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Public Release: 17-Oct-2012

Angewandte Chemie International Edition
New cobalt-graphene catalyst could challenge platinum for use in fuel cells
There's a new contender in the race to find an inexpensive alternative to platinum catalysts for use in hydrogen fuel cells. Brown University chemist Shouheng Sun and his students have developed a new material -- a graphene sheet covered by cobalt and cobalt-oxide nanoparticles -- that can catalyze the oxygen reduction reaction nearly as well as platinum does and is substantially more durable.

US Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy, Fuel

Public Release: 17-Oct-2012

Nature
Bus service for qubits
Superconducting circuit technology meets semiconductor qubit technology to afford a means of moving quantum information from one place to another in future quantum computers.

Sloan, Packard, Army, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency QuEST, National Science Foundation, Army Research Office Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative

Public Release: 16-Oct-2012
Envisioning novel approaches for eye disease: 'The new medicine' at UC Santa Barbara
By growing new retinal cells to replace those that have malfunctioned, scientists hope to one day create and fuse entire layers of fresh cells -- a synthetic patch akin to a contact lens -- as a treatment for age-related macular degeneration, the top cause of visual impairment among people over 60.

Bill Bowes

Public Release: 16-Oct-2012
Effort to mass-produce flexible nanoscale electronics
Case Western Reserve University researchers have won a $1.2 million grant to develop technology for mass-producing flexible electronic devices at a whole new level of small. As they're devising new tools and techniques to make nanowires and devices, they're creating ways to build them in flexible materials and package the electronics in waterproofing layers of durable plastics. The technology may be used to make implants that cause less damage to foldable electronics as thin as a sheet of plastic wrap.

National Science Foundation

Public Release: 15-Oct-2012
Penn State receives $4.2 million for nanotechnology career development
Penn State will receive $4.2 million over the next three years from the National Science Foundation to continue the work of the National Nanotechnology Applications and Career Knowledge Network, founded at the university with a four-year grant from the NSF in 2008.

National Science Foundation

Public Release: 15-Oct-2012

Advanced Functional Materials
Penn researchers find new way to mimic the color and texture of butterfly wings
The colors of a butterfly's wings are unusually bright and beautiful and are the result of an unusual trait; the way they reflect light is fundamentally different from how color works most of the time.

Office of Naval Research, National Science Foundation.

Public Release: 15-Oct-2012

Nano Letters
Penn researchers find new way to prevent cracking in nanoparticle films
Making uniform coatings is a common engineering challenge, and, when working at the nanoscale, even the tiniest cracks or defects can be a big problem. New research from University of Pennsylvania engineers has shown a new way of avoiding such cracks when depositing thin films of nanoparticles.

National Science Foundation, Penn Materials Research Science and Engineering Center

Public Release: 15-Oct-2012

Science
Science: Quantum oscillator responds to pressure
In the far future, superconducting quantum bits might serve as components of high-performance computers. Today already do they help better understand the structure of solids, as is reported by researchers of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in the Science magazine. By means of Josephson junctions, they measured the oscillations of individual atoms "tunneling" between two positions. This means that the atoms oscillated quantum mechanically. Deformation of the specimen even changed the frequency (DOI: 10.1126/science.1226487).

Public Release: 15-Oct-2012

Nature Materials
Another advance on the road to spintronics
Using a new technique called HARPES, for Hard x-ray Angle-Resolved PhotoEmission Spectroscopy, Berkeley Lab researchers have unlocked the ferromagnetic secrets of dilute magnetic semiconductors, materials of great interest for spintronic technology.

US Department of Energy Office of Science

Public Release: 15-Oct-2012

Materials Research Letters
New techniques stretch carbon nanotubes, make stronger composites
Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed new techniques for stretching carbon nanotubes and using them to create carbon composites that can be used as stronger, lighter materials in everything from airplanes to bicycles.

Air Force Office of Scientific Research

Public Release: 14-Oct-2012

Nature Physics
Making a layer cake with atomic precision
Graphene and associated one-atom-thick crystals offer the possibility of a vast range of new materials and devices by stacking individual atomic layers on top of each other, new research from the University of Manchester shows.

Public Release: 12-Oct-2012

Physical Review Letters
'Invisibility' could be a key to better electronics
An MIT team applies technology developed for visual 'cloaking' to enable more efficient transfer of electrons.

US Department of Energy

Public Release: 12-Oct-2012

Advanced Materials
Scientists discover that shape matters in DNA nanoparticle therapy
Researchers from Johns Hopkins and Northwestern universities have discovered how to control the shape of nanoparticles that move DNA through the body and have shown that the shapes of these carriers may make a big difference in how well they work in treating cancer and other diseases. This study is also noteworthy because this gene therapy technique does not use a virus to carry DNA into cells.

National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 11-Oct-2012
Researchers seek way to make solar cells ultra-thin, flexible
Researchers at The University of Texas at Dallas are developing nanotechnology that could lead to a new platform for solar cells, one that could drive the development of lighter, flexible and more versatile solar-powered technology than is currently available. The National Science Foundation recently awarded a $390,000 grant to the researchers to further explore their research on the feasibility of ultrathin-film photovoltaic devices, which convert light from the sun into electric power.

National Science Foundation

Public Release: 11-Oct-2012

ACS Nano
Researchers create 'nanoflowers' for energy storage, solar cells
Researchers from North Carolina State University have created flower-like structures out of germanium sulfide (GeS) – a semiconductor material – that have extremely thin petals with an enormous surface area. The GeS flower holds promise for next-generation energy storage devices and solar cells.

US Army Research Office

Public Release: 11-Oct-2012
Queen's develops new environmentally friendly MOF production method
Chemists at Queen's University Belfast have devised a novel, environmentally friendly technique, which allows the rapid production of Metal-Organic Frameworks porous materials. These revolutionary nanomaterials have the potential to transform hazardous gas storage, natural gas vehicles and drug delivery and have the highest surface-area of any known substance.