Month: April 2020

The development of bimetallic nanoparticles (i.e., tiny particles composed of two different metals that exhibit several new and improved properties) represents a novel area of research with a wide range of potential applications. Now, a research team in the University of Maryland (UMD)’s A. James Clark School of Engineering has developed a new method for

Agência FAPESP – Highly concentrated aqueous electrolytes, known as water-in-salt electrolytes, could be an alternative to the organic solvents used in car batteries and other electrochemical devices. Abundance and, hence, low cost are key factors in this application, alongside nontoxicity, according to the review article “Water-in-salt electrolytes for high voltage aqueous electrochemical energy storage devices”

IMAGE: The researchers used a microwave resonator (brown) that generated fields with frequencies in the microwave range, which excited the magnons in an yttrium iron garnet film (red) and formed a… view more  Credit: I. V. Borisenko et al./ Nature Communications Data transmission that works by means of magnetic waves instead of electric currents – for

IMAGE: Yizhi Jane Tao view more  Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University HOUSTON – (April 23, 2020) – Rice University researchers plan to reconfigure their “trap and zap” wastewater-treatment technology to capture and deactivate the virus that causes COVID-19. Rice civil and environmental engineer Pedro Alvarez and bioscientist Yizhi Jane Tao have won a National Science Foundation (NSF)

IMAGE: EDITORIAL VIEWS: Hans Zappe, left, and Harry Levinson. view more  Credit: SPIE BELLINGHAM, Washington, USA – SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, has announced the launch of a new Gold Open Access journal, the Journal of Optical Microsystems (JOM), which will publish cutting-edge research of optical and photonic microsystems. Hans Zappe, co-editor-in-chief of

IMAGE: It can be used to distinguish MS from neuromyelitis optica, another demyelinating disorder view more  Credit: UFSCar Researchers at the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar) in Sorocaba (state of São Paulo, Brazil) have developed a technique to diagnose early-stage multiple sclerosis, a disease of the central nervous system, and distinguish it from neuromyelitis optica,

IMAGE: Figure 1. Schematic illustration of multi-functional graphene. view more  Credit: JAIST, CNRS “Three” kinds of regalia such as crown, orb, and sward are often necessary to be a high king for conquering the world. For fighting off cancerous diseases, what do we need? This “triple” chemical modified nanomaterial might be save the patient. Cancer is

IMAGE: Drawing inspiration from spider’s back legs, researchers have developed a new nonstick surface for nanomaterials.   view more  Credit: American Chemical Society Cribellate spiders spin thousands of tiny nanofibers into sticky threads. To keep from getting caught in their own webs, these spiders use a nonstick comb on their back legs. Now, researchers reporting in

Electron spin–a fundamentally quantum property–is central to spintronics, a technology that revolutionized data storage,[1] and that could play a major role in creating new computer processors. In order to generate and detect spin currents, spintronics traditionally uses ferromagnetic materials whose magnetization switching consume high amounts of energy. In the April 22, 2020 issue of Nature,

IMAGE: A semi-transparent perovskite solar cell with contrasting levels of light transparency. view more  Credit: Dr Jae Choul Yu Semi-transparent solar cells that can be incorporated into window glass are a “game-changer” that could transform architecture, urban planning and electricity generation, Australian scientists say in a paper in Nano Energy. The researchers – led by Professor

IMAGE: A hydrogel can cool off electronics and generate electricity from their waste heat. Scale bar, 2 cm. view more  Credit: Adapted from Nano Letters 2020, DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.0c00800 Using electronic devices for too long can cause them to overheat, which might slow them down, damage their components or even make them explode or catch fire. Now,