News by Subject Chemistry & Physics

A new manufacturing technique uses a process similar to newspaper printing to form smoother and more flexible metals for making ultrafast electronic devices.

A collaborative research team based in Japan has designed new proteins that can self-assemble into the complex structures underlying biological organisms, laying the groundwork for leading-edge applications in biotechnology. The researchers created and developed the proteins with a specific function and their method reveals a possibility that certain protein functions can be created on demand. It is expected to contribute to the development of nanobiomaterials, which could be used as a drug delivery system or an artificial vaccine.

Researchers have shown that it is possible to train artificial neural networks directly on an optical chip.

Nanoparticles with a wide range of applying, including medicine, damage cells of microalgae Heterosigma akashivo badly. This algae species is widely spread in the Russian Far East marine area. The acute toxic effect exhibited at concentrations of 100 mg/l of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and silicon nanotubes (SiNTs) in the sea- or fresh water.

Engineers at the University of California San Diego have shed new light on a scientific mystery regarding the atomic-level mechanism of the sulfur embrittlement of nickel, a classic problem that has puzzled the scientific community for nearly a century. The discovery also enriches fundamental understanding of general grain boundaries that often control the mechanical and physical properties of polycrystalline materials.

Researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have reached a new milestone on the way to optical computing, or the use of light instead of electricity for computing. They explored a new way to select and send light of a specific color using long silicon wires that are several hundred nanometers in diameter and their work enabled a new type of nanoscale "light switch" that can turn on and off the transmission of one color of light over very long distances.

The international team of scientist of Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University (SPbPU), Leibniz University Hannover (Leibniz Universität Hannover) and the Ioffe Institute found a way to improve nanocomposite material which opens new opportunities to use it in hydrogen economy and other industries. The study is dedicated to the composite material, a semiconductor based on titanium dioxide. Its applications are widely studied by the researchers all over the world.

Researchers at Purdue University and the University of Virginia have developed a new fabrication method that makes tiny, thin-film electronic circuits peelable from a surface. The technique not only eliminates several manufacturing steps and the associated costs, but also allows any object to sense its environment or be controlled through the application of a high-tech sticker.

Defects are often observed when making borophene, the single-atom form of boron, but unlike in other two-dimensional materials, these mismatched lattices can assemble into ordered structures that preserve the material's metallic nature and electronic properties. Labs at Rice and Northwestern universities made the first detailed analysis of borophene defects.