nanotechnology – Lifeboat News: The Blog https://lifeboat.com/blog Safeguarding Humanity Mon, 27 Jan 2025 17:13:45 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.1 Scientists Invented Molecular ‘Chainmail’ That’s Way Stronger Than Kevlar https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/01/scientists-invented-molecular-chainmail-thats-way-stronger-than-kevlar https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/01/scientists-invented-molecular-chainmail-thats-way-stronger-than-kevlar#respond Mon, 27 Jan 2025 17:13:45 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/01/scientists-invented-molecular-chainmail-thats-way-stronger-than-kevlar

Who will invent molecular jousting?

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A new frontier in understanding electron dynamics: Imaging with attosecond short X-ray flashes https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/01/a-new-frontier-in-understanding-electron-dynamics-imaging-with-attosecond-short-x-ray-flashes https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/01/a-new-frontier-in-understanding-electron-dynamics-imaging-with-attosecond-short-x-ray-flashes#respond Sun, 26 Jan 2025 16:27:21 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/01/a-new-frontier-in-understanding-electron-dynamics-imaging-with-attosecond-short-x-ray-flashes

Attosecond science, honored with the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics, is transforming our understanding of how electrons move in atoms, molecules, and solids. An attosecond—equivalent to a billionth of a billionth of a second—enables “slow-motion” visualization of natural processes occurring at extraordinary speeds.

However, until now, most attosecond experiments have been limited to spectroscopic measurements due to the constraints of attosecond light pulse sources.

Using the powerful X-ray Free Electron Laser (FEL) at SLAC National Laboratory in California, the Hamburg team studied how interact with nanoparticles. They uncovered a previously unexplored phenomenon: transient ion resonances that enhance image brightness.

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Deep-ultraviolet laser microscope reveals diamond’s nanoscale transport behaviors https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/01/deep-ultraviolet-laser-microscope-reveals-diamonds-nanoscale-transport-behaviors https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/01/deep-ultraviolet-laser-microscope-reveals-diamonds-nanoscale-transport-behaviors#respond Sat, 25 Jan 2025 20:29:06 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/01/deep-ultraviolet-laser-microscope-reveals-diamonds-nanoscale-transport-behaviors

Ultrawide-bandgap semiconductors—such as diamond—are promising for next-generation electronics due to a larger energy gap between the valence and conduction bands, allowing them to handle higher voltages, operate at higher frequencies, and provide greater efficiency compared to traditional materials like silicon.

However, their make it challenging to probe and understand how charge and heat move on nanometer-to-micron scales. Visible light has a very limited ability to probe nanoscale properties, and moreover, it is not absorbed by diamond, so it cannot be used to launch currents or rapid heating.

Now, researchers at JILA, led by JILA Fellows and University of Colorado physics professors Margaret Murnane and Henry Kapteyn, along with graduate students Emma Nelson, Theodore Culman, Brendan McBennett, and former JILA postdoctoral researchers Albert Beardo and Joshua Knobloch, have developed a novel microscope that makes examining these materials possible on an unprecedented scale.

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Machine learning and 3D printing yield steel-strong, foam-light materials https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/01/machine-learning-and-3d-printing-yield-steel-strong-foam-light-materials https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/01/machine-learning-and-3d-printing-yield-steel-strong-foam-light-materials#respond Sat, 25 Jan 2025 00:23:54 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/01/machine-learning-and-3d-printing-yield-steel-strong-foam-light-materials

Researchers at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering have used machine learning to design nano-architected materials that have the strength of carbon steel but the lightness of Styrofoam.

In a new paper published in Advanced Materials, a team led by Professor Tobin Filleter describes how they made nanomaterials with properties that offer a conflicting combination of exceptional strength, light weight and customizability. The approach could benefit a wide range of industries, from automotive to aerospace.

“Nano-architected materials combine high performance shapes, like making a bridge out of triangles, at nanoscale sizes, which takes advantage of the ‘smaller is stronger’ effect, to achieve some of the highest strength-to-weight and stiffness-to-weight ratios, of any material,” says Peter Serles, the first author of the new paper.

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Developing an autonomous AI assistant to build nanostructures https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/01/developing-an-autonomous-ai-assistant-to-build-nanostructures https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/01/developing-an-autonomous-ai-assistant-to-build-nanostructures#respond Thu, 23 Jan 2025 23:26:56 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/01/developing-an-autonomous-ai-assistant-to-build-nanostructures

The chemical composition of a material alone sometimes reveals little about its properties. The decisive factor is often the arrangement of the molecules in the atomic lattice structure or on the surface of the material. Materials science utilizes this factor to create certain properties by applying individual atoms and molecules to surfaces with the aid of high-performance microscopes. This is still extremely time-consuming and the constructed nanostructures are comparatively simple.

Using , a research group at TU Graz now wants to take the construction of nanostructures to a new level. Their paper is published in the journal Computer Physics Communications.

“We want to develop a self-learning AI system that positions individual molecules quickly, specifically and in the right orientation, and all this completely autonomously,” says Oliver Hofmann from the Institute of Solid State Physics, who heads the research group. This should make it possible to build highly complex molecular structures, including logic circuits in the nanometer range.

