Atomic Force Microscope Manipulate Atoms to Form Smallest Swiss Cross

Researchers from Finland and Japan have formed the smallest Swiss cross using bromide atoms on a sodium chloride surface. The academic journal Nature Communications has published the team's results.

The team used bromine atoms, 20 of them, and positioned these on a sodium chloride surface to form the cross. Using an atomic force microscope, the structure was found to be stable at room temperature. The bromine atoms were exchanged with the chlorine atoms to make the structure; by moving and positioning the single atoms.

It is the first time that systematic atomic manipulation on an insulating surface have been achieved at room temperature. The resulting Swiss cross measures 5.6 nanometers square.

This discovery can lead to the development of next generation electromechanical systems, advanced atomic-scale data storage devices and logic circuits.

Tiny Nanomotors Successfully Placed Inside Live Human Cells For The First Time

Scientists have successfully placed tiny synthetic motors in live human cells through nanotechnology. Using ultrasonic waves as the power source and magnets to steer, the nanomotors can zip around the cell and perform tasks.

The main obstacle for placing nanomotors in cells is the power source. Previous nanomotors needed toxic fuels to propel them. It wouldn't move in a biological environment.

The researchers at Penn State University and at Weinberg Medical Physics found that ultrasonic waves can be used to power these motors and that magnetic fields can be used to steer them.

The image above is that of a HeLa cell with some gold-ruthenium nanomotors inside it. The arrows indicate the trajectories of the nanomotors, and the solid white line shows its propulsion. There are several nanomotors is spinning at the center. HeLa cells are a line of human cervical cancer cells that are used in research studies. Image credit: Mallouk lab, Penn State University.

Bionanotechnology is fast becoming popular in medical and scientific research. Implants and devices hundreds of times smaller than the width of a human hair, can be integrated into cells. This technology can open up various medical applications such as surgery, deliver medication, and even eradicate cancer cells. Because of its microscopic size, bionanotech devices are non-invasive and results in fewer complications normal open surgery would have.

Scientists Observe Spatial Coherence in Light Absorbed by Organic Nanostructures

This is the experimental setup used to generate femtosecond laser pulses which serve as an ultrafast "flash" for the camera so that very rapid phenomenon can be filmed.
Credit: Simon Gelinas

Physicists observed that artificial organic nanostructures absorb light the same way expensive inorganic materials absorbs light. The absorbed light quickly separates into formed charges over long distances. This can then be used to generate electricity or for chemical reactions like photosynthesis and solar cell technology.

This phenomenon is called spatial coherence. Spatial coherence allows a charge to travel very quickly over several nanometres and escape from its oppositely charged partner.

Using an ultrafast flash camera, scientist filmed femtosecond (10⁻¹⁵ second) laser pulses that formed charges that spread over multiple molecules rather than limiting the charge to a single molecule. By engineering the arrangement of molecules, they managed to adjust the amplification of the charge separation.

This discovery can lead to inexpensive and energy efficient solar cells.

Nanoplasmonic Bubble Lens Controls Focus and Direction of Light

Credit: Tony Jun Huang, Penn State

Scientists have developed a reconfigurable plasmofluidic lens using nanoplasmonics that can control light waves at the nanoscale. The nanoscale light beam is modulated by surface plasmon polaritons (SPP) which are short electromagnetic waves. The light wave is controlled by the bubble lens which can control the focus and direction of light.

Nanoplasmonics is a new field of science that deals with the behavior of metal particles at the nanoscale and its optical properties. At the nanoscale, light or electromagnetic waves approaches half the size of its wavelength. At this level, the electrical field of light displaces the metal's electrons producing an oscillating field or what is called a surface plasmon. By using certain metal nanoparticles such as gold or silver and manipulating its size and shape, the surface plasmons can be modulated.

Ancient stained glass windows (which contains gold and silver particles) use nanoplasmonic properties to attain its deep vibrant colors when light passes through it.

Currently, manipulating and reconfiguring the focus and direction of these light waves have been difficult. But with the development of reconfigurable plasmofluidic lens, which are essentially tiny bubbles, scientists have found a way to control, switch, and modulate light.

