March 2017 Edition

Recent Headlines:

Nanofabrication:

Graphene Sheets Capture Cells Efficiently – Science Daily

Researchers have developed a new method for capturing cells on a treated graphene oxide surface, which could lead to very low-cost diagnostic systems for a variety of diseases.

Packwood Method Uses AI to Fine-tune Nanofabrication – SC Online News

Daniel Packwood, Junior Associate Professor at Kyoto University’s Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS), is improving methods for constructing tiny “nanomaterials” using a “bottom-up” approach called “molecular self-assembly”.

Learning How to Fine-tune Nanofabrication – Science Daily

Researchers developed a new computational method that may be used to produce tiny wires with diameters 1/100,000th that of a piece of hair, or tiny electrical circuits that can fit on the tip of a needle.

Water-repellent Nanotextures Found to Have Excellent Anti-fogging Abilities – Science Daily

Nanotextures inspired by the cone-shaped structures found on the surface of cicada wings could inform new designs for materials prone to fogging, such as car and aircraft windshields.

Switched-on DNA Spark Nano-electronic Applications – Space Daily

DNA, the stuff of life, may very well also pack quite the jolt for engineers trying to advance the development of tiny, low-cost electronic devices.

Photonics:

Control of Randomly Scattered Surface Plasmon Polaritons for Multiple-input and Multiple-output Plasmonic Switching Devices – Nature Communications

Merging multiple microprocessors with high-speed optical networks has been considered a promising strategy for the improvement of overall computation power. However, the loss of the optical communication bandwidth is inevitable when interfacing between optical and electronic components.

More Efficient Nano-LED Opens Door to Faster Microchips – PHYS

The electronic data connections within and between microchips are increasingly becoming a bottleneck in the exponential growth of data traffic worldwide.

NYU Researchers Coax Colloidal Spheres To Self-Assemble Into Complex Photonic Crystals – Photonics Online

Colloidal particles, used in a range of technical applications including foods, inks, paints, and cosmetics, can self-assemble into a remarkable variety of densely-packed crystalline structures.

Nonlinear Diffuse fs-Pulse Reflectometry of Harmonic Upconversion Nanoparticles – MDPI

Using intense ultrashort 40 femtosecond laser pulses and an appropriate figure of merit (FOM), second and third harmonic emission serve for the structural characterization of polar Yb-doped lithium niobate and non-polar titanium dioxide nanoparticles. The tool is capable of differentiating these two samples by FOM values that differ by up to 13 orders of magnitude.

Nanoboomerang-based Inverse Metasurfaces—A Promising Path Towards Ultrathin Photonic Devices for Transmission Operation – AIP

Here we reveal inverse metasurfaces showing superior properties compared to their positive counterparts if transmission mode operation is considered.

Penn Engineers Overcome A Hurdle In Growing A Revolutionary Optical Metamaterial – Photonics Online

When John Crocker, a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering in the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Engineering and Applied Science was a graduate student, his advisor gathered together everyone in his lab to “throw down the gauntlet” on a new challenge in the field.

Ultra-broadband Tunable Resonant Light Trapping in a Two-dimensional Randomly Microstructured Plasmonic-photonic Absorber – Scientific Reports

Here, we demonstrate a simple method to create a wideband near-unity light absorber by introducing a dense and random pattern of metal-capped monodispersed dielectric microspheres onto an opaque metal film; the absorber works due to the excitation of multiple optical and plasmonic resonant modes.

Nanoparticles for Photovoltaic Windows – Photonics Views

Researchers at the Univer­sity of Minne­sota and Univer­sity of Milano-Bicocca are bringing the dream of windows that can efficiently collect solar energy one step closer to reality thanks to silicon nano­particles.

Nano ‘Sandwich’ Offers Unique Properties – Space Daily

Rice University researchers have modeled a nanoscale sandwich, the first in what they hope will become a molecular deli for materials scientists.

Packaging:

Nanotechnology in the Food Industry: A Short Review – Food Safety Magazine

The benefits of nanotechnology for the food industry are many and are expected to grow with time. This new, rapidly developing technology impacts every aspect of the food system from cultivation to food production to processing, packaging, transportation, shelf life and bioavailability of nutrients. Commercial applications of nanomaterials will continue to impact the food industry because of their unique and novel properties.

