Yale University researchers have developed a simple method for controlling the doping of carbon nanotubes (CNTs), a chemical process that optimizes the tubes properties. Reported April 29 in Nano Letters, the method could improve the utility of doped CNTs in a number of nanotechnologies and flexible electronics, including CNT-silicon hybrid solar energy cells.

Led by Andr Taylor of the Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science and Nilay Hazari of Yales chemistry department, the researchers developed a method that uses organic compounds with a metal core known as metallocenes to produce two possible types of doped CNTs.

A small amount of metallocenes in solution is deposited on the CNTs, which are then rotated at high speed. This simple spin coating process spreads the solution evenly across the surface of the CNTs, resulting in high doping levels that can improve electrical utility.

Using the method, the researchers found that doping with electron-deficient metallocenes, such as those with a cobalt core, results in CNTs with more positively charged electron holes than available negatively charged electrons to fill those holes; these CNTs are known as p-type because of their positive charge. On the other hand, doping with electron-rich metallocenes, such as those with a vanadium core, results in thenegatively charged n-type CNTs, which have more electrons than holes.

According to the team, which also includes doctoral candidates Xiaokai Li (lead author) and Louise Guard, metallocenes are the first generic family of molecules demonstrated to produce both p-type and n-type doping.

We showed that by changing the coordinate metal of a metallocene, we could actually render these carbon nanotubes p-type or n-type at will, and we can even go back and forth between the two, said Taylor, who is associate professor of chemical and environmental engineering. Hazari is assistant professor of chemistry.

The finding is significant, Taylor said, because although p-type doping is common and even occurs naturally when CNTs interact with air, previous n-type doping methods produced low doping levels that could not be effectively used in devices. The Yale teams method produced an n-type CNT-silicon cell more than 450 times more efficient than the best solar cells of this type.

If you have a high doping ratio, then you have better electron transport, better mobility, and ultimately a better functioning device, said Taylor. As such, these findings move us one step further towards our goal of improving the efficiency of hybrid solar cells.

The paper is titled Controlled Doping of Carbon Nanotubes with Metallocenes for Application in Hybrid Carbon Nanotube/Si Solar Cells.

The National Science Foundation, Sabotka Research Fund, Teracon Corp., and the Yale Climate and Energy Institute provided support for this research.

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New doping method improves properties of carbon nanotubes

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Newswise An international research team has built molecular clamps out of DNA that offer a powerful new tool for identifying individuals with an increased risk of cancer. The clamp is capable of detecting genetic mutations, associated with cancer and other genetic diseases, with better specificity and affinity than more traditional techniques. The high affinity of the clamp for its target and the ability to add a fluorescent label that lights up when the clamp grabs the errant DNA sequence, make these new DNA clamp nanoswitches the state-of-the-art in highly-sensitive molecular diagnostics.

The international team includes NIBIB grantee Kevin Plaxco, Ph. D., University of California, Santa Barbara and his colleagues at the University of Rome in Italy and the University of Montreal in Quebec, Canada. The work is described in the December 2013 issue of the American Chemical Society Journal ACS Nano.

With the list of cancer-causing genetic mutations increasing every day, these bioengineers envision that an individuals DNA could be screened for known cancer-causing mutations long before the development of disease. With this type of early identification, it may be possible for high-risk individuals to change lifestyle habits known to increase cancer risk. In the future, as the molecular basis for certain cancers is revealed, medications could be developed that inhibit or block the process of cancer formation before it even begins.

How does it work? DNA exists naturally as two complementary strands known as a double helix, which separates into single strands when heated. Existing DNA-based diagnostic tools consist of a single strand of DNA that binds to one strand of the patients heated DNA to form a double helix. However, the new DNA clamp has a powerful vice-like grip that grabs both sides of a patients heated, single stranded DNA to form a triple helix -- one DNA strand of the patients surrounded by the clamps 2 DNA strands. The triple helix creates a bond that is 200-times stronger, and 10-times more specific than a double helix. The superior grip of the DNA clamp nanoswitch enables it to firmly bind to the smallest cancer-causing genetic changes, known as single point mutations. The new method has the ability to identify single point mutations in patient DNA samples with significantly increased specificity, offering much more consistent and reliable identification of mutations than is possible with the systems currently in use. The DNA clamp nanoswitch can be engineered to carry a molecule that lights-up when the clamp snaps shut on the target DNA, clearly indicating the presence of the mutation.

Co-author Francesco Ricci, Ph.D., Laboratory of Bionsensors and Nanomachines, Rome, elaborates: The advantage of our fluorescence clamp is that it allows distinguishing between mutant and non-mutant DNA with much greater efficiency than other detection methods. This information is critical because it tells patients which cancers they are at risk for or already have. Identifying potential cancer-causing mutations with confidence requires the engineering of a highly accurate and reliable system.

Dr. Plaxco goes on to explain the basis for the clamps efficiency: Usually, any improvement in affinity is coupled with a reduction in specificity. For example, receptors that bind to their intended target more tightly often also bind to the wrong target more tightly as well. By bringing in additional recognition elements (the second strand of the clamp that forms the triple helix) the DNA nanoswitch improves affinity without sacrificing specificity. To me, thats the critical lesson here.