Applications for nanoplasmonics can be found in photovoltaics and optical plasmonic systems. In photovoltaic systems, plasmons can be used to modify the opto-electronic properties for fast photo-detectors and effective photocells. With optical plasmonic systems, devices can be developed that manipulate the optical properties which may lead to the development of inexpensive, fast and small active optical elements.

Imaging Individual Molecules Possible Through Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Carbon Nanotubes

Scientists are looking into imaging of individual molecules by using carbon nanotubes and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). MRI is an imaging technology that uses magnets and radiowaves to construct an internal 3D image of the target.

Graphene is a one atom thick layer of carbon atoms and is considered a 2 dimensional object. The structure of graphene resembles that of chicken wire. When it is rolled up to form a cylinder, it is called a carbon nanotube.

Graphene is one of the strongest material around and is also the thinnest. It also conducts electricity efficiently and is a very good conductor of heat. Graphene is almost completely transparent, yet so dense that even the smallest atom helium cannot pass through it.

Carbon nanotubes also retain these properties and are used in different technologies such as nanotechnology, material science, electronics, and even in bionanotechnology.

Nanotechnology Research Develops New Photovoltaic Process Using Gold Nanorods

Researchers in Photovoltaic technology have developed a new method in converting sunlight into electrical energy using gold nanorods.

Research into photovoltaic energy (converting solar rays into electrical energy) has benefited a lot from materials technology and nanotechnology. The main process of a photovoltaic cell or solar cell is using the photons from the sun's rays to basically move electrons around to generate electricity.

At this level, nanotechnology can help push the methods to even higher ground since the technology deals with properties and processes at the molecular and even atomic scale. One application that nanotechnology can contribute to photovoltaic research is the nanorod.

Nanorods are nanostructures that are elongated and shaped like a hotdog. These can range in size from 1 nanometer (nm) to 100nm. These structures interact with light, electricity, and magnetic fields that makes it a very good candidate for semiconductors and photovoltaic applications.

DNA Nanotechnology: Building Matter and Controlling Architecture of DNA Building Blocks

Chad A. Mirkin of Northwestern University has developed a process to build artificial nanostructures with customized properties in a highly programmable way from the bottom up, just like how nature does it.

Advances in nanotechnology have opened up the development and application of artificial nanostructures. Nanostructures give support, assist in a process, or brings out a particular property from a created device.

There are two types of nanostructures, structural and dynamic. Structural nanostructures are used as a foundation for building more complex structures. Dynamic structures are built to react and interact with a specific target in a chemical or structural way.

Just like Lego building blocks, nanostructures can be made up of smaller structures. Each component either contributes to the overall application or serves as the backbone of the structure itself.

These are very useful in many applications. In the medical field, nanostructures can be used as a container for drug delivery. These structures can be built to react to a certain protein and release the drug inside for treatment of diseases such as cancer or Alzheimer's Disease.

Nanostructures can also be applied to industrial purposes. Recently, MIT researchers have created a nanostructure surface that influence the way water droplets behave on condensers for more efficient performance.

Nanobiodevice Captures Cancer Cells in Bloodstream

A new-generation nano-platform capable of capturing circulating tumor cells and releasing them at reduced temperature.
Credit: RIKEN

A device based on bionanotechnology has been developed that can capture and release cancer tumor cells present in the blood stream.

Nanobiotechnology is the combination of nanotechnology and biology. It is also known as bionanotechnology and nanobiology (all these terms are interchangeable). The main application of this technology centers around the biological, medical, and the clinical. These applications fall under four fields of biomedical applications. These are for diagnosis, molecular imaging, regenerative medicine, and drug delivery.

The main product of this technology is the nanobiodevice. This device is used to apply biological processes and procedures in areas where these systems are not naturally inherent or damaged. An example of a nanobiodevice is a recently developed drug delivery system that identifies stroke causing plaque in the blood stream and releases chemicals to dissolve them.

Nanobiodevices have lots of potential since it does not require any intrusive procedures such as surgery. Most are introduced to the body through oral medication or via hypodermic needle injections.

