Nanomaterial tagged posts

Soft Gold enables Connections between Nerves and Electronics

Close-up illustrating that the gold nanowires combined with soft silicon rubber are stretchable.
The soft electrodes developed by Klas Tybrandt’s research group at Linköping University are stretchable to follow the body’s movements without damaging tissue. They consist of extremely thin threads of gold and soft silicone rubber.THOR BALKHED

Gold does not readily lend itself to being turned into long, thin threads. But researchers at Linköping University in Sweden have now managed to create gold nanowires and develop soft electrodes that can be connected to the nervous system. The electrodes are soft as nerves, stretchable and electrically conductive, and are projected to last for a long time in the body.

Some people have a “heart of gold,” so why not “nerves of gold”? In the future, it may be possible to use this precious metal in soft interfaces to connect electronics to the ...

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Atom-thin Walls could Smash Size, Memory Barriers in Next-gen Devices

Evgeny Tsymbal
Nebraska’s Evgeny Tsymbal and an international team have demonstrated how to construct, control and explain nanoscopic walls that could yield multiple technological benefits. Craig Chandler | University Communication and Marketing

Nanomaterial feature could help electronic circuits adopt benefits of human memory. For all of the unparalleled, parallel-processing, still-indistinguishable-from-magic wizardry packed into the three pounds of the adult human brain, it obeys the same rule as the other living tissue it controls: Oxygen is a must.

So it was with a touch of irony that Evgeny Tsymbal offered his explanation for a technological wonder — movable, data-covered walls mere atoms wide — that may eventually help computers behave more like a brain.

“There was unambiguous evidence...

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Nanomaterial influences Gut Microbiome and Immune system Interactions

Decorative image
A new study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet shows that the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) in intestinal epithelial cells senses the nanomaterial graphen oxide and activates specific immune cells known as innate lymphoid cells. Illustration by Getty Images.

The nanomaterial graphene oxide — which is used in everything from electronics to sensors for biomolecules — can indirectly affect the immune system via the gut microbiome, as shown in a new study on zebrafish by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. The findings are reported in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

“This shows that we must factor the gut microbiome into our understanding of how nanomaterials affect the immune system,” says the paper’s corresponding author Bengt Fadeel, professor at the Institute o...

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Secret of Nanomaterial that makes Harvesting Sunlight easier

Scheme of the local surface chemistry modification and AuNPs tracking approach.

Scheme of the local surface chemistry modification and AuNPs tracking approach. (a) Ag nanoantennas were modified overnight with 1 mM ethanolic solution of 4-NTP. Several ethanol/water washing steps were performed on each sample. (b) 4-NTP-coated antennas were immersed in 0.1 M HCl solution and illuminated for different times at their LSPR wavelength (633 nm) with a power density of 1 W cm−2. Samples were rinsed with water and immediately dipped in the activated AuNP suspension. (c) AuNPs (15 nm) coated with 11-mercaptoundecanoic acid (MUA) as a capping layer were suspended in HEPES buffer and mixed with 1 mM EDC and 1 mM NHS, and left to react for 30 min followed by two purification centrifugation steps...

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