Lack of ‘Nano’ in OECD Nanomaterials Dossiers – Food Packaging Forum

In a press release published on February 23, 2017, the non-governmental organization Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) informed that a new study released on the same day showed that “most of the information made available by the Sponsorship Testing Programme of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is of little to no value for the regulatory risk assessment of nanomaterials.”

Bio-Medical:

New Optical Nanosensor Improves Brain Mapping Accuracy, Opens Way for More Applications – PHYS

A new optical nanosensor enabling more accurate measurement and spatiotemporal mapping of the brain also shows the way forward for design of future multimodal sensors and a broader range of applications, say researchers in an article published in the current issue of Neurophotonics.

A New Dimension in Chemical Nanoimaging – PHYS

Researchers report the development of hyperspectral infrared nanoimaging based on Fourier transform infrared nanospectroscopy (nano-FTIR), enabling highly sensitive spectroscopic imaging of chemical compositions with nanoscale spatial resolution.

CeloNova Biosciences Receives FDA Approval of Nanocoating COBRA PzF™ Stent System – NanoTechMag

CeloNova BioSciences, Inc. (CeloNova) announced that it has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of its first-in-class COBRA PzF™ NanoCoated Coronary Stent System.

NBD Produces new Anti-fingerprint Nanocoatings – NanoTechMag

NBD Nanotechnologies have introduced a new coating solution that renders fingerprints invisible on metal and glass surfaces. With the patented InvisiPrint™ solution, the company lets manufacturers successfully meet the long-standing demand by consumers for a solution that reduces or eliminates the appearance of fingerprints on products such as electronic displays, kitchen appliances, bathroom faucets, and automotive interiors.

Nerve Wrapping Nanofiber Mesh Promoting Regeneration – PHYS

A research team consisting of Mitsuhiro Ebara, MANA associate principal investigator, Mechanobiology Group, NIMS, and Hiroyuki Tanaka, assistant professor, Orthopaedic Surgery, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, developed a mesh which can be wrapped around injured peripheral nerves to facilitate their regeneration and restore their functions.

Materials:

Effect of the Polymeric Stabilizer in the Aqueous Phase Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis Catalyzed by Colloidal Cobalt Nanocatalysts – MDPI

A series of small and well defined cobalt nanoparticles were synthesized by the chemical reduction of cobalt salts in water using NaBH4 as a reducing agent and using various polymeric stabilizers.

Researchers use DNA-based Nano-tweezers to Measure the Forces Between Nucleosomes – PHYS

The mode of packaging of the genomic DNA in the cell nucleus determines patterns of gene expression. Munich researchers have used DNA-based nano-tweezers to measure the forces between nucleosomes, the basic packing units of nuclear DNA.

Bioinspired Process Makes Materials Light, Robust, Programmable at Nano- to Macro-scale – EurekAlert!

Researchers at Tufts University’s School of Engineering have developed a new bioinspired technique that transforms silk protein into complex materials that are easily programmable at the nano-, micro- and macro-scales as well as ultralight and robust.

Scientists Create a Nano-trampoline to Probe Quantum Behavior – Space Daily

A research group from Bar-Ilan University, in collaboration with French colleagues at CNRS Grenoble, has developed a unique experiment to detect quantum events in ultra-thin films.

Sensors:

Handheld Sensors Made of Nanostructured Glass and Thin Metal Films can Test for Various Diseases – The American Ceramic Society

While politicians in Washington continue to argue about how to bring down the cost of health care, one student from the University of North Carolina is actually doing something about it.

Strain and Damage Self-sensing
Properties of Carbon Nanofibers/carbon Fiber–reinforced Polymer Laminates – Advances in Mechanical Engineering

Unidirectional fiber-reinforced composites of ‘‘plain’’ carbon fiber–reinforced polymer laminates and carbon nanofibers modified carbon fiber–reinforced polymer laminates were prepared based on the manufacture of the epoxy resin modified with various contents of carbon nanofibers.

New Sensor Made From Carbon Nanoparticles Synthesized From Cellulose – Nano Werk

Materials offering huge potential using newspapers and sugar as the raw material and by means of simple chemical reactions are being synthesised at the UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country.

Improved Sensing Characteristics of Dual-gate Transistor Sensor Using Silicon Nanowire Arrays Defined by Nanoimprint Lithography – Taylor & Francis Online

This work describes the construction of a sensitive, stable, and label-free sensor based on a dual-gate field-effect transistor (DG FET), in which uniformly distributed and size-controlled silicon nanowire (SiNW) arrays by nanoimprint lithography act as conductor channels.