An emerging application for this technology is in the treatment and therapy of cancer. There already biodevices developed that can identify cancer cells in the body and are programmed to take appropriate action such as identification or even treatment.

Fungi Produces Nanoparticles That Can Help Fight Cancer Cells

Researchers have discovered that nanoparticles produced by the fungi, Arthrobotrys oligospora, can stimulate the body's immune system and kill cancer cells. This may lead to the development of bio-engineered nanostructures that can be used to treat cancer and other biomedical functions.

Arthrobotrys oligospora is a fungus that feeds on roundworms. A. oligospora uses rings that form on it long, branching filamentous structure called a hyphae. These rings on the hyphae trap the roundworm which then grows into the roundworm to digest it.

There are 71 species of the Arthrobotrys genus which are all predatory fungi.

These fungi are considered carnivorous and can be found in various surfaces or substrates such as compost, decomposing wood and animal droppings. The traps used of the A. oligospora are made up of adhesive networks, adhesive knobs, and constricting rings.

MIT News: Researchers develop cost-effective way to spin nanoscale fibers

Image: A tiny array of silicon tips sandwiched between electrodes spins out "nanofibers" of plastic that could be useful for a host of applications.
Photo: Dominick Reuter

Nanofibers — strands of material only a couple hundred nanometers in diameter — have a huge range of possible applications: scaffolds for bioengineered organs, ultrafine air and water filters, and lightweight Kevlar body armor, to name just a few. But so far, the expense of producing them has consigned them to a few high-end, niche applications.

Luis Velásquez-García, a principal research scientist at MIT’s Microsystems Technology Laboratories, and his group hope to change that. At the International Workshop on Micro and Nanotechnology for Power Generation and Energy Conversion Applications in December, Velásquez-García, his student Philip Ponce de Leon, and Frances Hill, a postdoc in his group, will describe a new system for spinning nanofibers that should offer significant productivity increases while drastically reducing power consumption.

Thermodynamics Used To Grow Nanorods Into Superparticles With Precision

Nanorods are a particular shape of nanoparticles. They are elongated and are similar to a hotdog and can range in size from 1 nanometer (nm) to 100nm, where 1nm= 1x10^-9 meters (one-billionth of a meter). Nanoparticles can also form into spheres and flattened sheets.

Nanorods are produced through chemical synthesis. A metal or semiconducting material are combined with several chemicals to produce nanoparticles of that element. They are then subjected to another series of processes to produce the desired shape and filter out unwanted particles.

Because of their shape and size, nanorods interact with light, electricity and magnetic fields differently. They display highly coveted optical, electronic and other properties not found in macroscopic materials.

Nanophotonics Allow Color Manipulation A Few Atoms Wide With Opaque Objects

Nanophotonics is the study that has anything to do with light at the nanoscale level. The nanoscale level is usually around 1-100 nanometers (nm); a nanometer is one billionth of a meter.

Using nanophotonics, researchers at Harvard have discovered that color can be manipulated at the nanoscale even with opaque objects. These kind of objects are impenetrable by light and are believed cannot exhibit thin-film interference effects.

Thin film interference effects happen when light waves interfere with each other as they pass through a medium and are reflected back out. As they are reflected back, some colors come out brighter while others are lost. An example of this would be rainbow like colors reflected back from an oily puddle on the street.

High Tech Smart Surgical Gloves With Sensors and Circuits Through Nanotechnology

These regular surgical gloves may one day be replaced with high tech smart gloves that can aid in healing

According to The Institute of Physics, Nanotechnology encompasses the understanding of the fundamental physics, chemistry, biology and technology of nanometre-scale objects.

Nanotechnology is the manipulation of matter and objects on an atomic and molecular scale. These materials measure from one to one hundred nanometers. One nanometer is equal to one billionth, or 10⁻⁹, of a meter. Nanotechnology is a key technology for the future and governments have invested billions of dollars in its future.

