News by Subject Chemistry & Physics

Development of next-generation power devices is needed for energy saving in a low carbon society. Diamond is a potentially important power device material due to its excellent physical and electronic properties. Here we have developed a non-plasma high-speed anisotropic etching process using a thermochemical reaction between nickel and diamond in high-temperature water vapor. This technology is expected to contribute to fabrication of diamond devices of excellent performance with highly reduced transmission loss and high-voltage endurance.

Scientists from the Singapore University of Technology and Design, together with collaborators from University Insubria (Italy) and Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (Brazil) have shown that systems with strong interactions can rectify extremely well the flow of spins i.e. a spin current will flow much more in one direction than the other. This discovery could unlock new spintronics applications.

Graphene Flagship researchers created a technology that could lead to new devices for faster, more reliable ultra-broad bandwidth transfers. For the first time, researchers demonstrated how electrical fields boost the non-linear optical effects of graphene. The research, published in Nature Nanotechnology, was carried out by a team of Graphene Flagship partners led by the Cambridge Graphene Centre at the University of Cambridge in collaboration with Politecnico di Milano and IIT- Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia in Genova, both in Italy.

Rice University researchers discover a way to 'decorate' electrically insulating boron nitride nanotubes with functional groups. That makes them complementary building blocks to conductive carbon nanotubes for future composite and polymer materials.

Scientists have deciphered the mechanism of a chemical reaction critical for the development of environmentally friendly combustion technologies.

Scientists have found a new way of joining groups of atoms together into shape-changing molecules -- opening up the possibility of a new area of chemistry and the development of countless new drugs, microelectronics and materials. Discoveries of new ways to make isomers -- molecules made of the same atoms connected together differently -- were last reported in 1961 and before then in 1914. Proof-of-principle and prototype demonstration of this important finding are expected within 30 months.

Nanoparticles derived from tea leaves inhibit the growth of lung cancer cells, destroying up to 80 percent of them, new research by a joint Swansea University and Indian team has shown. The team made the discovery while they were testing out a new method of producing a type of nanoparticle called quantum dots. These are tiny particles which measure less than 10 nanometers. A human hair is 40,000 nanometers thick.

A French nanorobotics team has assembled a new microrobotics system that pushes forward the frontiers of optical nanotechnologies. Combining several existing technologies, the μRobotex nanofactory builds microstructures in a large vacuum chamber and fixes components onto optical fiber tips with nanometer accuracy. The microhouse construction, reported in the Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology A, demonstrates how researchers can advance optical sensing technologies when they manipulate ion guns, electron beams and finely controlled robotic piloting.