanoscale architectures of inorganic materials have a range of potential applications,