A nanobiodevice is technology gained from applying nanotechnology and biology. It is a is a piece of contrivance, equipment, machine, or component used for biological, medical, and clinical purposes. The terms bionanotechnology nanobiotechnology and nanobiology refer to the same technology. During the past decade, nanobiodevice has progressively begun to focus on the establishment of main four fields of biomedical applications of nanotechnology, including

• Diagnostic Devices
• Molecular Imaging
• Regenerative Medicine
• Drug Delivery Systems.

Now, researchers are looking at applying this technology to other items such as surgical gloves to enhance and expand its use in medical procedures.

The power to heal at the tips of your fingers

The intricate properties of the fingertips have been mimicked and recreated using semiconductor devices in what researchers hope will lead to the development of advanced surgical gloves.

The devices, shown to be capable of responding with high precision to the stresses and strains associated with touch and finger movement, are a step towards the creation of surgical gloves for use in medical procedures such as local ablations and ultrasound scans.

Researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Northwestern University and Dalian University of Technology have published their study today, Friday 10 August, in IOP Publishing's journal Nanotechnology.

New Process In Isolating Graphene Leads To Next Generation Devices

Graphene is a material derived from graphite. It is two dimensional and consists of a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb structure. This structure resembles chicken wire.

Graphene is the thinnest known material and is also the strongest. It conducts electricity as efficiently as copper and outperforms all other materials as a conductor of heat. Graphene is almost completely transparent, yet so dense that even the smallest atom helium cannot pass through it.

Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov (the two scientists who successfully isolated the material and won the 2010 Nobel Prize for it) defined graphene as "a flat monolayer of carbon atoms tightly packed into a two-dimensional (2D) honeycomb lattice, and is a basic building block for graphitic materials of all other dimensionalities. It can be wrapped up into 0D fullerenes, rolled into 1D nanotubes or stacked into 3D graphite."

Graphene is a material that has the potential to create foldaway mobile phones, wallpaper-thin lighting panels and the next generation of aircraft.

A graphene circuit can operate at high frequencies of up to 10GHz (10 billion cycles per second), and at temperatures of up to 127°C. It is the most transparent, strongest and most conductive material on Earth.

Cutting the graphene cake

Sandwiching individual graphene sheets between insulating layers in order to produce electrical devices with unique new properties, the method could open up a new dimension of physics research.

Writing in Nature Materials, the scientists show that a new side-view imaging technique can be used to visualize the individual atomic layers of graphene within the devices they have built. They found that the structures were almost perfect even when more than 10 different layers were used to build the stack.

This surprising result indicates that the latest techniques of isolating graphene could be a huge leap forward for engineering at the atomic level.

This development gives more weight to graphene's suitability as a major component in the next generation of computer chips.

The researchers' side-view imaging approach works by first extracting a thin slice from the centre of the device. This is similar to cutting through a rock to reveal the geological layers or slicing into a chocolate gateaux to reveal the individual layers of icing.

Graphene Promises New Levels of Technology in Photonic Chips

Graphene comes from graphite. Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov used the weak bond between the layers of graphite to isolate the three strong bonded carbon atoms and discovered graphene. Without the layer of weak bonds, graphene is a structure that is only one atom thick. Hence, it is a two dimensional object.

It is one of the thinnest and strongest material ever measured. The structure resembles chicken wire when viewed on the atomic scale.

Geim and Novoselov shared the 2010 the Nobel Prize for Physics for the discovery.

The two scientists in the March 2007 issue of Nature Materials defined graphene as "a flat monolayer of carbon atoms tightly packed into a two-dimensional (2D) honeycomb lattice, and is a basic building block for graphitic materials of all other dimensionalities. It can be wrapped up into 0D fullerenes, rolled into 1D nanotubes or stacked into 3D graphite."

Graphene is a material that has the potential to create foldaway mobile phones, wallpaper-thin lighting panels and the next generation of aircraft.

A graphene circuit can operate at high frequencies of up to 10GHz (10 billion cycles per second), and at temperatures of up to 127°C. It is the most transparent, strongest and most conductive material on Earth.

