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Category: nanotechnology – Page 42

Aiming for Lighter Light Sails

Norte and his colleagues initially considered patterning the light sails with an array of identical circular holes, but such a pattern would reduce the overall effect of the powering laser. As the sail speeds up and moves away from the laser, the wavelength it preferentially reflects will shift because of the Doppler effect, and the sail will subsequently receive less of a push. What is needed instead is a pattern that can handle Doppler-shift changes while remaining highly reflective.

To find the optimal pattern, the researchers turned to a neural network, which predicted an optimal shape that is oblong rather than circular. “It looks like a potato,” says Miguel Bessa of Brown University, Rhode Island, who led the theory side of the project. Specifically, the team arranged several potato shapes in a repeating five-neighbor pattern, or pentagonal lattice. The potato-shaped arrangement allows the system to respond to a broader range of wavelengths without having to make it thicker and thus heavier.

The researchers are now working on increasing the size of their sail and looking into ways to test how well it flies. Norte notes that the light sail is just a means to accelerate the nanospacecraft, which will include a microchip, cameras, and other instruments. All those parts need to be miniaturized so that they weigh less than one gram total. “We are really trying to use nanotechnology to go faster and further than we have been able to with traditional spacecraft,” Norte says.

Combining polarized light methods reveals hidden molecular orientations with precision

Image quality often makes the difference between an amazing multimedia experience, like feeling immersed in a high-definition movie, and a visual letdown. When it comes to biomolecular imaging, the details matter even more. When scientists increase resolution in quantitative imaging, they improve accuracy and confidence in results, ultimately facilitating discoveries in studies of proteins, cells and other biomedical applications.

Scientists have long been able to look at to study their nanoscale structures and dynamics in . However, distinguishing between two closely spaced dipole emitters, which are that can emit light in specific directions and intensities, has remained a major challenge, especially when such molecules emit light at the same time and are spatially coincident, or located at nearly the same point in space.

This limitation has hindered researchers’ ability to measure the orientation and angular separation of dipoles accurately, which is vital to understanding their rotational dynamics in crowded cellular environments.

Engineers develop a way to mass manufacture nanoparticles that deliver cancer drugs directly to tumors

Polymer-coated nanoparticles loaded with therapeutic drugs show significant promise for cancer treatment, including ovarian cancer. These particles can be targeted directly to tumors, where they release their payload while avoiding many of the side effects of traditional chemotherapy.

Over the past decade, MIT Institute Professor Paula Hammond and her students have created a variety of these particles using a technique known as layer-by-layer assembly. They’ve shown that the particles can effectively combat cancer in mouse studies.

To help move these nanoparticles closer to human use, the researchers have now come up with a manufacturing technique that allows them to generate larger quantities of the particles, in a fraction of the time.

Investigating the effect of heterogeneities across the electrode|multiphase polymer electrolyte interfaces in high-potential lithium batteries Nanotechnology

X-ray synchrotron measurements reveal heterogeneities at electrode|electrolyte interfaces of lithium metal batteries operating at high potentials. Here the authors demonstrate the rearrangement of ionically conductive phases in polymer electrolytes that lead to battery performance degradation.

Enhancing immunotherapy with tumour-responsive nanomaterials

Immunotherapies, predominantly immune-checkpoint inhibitors and chimaeric antigen receptor T cells, have transformed oncology. Nonetheless, these systemically administered agents have several limitations, including the risk of off-target toxicities and a lack of activity owing to an inability to overcome an immunosuppressive tumour microenvironment (TME). In this Review, the authors describe the potential to overcome these challenges using functionalized nanomaterials that are designed to release a wide range of immunotherapeutic cargoes in response to specific TME characteristics, including hypoxia, differences in pH, the presence of specific enzymes, reactive oxygen species and/or high levels of extracellular ATP.

Researchers develop 90-nanometer LEDs for future ultra high-resolution displays

These nano-PeLEDs feature pixel lengths as small as 90 nanometers, enabling an unprecedented pixel density of 127,000 pixels per inch (PPI). For comparison, a typical 27-inch 4K gaming monitor has a pixel density of just 163 PPI.

“Making electronic devices smaller is an everlasting pursuit for scientists and engineers,” said Professor Di Dawei, Deputy Director of the International Research Center for Advanced Photonics at Zhejiang University.

He explained that while micro-LEDs based on III-V semiconductors are considered state-of-the-art, their efficiency drops sharply when pixel sizes fall below 10 micrometers – a limitation that has hindered their use in ultra-high-resolution displays.

Gold Nanoparticles in Parkinson’s Disease Therapy: A Focus on Plant-Based Green Synthesis

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects approximately 1% of people over the age of 60 and 5% of those over the age of 85. Current drugs for Parkinson’s disease mainly affect the symptoms and cannot stop its progression. Nanotechnology provides a solution to address some challenges in therapy, such as overcoming the blood-brain barrier (BBB), adverse pharmacokinetics, and the limited bioavailability of therapeutics. The reformulation of drugs into nanoparticles (NPs) can improve their biodistribution, protect them from degradation, reduce the required dose, and ensure target accumulation. Furthermore, appropriately designed nanoparticles enable the combination of diagnosis and therapy with a single nanoagent.

In recent years, gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) have been studied with increasing interest due to their intrinsic nanozyme activity. They can mimic the action of superoxide dismutase, catalase, and peroxidase. The use of 13-nm gold nanoparticles (CNM-Au8®) in bicarbonate solution is being studied as a potential treatment for Parkinson’s disease and other neurological illnesses. CNM-Au8® improves remyelination and motor functions in experimental animals.

Among the many techniques for nanoparticle synthesis, green synthesis is increasingly used due to its simplicity and therapeutic potential. Green synthesis relies on natural and environmentally friendly materials, such as plant extracts, to reduce metal ions and form nanoparticles. Moreover, the presence of bioactive plant compounds on their surface increases the therapeutic potential of these nanoparticles. The present article reviews the possibilities of nanoparticles obtained by green synthesis to combine the therapeutic effects of plant components with gold.

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