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Scientists Create Tiny Motors that Mimic Nature https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/01/scientists-create-tiny-motors-that-mimic-nature https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/01/scientists-create-tiny-motors-that-mimic-nature#respond Thu, 23 Jan 2025 23:26:38 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/01/scientists-create-tiny-motors-that-mimic-nature

Scientists have built an artificial motor capable of mimicking the natural mechanisms that power life.

The finding, from The University of Manchester and the University of Strasbourg, published in the journal Nature, provides new insights into the fundamental processes that drive life at the molecular level and could open doors for applications in medicine, energy storage, and nanotechnology.

Professor David Leigh, lead researcher from The University of Manchester, said: Biology uses chemically powered molecular machines for every biological process, such as transporting chemicals around the cell, information processing or reproduction.

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Nanotechnology Milestone: DNA Motors Reach 30 nm/s Speeds https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/01/nanotechnology-milestone-dna-motors-reach-30-nm-s-speeds https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/01/nanotechnology-milestone-dna-motors-reach-30-nm-s-speeds#respond Thu, 23 Jan 2025 18:27:50 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/01/nanotechnology-milestone-dna-motors-reach-30-nm-s-speeds

Researchers leverage their understanding of molecular motors to improve nanoscale.

The term “nanoscale” refers to dimensions that are measured in nanometers (nm), with one nanometer equaling one-billionth of a meter. This scale encompasses sizes from approximately 1 to 100 nanometers, where unique physical, chemical, and biological properties emerge that are not present in bulk materials. At the nanoscale, materials exhibit phenomena such as quantum effects and increased surface area to volume ratios, which can significantly alter their optical, electrical, and magnetic behaviors. These characteristics make nanoscale materials highly valuable for a wide range of applications, including electronics, medicine, and materials science.

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US makes strongest-ever armor material with 100 trillion bonds/cm² https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/01/us-makes-strongest-ever-armor-material-with-100-trillion-bonds-cm%c2%b2 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/01/us-makes-strongest-ever-armor-material-with-100-trillion-bonds-cm%c2%b2#respond Thu, 23 Jan 2025 08:23:47 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/01/us-makes-strongest-ever-armor-material-with-100-trillion-bonds-cm%c2%b2

A research team led by scientists at Northwestern University has developed the first-ever two-dimensional mechanically interlocked material with high flexibility and strength. In the future, this could be used to develop lightweight yet high-performance body armor and other such tough materials, a press release said.

It was in the 1980s that Fraser Stoddart, then a chemist at Northwestern University, first introduced the concept of mechanical bonds. Stoddart then expanded the role of these bonds into molecular machines by enabling functions like switching, rotating, contracting, and expanding in multiple ways and using them to develop interlocked structures, which also won him the Nobel Prize in 2016.

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Nanoislands on silicon enable switchable topological textures for new electronic applications https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/01/nanoislands-on-silicon-enable-switchable-topological-textures-for-new-electronic-applications https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/01/nanoislands-on-silicon-enable-switchable-topological-textures-for-new-electronic-applications#respond Wed, 22 Jan 2025 07:27:07 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/01/nanoislands-on-silicon-enable-switchable-topological-textures-for-new-electronic-applications

Ferroelectrics at the nanoscale exhibit a wealth of polar and sometimes swirling (chiral) electromagnetic textures that not only represent fascinating physics, but also promise applications in future nanoelectronics. For example, ultra-high-density data storage or extremely energy-efficient field-effect transistors. However, a sticking point has been the stability of these topological textures and how they can be controlled and steered by an external electrical or optical stimulus.

A team led by Prof. Catherine Dubourdieu (HZB and FU Berlin) has now published a paper in Nature Communications that opens up new perspectives. Together with partners from the CEMES-CNRS in Toulouse, the University of Picardie in Amiens and the Jozef Stefan Institute in Ljubljana, they have thoroughly investigated a particularly interesting class of nanoislands on silicon and explored their suitability for electrical manipulation.

“We have produced BaTiO3 nanostructures that form tiny islands on a silicon substrate,” explains Dubourdieu. The nano-islands are trapezoidal in shape, with dimensions of 30–60 nm (on top), and have stable polarization domains.

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Scientists harness the power of ‘layered’ crystals for energy innovation https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/01/scientists-harness-the-power-of-layered-crystals-for-energy-innovation https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/01/scientists-harness-the-power-of-layered-crystals-for-energy-innovation#respond Wed, 22 Jan 2025 07:26:38 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/01/scientists-harness-the-power-of-layered-crystals-for-energy-innovation

University of Missouri scientists are unlocking the secrets of halide perovskites—a material that’s poised to reshape our future by bringing us closer to a new age of energy-efficient optoelectronics.

Suchi Guha and Gavin King, two physics professors in Mizzou’s College of Arts and Science, are studying the material at the nanoscale: a place where objects are invisible to the naked eye. At this level, the extraordinary properties of halide perovskites come to life, thanks to the material’s unique structure of ultra-thin crystals—making it astonishingly efficient at converting sunlight into energy.

Think that are not only more affordable but also far more effective at powering homes. Or LED lights that burn brighter and last longer while consuming less energy.

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