The unique properties of graphene can lead to a new paradigm for low power telecommunications

New research by Columbia Engineering demonstrates remarkable optical nonlinear behavior of graphene that may lead to broad applications in optical interconnects and low-power photonic integrated circuits. With the placement of a sheet of graphene just one-carbon-atom-thick, the researchers transformed the originally passive device into an active one that generated microwave photonic signals and performed parametric wavelength conversion at telecommunication wavelengths.

"We have been able to demonstrate and explain the strong nonlinear response from graphene, which is the key component in this new hybrid device," says Tingyi Gu, the study's lead author and a Ph.D. candidate in electrical engineering. "Showing the power-efficiency of this graphene-silicon hybrid photonic chip is an important step forward in building all-optical processing elements that are essential to faster, more efficient, modern telecommunications. And it was really exciting to explore the 'magic' of graphene's amazingly conductive properties and see how graphene can boost optical nonlinearity, a property required for the digital on/off two-state switching and memory."

The study, led by Chee Wei Wong, professor of mechanical engineering, director of the Center for Integrated Science and Engineering, and Solid-State Science and Engineering, will be published online in the Advance Online Publication on Nature Photonics's website on July 15 and in print in the August issue. The team of researchers from Columbia Engineering and the Institute of Microelectronics in Singapore are working together to investigate optical physics, material science, and device physics to develop next-generation optoelectronic elements.

Phase Change Materials (PCM) and Nanotechnology For Faster and Efficient Computer Memory

What is a phase change material?

A phase change material (PCM) is a substance that changes from one state of matter to another at a certain temperature. It can be compared to water; when boiled (at 100 °C ) it turns to a gas and when frozen (at 0 °C)turns to ice.

PCMs are usually used in construction as a means of regulating room temperature. When the temperature in a room gets high, the PCM liquefy and absorb and store heat. Once the temperature lowers, it solidifies and releases the absorbed heat.

PCMs usually utilize the solid to liquid phase change because a phase change to gas requires a larger volume or high pressure to store the material in that state.

Current phase change materials use paraffin as its prime material. Paraffin (a wax) melts at a specified temperature and solidifies back again at a lower temperature. These are produced as microscopic wax spheres (paraffin wrapped in a glass acrylic containers called beads) integrated into building materials.

Penn researchers' study of phase change materials could lead to better computer memory

Memory devices for computers require a large collection of components that can switch between two states, which represent the 1's and 0's of binary language. Engineers hope to make next-generation chips with materials that distinguish between these states by physically rearranging their atoms into different phases. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have now provided new insight into how this phase change happens, which could help engineers make memory storage devices faster and more efficient.

The research was conducted by Ritesh Agarwal, associate professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering in Penn's School of Engineering and Applied Science, along with members of his research group. A.T. Charlie Johnson, professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy in the School of Arts and Sciences, and Ju Li, now a professor of nuclear science and engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, also contributed to the study.

Their research was published in the journal Science.

DNA Nanotechnology To Create Programmable Nanodevices For Drug Delivery Created

Three different types of DNA single strands stepwise assemble into symmetric three-point-star motifs (tiles) and then into polyhedra in a one-pot process. There are three single-stranded loops (coloured red) in the centre of the complex. The final structures (polyhedra) are determined by the loop length (3 or 5 bases long) and the DNA concentration. Credit: Nature

James Watson and Francis Crick announced in 1953 that they had just discovered the secret of life. Their discovery, which they first announced in a Cambridge pub, is now accepted as the first correct double-helix model of DNA structure. It explained how cells divide and develop.

DNA contains information that cells use to create and maintain cells and organisms. The DNA segments carrying this genetic information are called genes. Nearly every cell in a person’s body has the same DNA.

The information are stored in four chemical bases: Adenine (A), Cytosine (C), Guanine (G) and Thymine (T). Depending how these bases are arranged, it dictates how the protein is constructed. The human DNA contains around three billion base pairs.

Harvard's Wyss Institute develops nanodevice manufacturing strategy using DNA 'building blocks'

Researchers at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University have developed a method for building complex nanostructures out of short synthetic strands of DNA. Called single-stranded tiles (SSTs), these interlocking DNA "building blocks," akin to Legos®, can be programmed to assemble themselves into precisely designed shapes, such as letters and emoticons. Further development of the technology could enable the creation of new nanoscale devices, such as those that deliver drugs directly to disease sites.

