Category Chemistry/Nanotechnology

3D graphene created by an international research team led by Unversity at Buffalo engineers. Credit: University at Buffalo.

The structures could be an important step toward making graphene commercially viable in electronics, medical diagnostic devices and other industries. Discovered in 2004, it is 1 million times thinner than a human hair, 300X stronger than steel and it’s the best known conductor of heat and electricity. These qualities could, among other things, make computers faster, batteries more powerful and solar panels more efficient. But the material is tough to manipulate beyond its 2D form.

Recently, scientists poured graphene oxide suspension, a gel-like form of the material, into freezing molds to create 3D objects...

The Solar Thermal Electrochemical Process (STEP) converts atmospheric carbon dioxide into carbon nanotubes that can be used in advanced batteries. Credit: Julie Turner, Vanderbilt University

s can be replaced with carbon recovered from the atmosphere. The team adapted a solar-powered process that converts carbon dioxide into carbon so that it produces carbon nanotubes that can be incorporated into both lithium-ion batteries like those used in electric vehicles and electronic devices and low-cost sodium-ion batteries under development for large-scale applications, such as the electric grid.

“This approach not only produces better batteries but it also establishes a value for carbon dioxide recovered from the atmosphere that is associated with the end-user battery cost unlike most efforts to...

Photo of Nano-Bio System A schematic of the nano-biosystem (top) and an electron microscope image of quantum rods

A transformational advance has been made in an alternate lighting source, one that doesn’t require a battery or a plug: high-efficient energy transfer between semiconductor quantum rods and luciferase enzymes. Quantum rods and luciferase enzymes are nanomaterials and biomaterials, respectively. When combined correctly, these materials produce bioluminescence – except, instead of coming from a biomaterial, such as a firefly enzyme, the light eminates from a nanomaterial, and is green, orange, red, or near-infrared in color.

Each quantum rods is 4 nm wide and 50 nm long...

Step by step towards the complete shell: Formation of a metal cluster from the atomic constituents to the compound. Credit: Dehnen Group, Philipps-Universität Marburg

First the nucleus, then the shell: Researchers from Marburg and Karlsruhe have studied stepwise formation of metal clusters, smallest fractions of metals in molecular form. The shell gradually forms around the inner atom rather than by later inclusion of the central atom. Knowledge of all development steps may allow for customized optoelectronic and magnetic properties.

To specifically synthesize chemical compounds, mechanisms responsible for their formation have to be known. “Purely inorganic compounds are a black box in this respect,” Florian Weigend of KIT and Stefanie Dehnen of Philipps-Universität Marburg explain...