Transforming Nanowires Into Nano-Tools Using Cation Exchange Reactions A team of engineers from the University of Pennsylvania has transformed simple nanowires into reconfigurable materials and circuits, demonstrating a novel, self-assembling method for chemically creating nanoscale structures that are not possible to grow or obtain otherwise. view more (2009-10-26)
Gold Solution for Enhancing Nanocrystal Electrical Conductance In a development that holds much promise for the future of solar cells made from nanocrystals, and the use of solar energy to produce clean and renewable liquid transportation fuels, researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have reported a technique by which the electrical conductivity... view more... (2009-09-10)
Building better bone replacements with bacteria Bacteria that manufacture hydroxyapatite (HA) could be used to make stronger, more durable bone implants. Professor Lynne Macaskie from the University of Birmingham this week (7-10 September) presented work to the Society for General Microbiology's meeting at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh. view more (2009-09-08)
Pitt researchers harness carbon nanomaterials for drug delivery systems, oxygen sensors Two nanoscale devices recently reported by University of Pittsburgh researchers in two separate journals harness the potential of carbon nanomaterials to enhance technologies for drug or imaging agent delivery and energy storage systems, in one case, and, in the other, bolster the sensitivity of oxygen sensors essential in confined settings, from... view more... (2009-08-18)
Growth Spurts: Berkeley Lab Researchers Record First Real-Time Direct Observations of Nanocrystal Growth in Solution The veil is being lifted from the once unseen world of molecular activity. Not so long ago only the final products were visible and scientists were forced to gauge the processes behind those products by ensemble averages of many molecules. view more (2009-08-10)
Jet-propelled Imaging for an Ultrafast Light Source John Spence, a physicist at Arizona State University, is a longtime user of the Advanced Light Source at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where he has contributed to major advances in lensless imaging. view more (2009-07-30)
More Than Meets the Eye: New Blue Light Nanocrystals Berkeley Lab researchers have produced non-toxic magnesium oxide nanocrystals that efficiently emit blue light and could also play a role in long-term storage of carbon dioxide, a potential means of tempering the effects of global warming. view more (2009-07-22)
Nanocrystals Reveal Activity Within Cells Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have created bright, stable and bio-friendly nanocrystals that act as individual investigators of activity within a cell. view more (2009-06-17)
Discovery of non-blinking semiconductor nanocrystals advances their applications Substantial advances for applications of nanocrystals in the fields requiring a continuous output of photons and high quantum efficiency may soon be realized due to discovery of non-blinking semiconductor nanocrystals. view more (2009-05-15)
New Nanocrystals Show Potential for Cheap Lasers, New Lighting For more than a decade, scientists have been frustrated in their attempts to create continuously emitting light sources from individual molecules because of an optical quirk called "blinking," but now scientists at the University of Rochester have uncovered the basic physics behind the phenomenon, and along with researchers at the... view more... (2009-05-11)
Turning Sunlight into Liquid Fuels: Berkeley Lab Researchers Create a Nano-sized Photocatalyst for Artificial Photosynthesis For millions of years, green plants have employed photosynthesis to capture energy from sunlight and convert it into electrochemical energy. A goal of scientists has been to develop an artificial version of photosynthesis that can be used to produce liquid fuels from carbon dioxide and water. view more (2009-03-11)
New imaging technique reveals the atomic structure of nanocrystals A new imaging technique developed by researchers at the University of Illinois overcomes the limit of diffraction and can reveal the atomic structure of a single nanocrystal with a resolution of less than one angstrom (less than one hundred-millionth of a centimeter). view more (2009-02-19)
Research highlights potential for improved solar cells A team of Los Alamos researchers led by Victor Klimov has shown that carrier multiplication-when a photon creates multiple electrons-is a real phenomenon in tiny semiconductor crystals and not a false observation born of extraneous effects that mimic carrier multiplication. The research, explained in a recent issue of Accounts of Chemical... view more... (2009-02-11)
'Strained' quantum dots show new optical properties Quantum dots, tiny luminescent particles made of semiconductors, hold promise for detecting and treating cancer earlier. However, if doctors were to use them in humans, quantum dots could have limitations related to their size and possible toxicity. view more (2008-12-08)
NIST and partners identify tiny gold clusters as top-notch catalysts For most of us, gold is only valuable if we possess it in large-sized pieces. However, the "bigger is better" rule isn't the case for those interested in exploiting gold's exceptional ability to catalyze a wide variety of chemical reactions, including the oxidation of poisonous carbon monoxide (CO) into harmless carbon dioxide at room... view more... (2008-09-08)
Microwave synthesis connects with the (quantum) dots Materials researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a simplified, low-cost process for producing high-quality, water-soluble "quantum dots" for biological research. view more (2008-06-13)
Researchers demonstrate 'avalanche effect' in solar cells Researchers at TU Delft and the FOM Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter have found irrefutable proof that the so-called avalanche effect by electrons occurs in specific, very small semiconducting crystals. view more (2008-05-27)
JILA solves problem of quantum dot 'blinking' Quantum dots-tiny, intense, tunable sources of colorful light-are illuminating new opportunities in biomedical research, cryptography and other fields. But these semiconductor nanocrystals also have a secret problem, a kind of nervous tic. They mysteriously tend to "blink" on and off like Christmas tree lights, which can reduce their... view more... (2008-01-24)
Argonne researcher studies what makes quantum dots blink In order to learn more about the origins of quantum dot blinking, researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory, the University of Chicago and the California Institute of Technology have developed a method to characterize it on faster time scales than have previously been accessed. view more (2007-10-05)
Unique Quantum Effect Found in Silicon Nanocrystals Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), collaborating with Innovalight, Inc., have shown that a new and important effect called Multiple Exciton Generation (MEG) occurs efficiently in silicon nanocrystals. MEG results in the formation of more than one electron per absorbed photon. view more (2007-07-26)
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