The technology, which is described in today's online issue of Nature, was developed by a research team led by Wyss core faculty member Peng Yin, Ph.D., who is also an Assistant Professor of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School. Other team members included Wyss Postdoctoral Fellow Bryan Wei, Ph.D., and graduate student Mingjie Dai.

Damaged and Impure Carbon Nanotubes Provide Attractive, Low-cost Alternative Catalysts In Fuel Cells.

This drawing shows a double-walled carbon nanotube. Each tube is made of a rolled-up sheet of carbon that’s one-atom thick.
Credit: Guosong Hong

A carbon nanotube is a tiny cylinder that is one atom thick. The structure is made up of a single layer of carbon atoms that are rolled up to form the cylinder. These single layer carbon atom structure is graphene. Graphene has been touted as the "wonder" material of the 21st century.

There are many techniques to produce carbon nanotubes, two of them are by Arc-discharge and Chemical vapor deposition (CVD).

With arc-discharge, a chamber is filled with non-reactive gas. Two rods of graphite are placed in the chamber; one is an anode, the other the cathode. A current is run through the rods to produce a spark. The spark vaporizes the tip of the rods and carbon gas is released. On the cathode, carbon nanotubes are formed.

CVD is done by using carbon based gas and a metal catalyst particle. A non reactive gas is passed through the heated carbon gas. This is then passed through a furnace that's heated up to 1150 C. Nanotubes form at the tubes in the furnace and is then collected.

CVD is the most promising in terms of commercial production but research is still ongoing to find the most efficient way to produce carbon nanotubes.

'Unzipped' carbon nanotubes could help energize fuel cells and batteries, Stanford scientists say

Multi-walled carbon nanotubes riddled with defects and impurities on the outside could replace some of the expensive platinum catalysts used in fuel cells and metal-air batteries, according to scientists at Stanford University. Their findings are published in the May 27 online edition of the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

"Platinum is very expensive and thus impractical for large-scale commercialization," said Hongjie Dai, a professor of chemistry at Stanford and co-author of the study. "Developing a low-cost alternative has been a major research goal for several decades."

Creating Nanostructures From The Atomic Level Up

Nanostructure

A nanostructure is an object or group of objects of intermediate size between molecular and microscopic (micrometer-sized) structures. Nanostructures arrange atoms into structures that are only a few nanometers in size.

A nanometer is one billionth of a meter (about the size of four atom diameters) or 1/50,000 of a human hair.

An example of a nanostructures are the Magnetic nanolayers which exhibit the effect of "giant magnetoresistance" (GMR) found in reading heads of hard drive disks in computers. These magnetic nanolayers are currently the best material for reading heads of hard disks.

There are three dimensions to a nanostructure.

• Nanotextured surfaces have one dimension on the nanoscale - only the thickness of the surface of an object is between 0.1 and 100 nm (a dot).
• Nanotubes have two dimensions on the nanoscale - the diameter of the tube is between 0.1 and 100 nm; its length could be much greater.
• Spherical nanoparticles have three dimensions on the nanoscale - the particle is between 0.1 and 100 nm in each spatial dimension (Length, Width, Height).

The terms nanoparticles and ultrafine particles (UFP) often are used synonymously although UFP can reach into the micrometre range. The term 'nanostructure' is often used when referring to magnetic technology.

Creating nano-structures from the bottom up

Microscopic particles are being coaxed by Duke University engineers to assemble themselves into larger crystalline structures by the use of varying concentrations of microscopic particles and magnetic fields.

These nano-scale crystal structures, which until now have been difficult and time-consuming to produce using current technologies, could be used as basic components for advanced optics, data storage and bioengineering, said the research team.

"Not only did we develop the theoretical underpinning for this new technique, but we demonstrated in the lab that we could create more than 20 different programmed structures," said Benjamin Yellen, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and materials science at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering and lead member of the research team. The results of the Duke experiments were published online in the journal Nature Communications.