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Nanotechnology / Materials news 1234

Quantum Dots May Lead to Rainbow Solar Cell

March 07, 2008 | User rating: 4.6 / 5 after 112 vote(s) | User comments: 3

For the first time, researchers have created solar cells made of different-sized quantum dots, each tuned to a specific wavelength of light. By arranging these quantum dots in an ordered pattern, the scientists ...


Simple Method Yields Complex Micro- and Nanoparticle Shapes

July 26, 2007 | User rating: 4.4 / 5 after 27 vote(s) | No comments yet

In applications from drug delivery to electronics, polymer particles several billionths to millionths of a meter in size could play key roles. But before many of these uses can be realized, scientists must ...


Stretchable Silicon May Inspire a New Wave of Electronics

June 13, 2007 | User rating: 4.4 / 5 after 67 vote(s) | No comments yet

Scientists have created a form of nanoscale silicon that is stretchable. The new material may help pave the way for a class of stretchable electronic devices, such as “smart” surgical gloves and personal health ...


Nanoscale 'Coaxial Cables' for Solar Energy Harvesting

April 23, 2007 | User rating: 4.6 / 5 after 118 vote(s) | No comments yet

Scientists have designed a new type of nanowire – a tiny coaxial cable – that could vastly improve a few key renewable energy technologies, particularly solar cells, and could even impact other cutting-edge, ...


New Nanomaterial, 'NanoBuds,' Combines Fullerenes and Nanotubes

March 30, 2007 | User rating: 4.4 / 5 after 64 vote(s) | No comments yet

Researchers have created a hybrid carbon nanomaterial that merges single-walled carbon nanotubes and spherical carbon-atom cages called fullerenes. The new structures, dubbed NanoBuds because they resemble ...


Scientists Create First Non-Carbon Material with Near-Diamond Hardness

March 28, 2007 | User rating: 4.5 / 5 after 76 vote(s) | No comments yet

Research scientists have created the first non-carbon-based material with a hardness approaching that of diamond. Their work could have a significant impact on technologies and industries that rely on diamond as a cutting ...


Nature’s frugal glues provide insight for optimized adhesives

January 11, 2007 | User rating: 4.2 / 5 after 41 vote(s) | No comments yet

In trying to create a “glue” that would hold right up to the breaking point of the material being glued, scientists have found that such an ideal adhesive already exists—in bone, abalone shells, and spider ...


For Better Nanowires, Just Add Diamond

November 15, 2006 | User rating: 4.2 / 5 after 432 vote(s) | No comments yet

Among the positive characteristics of diamond, such as its beauty and unsurpassed hardness, are less well known properties that make it a valuable material in the electronics industry. Now, according to two scientists at ...


Ancient Hair-Dyeing – A Nanoscience?

October 30, 2006 | User rating: 3.6 / 5 after 31 vote(s) | No comments yet

Scientists have discovered that an ancient method used to darken hair, dating back more than 4,000 years, is based on a chemical process that takes place at the nanoscale. This may be one of the earliest examples ...


Nanoscience May Produce 'Perfect' Materials

August 25, 2006 | User rating: 4.4 / 5 after 55 vote(s) | No comments yet

Nanoscience may provide a way to engineer materials that are virtually defect-free – perfect, that is.


In new hybrid chip, molecules are memories

August 08, 2006 | User rating: 4.1 / 5 after 46 vote(s) | No comments yet

As scientists strive to satisfy the growing demand of the digital era for faster, smaller, and cheaper electronics, one of the most promising technologies is hybrids. Hybrid ICs (integrated circuits) consist ...


Scientists design simpler, more accurate nanothermometer

July 26, 2006 | User rating: 4.3 / 5 after 39 vote(s) | No comments yet

By using carbon nanotubes containing gallium for measuring temperature at the nanoscale, scientists have invented a new nanothermometer that works simply by heating and cooling the tubes.