AiNaNo.ru

The potential of advanced nanotechnology is getting some attention from mainstream media. Late last year The Guardian web site posted a brief article on the prospects for nanofactories and atomically precise manufacturing, featuring quotes from Christine Peterson and Robert Freitas. From “Nanofactories – a future vision” by Penny Sarchet:

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Scientists have found a way to turn common carbon fiber into graphene quantum dots, tiny specks of matter with properties expected to prove useful in electronic, optical and biomedical applications.

Researchers have shown that by tuning the properties of laser light illuminating arrays of metal nanoantennas, these nano-scale structures allow for dexterous optical tweezing as well as size-sorting of particles.

Scientists have developed «smart» nanotherapeutics that can be programmed to selectively deliver drugs to the cells of the pancreas. The approach was found to increase drug efficacy by 200-fold in in vitro studies based on the ability of these nanomaterials to both protect the drug from degradation and concentrate it at key target sites, such as regions of the pancreas that contain the insulin-producing cells.

In recent years an atomic force microscope-based technique called nanoscale thermal analysis has been employed to reveal the temperature-dependent properties of materials at the sub-100 nm scale. Typically, nanothermal analysis works best for soft polymers. Researchers have now shown that they can perform nanoscale thermal analysis on stiff materials like epoxies and filled composites.

A dose of hydrogen or helium can render the «super material» graphene even more useful, as shown by physicists.

A new discovery shows that the flexibility and durability of carbon nanotube films and coatings are intimately linked to their electronic properties and could impact flexible electronic devices such as solar cells and wearable sensors.

The 120 page White Paper «OE-A Roadmap for Organic and Printed Electronics» (4th edition, December 2011) is available for download from the OE-A homepage.

Five application clusters as well as mate…

Collaboration combines electron microscopy, NMR and X-ray diffraction methods to provide advances in structural biology using cryo-EM to accelerate discoveries about the causes, treatments and cures f…

A Rice University laboratory has found a way to turn common carbon fiber into graphene quantum dots, tiny specks of matter with properties expected to prove useful in electronic, optical and biomedica…