Nanocomp Technologies, Inc., a developer of energy saving performance materials and component products from carbon nanotubes (CNTs), today announced that it has been awarded a multi-million dollar Phase II contract by the United States Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) under the Department of Defense's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program.

SouthWest NanoTechnologies, Inc. (SWeNT) the leading manufacturer of single-wall and Specialty Multi-Wall (SMW™) carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is manufacturing specialty multi-wall carbon nanotubes for NanoRidge Materials, Inc. These CNTs are being incorporated into enhanced body armour to improve protection of soldiers and law enforcement officers from small arms fire.

A Stanford mechanical engineer is using the biology of a gecko's sticky foot to create a robot that climbs. In the same way the small reptile can scale a wall of slick glass, the Stickybot can climb smooth surfaces with feet modeled on the intricate design of gecko toes.

Just as cilia lining the lungs help keep passages clear by moving particles along the tips of the tiny hair-structures, man-made miniscule bristles known as nano-brushes can help reduce friction along surfaces at the molecular level, among other things.

 

 

Future flash memory could be faster and store more data without changing its basic design by using a clever nanocrystal material proposed by scientists at Taiwan's Chang Gung University, who describe a new logical element made with the rare earth material gadolinium in the journal Applied Physics Letters ("Nanostructure band engineering of gadolinium oxide nanocrystal memory by CF4 plasma treatment").

 

Using a cutting edge nanotechnology, researchers at MIT have created a robotic prototype that could autonomously navigate the surface of the ocean to collect surface oil and process it on site.

The University of Southern California announced today that Michelle Povinelli, a member of the faculty of the Viterbi School of Engineering, has been recognized by MIT Technology Review magazine as one of the world's top innovators under the age of 35 for her research on the optical properties of nano-structured materials.

Electronic products pollute our environment with a number of heavy metals before, during and after they're used. In the U.S. alone, an estimated 70% of heavy metals in landfill come from discarded electronics. With flat screen TVs getting bigger and cheaper every year, environmental costs continue to mount.

Inorganic chalcogenide (WS2) nanotubes have shown revolutionary chemical and physical properties that offer a broad range of applications. They are ultra-strong impact-resistant materials. This makes them excellent candidates for producing bullet proof vests, helmets, car bumpers, high strength glues and binders, and other safety equipment. The unique nanotubes are up to four to five times stronger than steel and about six times stronger than Kevlar, the nowadays most popular material used for bullet proof vests.

An international team of researchers has succeeded in producing nanocrystals that build conductive two-dimensional nanostructures trough self-organisation ("Ultrathin PbS Sheets by Two-Dimensional Oriented Attachment").

Harnessing darkness for practical use, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a laser power detector coated with the world's darkest material—a forest of carbon nanotubes that reflects almost no light across the visible and part of the infrared spectrum.

Scientists from UCLA's California NanoSystems Institute and Korea's Yonsei University have developed an innovative method that enables nanomachines to release drugs inside living cancer cells when activated remotely by an oscillating magnetic field.

Researchers have overcome a fundamental obstacle in using new "metamaterials" for radical advances in optical technologies, including ultra-powerful microscopes and computers and a possible invisibility cloak.

Tiny particles of iron oxide could become tools for simultaneous tumour imaging and treatment, because of their magnetic properties and toxic effects against brain cancer cells. In mice, researchers from Emory University School of Medicine have demonstrated how these particles can deliver antibodies to implanted brain tumours, while enhancing tumor visibility via magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Nanotechnology refers to a broad range of tools, techniques and applications that simply involve particles on the approximate size scale of a few to hundreds of nanometers in diameter. Particles of this size have some unique physicochemical and surface properties that lend themselves to novel uses. Indeed, advocates of nanotechnology suggest that this area of research could contribute to solutions for some of the major problems we face on the global scale such as ensuring a supply of safe drinking water for a growing population, as well as addressing issues in medicine, energy, and agriculture.

Researchers have discovered mechanisms critical to interactions between hot plasma and surfaces facing the plasma inside a thermonuclear fusion reactor, part of work aimed at developing coatings capable of withstanding the grueling conditions inside the reactors.

In the recent issue of Nature, scientists from Empa and the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research report how they have managed for the first time to grow graphene ribbons that are just a few nanometres wide using a simple surface-based chemical method. Graphene ribbons are considered to be «hot candidates» for future electronics applications as their properties can be adjusted through width and edge shape.

"We can make you and we can break you." If Rice University scientists wrote country songs, their ode to graphene oxide would start something like that. But this song wouldn't break anybody's heart.

Starting with simple carbon nanotubes, a team of researchers from the United Kingdom and Spain has developed a sugar-coated nanocapsule that can deliver large doses of radioactivity to tumours. The researchers envision developing a series of nanoscale delivery devices that can target specific organs in the body for radiation therapy or imaging by tinkering with the sugar coating on the nanocapsule.

 

As a sign of aging or in a suit, wrinkles are almost never welcome, but two papers in the current issue of Physical Review Letters offer some perspective on what determines their size and shape in soft materials.