Category Physics

This is an artist’s impression of carbon nanotubes wrapped in polymers with thiol side chains (yellow spheres) and assembled on gold electrodes.
Credit: Arjen Kamp

Carbon nanotubes can be used to make very small electronic devices, but they are difficult to handle. University of Groningen scientists, together with colleagues from the University of Wuppertal and IBM Zurich, have developed a method to select semiconducting nanotubes from a solution and make them self-assemble on a circuit of gold electrodes. University of Groningen Professor Maria Antonietta Loi designed polymers which wrap themselves around specific carbon nanotubes in a solution of mixed tubes. Thiol side chains on the polymer bind the tubes to the gold electrodes, creating the resultant transistor.

‘In our previous work, ...

A new material not only heals itself, but it also stretches up to 50 times its usual size; these properties could fix your phone’s battery if it cracks or prevent it from breaking in the first place. Credit: Wang lab

Taking a cue from the Marvel Universe, researchers report that they have developed a self-healing polymeric material with an eye toward electronics and soft robotics that can repair themselves. The material is stretchable and transparent, conducts ions to generate current and could one day help your broken smartphone go back together again.

“When I was young, my idol was Wolverine from the X-Men,” Chao Wang, Ph.D., says. “He could save the world, but only because he could heal himself...

Under a microscope, root hairs grow into pyrogenic carbon particle, which enhance electron networks. Plants grow more efficiently than previously thought. Credit: Kelly Hanley/Lehmann Lab

All plants need electrons to aid biological and chemical tasks. Cornell scientists have discovered a new high-definition system that allows electrons to travel through soil farther and more efficiently than previously thought. “Microorganisms need electrons for everything they do. If they consume nutrients or spew out methane or expel carbon dioxide for any living, biological process they need electrons,” said Tianran Sun, postdoctoral researcher in soil and crop sciences.

Like large volumes of electricity that flow from Niagara Falls throughout upstate New York, electrons convey through soil via carbon...

Aaron McKay et al. Diamond-based concept for combining beams at very high average powers, Laser & Photonics Reviews (2017). DOI: 10.1002/lpor.201600130

In a world-leading study Macquarie University researchers have proven a method for multiplying laser power using diamond, demonstrating that a laser similar to the Star Wars ‘superlaser’ may no longer remain in science fiction. The research demonstrates a concept – reminiscent of the Star Wars Death Star sci-fi laser – where the power of multiple laser beams is transferred into a single intense output beam that can be directed to the intended target.
This new laser development has real-world and high-stakes applications in which high power lasers are seen as a key tool in areas such as defence.

“Researchers are developing high power las...