Brenda Korte, Ph. D., the NIBIB Program Director for Sensors and Microsystems stresses the broader significance of the technology: In addition to the identification of genetic mutations, this work has great potential for numerous new applications of DNA-based nanostructures. The clamp has the potential to be a valuable component for DNA-directed construction of a range of nano-machines including biosensors, and molecular motors. Ultimately, such nano-devices could have a major impact on many aspects of healthcare in the future. This is precisely the type of research NIBIB aims to support new technologies that have direct applications to a specific problem, but also serve as new, innovative approaches that can be applied to other challenging biomedical issues.

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Clamping Down on Cancer-Causing Mutations

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MIT.nano from in front of Building 13, looking east toward Building 26.

Institute announces final design for new nanotech laboratory

$350 million facility will stand in the current location of Building 12

NEWS EDITOR

May 2, 2014

Starting in spring 2018, MIT nanotechnology researchers will no longer have to go to Harvard to find suitable lab equipment. On Tuesday, MIT announced that it has committed $350 million to the construction of a new state-of-the-art nanoscale research facility.

Dubbed MIT.nano, this building will be located at the heart of MITs campus and take four years to complete. Construction will begin in June, but will significantly affect access to parts of campus near Building 12, the future site of the new structure.

Currently, most MIT nanoscale researchers either do their work in the Microsystems Technology Laboratories in Building 39 or in their own small labs.

If you look at the trend of the young professors coming into MIT, the disciplines were developing at MIT, the student interests, the world needs if you look at all of those, the component of nanotechnologies just permeates everything that we do, said Prof. Vladimir Bulovic, the faculty lead on this project and MIT School of Engineerings Associate Dean for Innovation.

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Newswise FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. Imagine a physician, sitting in a stadium press box, equipped with technology that makes it possible to continuously monitor each players physiological signs that indicate concussion.

Engineering researchers at the University of Arkansas have developed a wireless health-monitoring system that does exactly that. The system includes a dry, textile-based nanosensor and accompanying network that detects early signs of traumatic brain injury by continuously monitoring various brain and neural functions.

Wearable nanosensor systems can detect the severity of head injury by quantifying force of impact, be it light or violent, said Vijay Varadan, Distinguished Professor of electrical engineering. In real time, our system continuously monitors neural activity and recognizes the signs and symptoms of traumatic brain injury, such as drowsiness, dizziness, fatigue, sensitivity to light and anxiety.

The system is a network of flexible sensors woven or printed into a skullcap worn under a helmet. The sensors are built with carbon nanotubes and two- and three-dimensional, textile nanostructures grown at the University of Arkansas. The system uses Zigbee/Bluetooth wireless telemetry to transmit data from the sensors to a receiver, which then transmits the data via a wireless network to a remote server or monitor, such as a computer or a smartphone. A more powerful wide-area wireless network would allow the system to detect large quantities of data taken continuously from each player on the field and transmit the data to multiple locations a press box, ambulance and hospital, for example.

The sensors have considerable power and capability to monitor sensitive neural and physiological activity, Varadan said. Under stress due to impact, the sensor chips are sturdier than printed circuit-board chips and can withstand high temperatures and moisture.

The system includes a pressure-sensitive textile sensor embedded underneath the helmets outer shell. This sensor measures intensity, direction and location of impact force. The other sensors work as an integrated network within the skullcap. These include a printable and flexible gyroscope that measures rotational motion of the head and body balance and a printable and flexible 3-D accelerometer that measures lateral head motion and body balance.

The cap also includes a collection of textile-based, dry sensors that measure electrical activity in the brain, including signs that indicate the onset of mild traumatic brain injury. These sensors detect loss of consciousness, drowsiness, dizziness, fatigue, anxiety and sensitivity to light. Finally, the skullcap includes a sensor to detect pulse rate and blood oxygen level.

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New Sensor System Detects Early Signs of Concussion in Real Time

Story Created: Apr 29, 2014 at 5:52 PM EDT

Story Updated: Apr 29, 2014 at 5:52 PM EDT

(WKTV) - Substitute teacher Natalie Williams came to the Nano Utica Job Fair looking for something more permanent. She also wanted to see what all the buzz was about, after hearing people say nanotechnology would transform the Utica area into the Silicon Valley of New York.

Williams came up with an interesting analogy of her own.

"I haven't personally been on a speed date but in my mind it seems kind of like that," said Williams.

"I'm a teacher. A biology teacher, chemistry teacher ... and I don't know if you've noticed but there aren't too many jobs in that field. With that skill set, I can go in a lot of different directions ... so I'm looking to see what the options are."

Not everyone at the Nano Utica Job Fair had a background or skills in science or engineering.

"I'm looking for a security position ... security guard, security supervisor. It's what I have the most experience in, so..." said job seeker Clarence Chester.

Chester illustrates something Nano Utica officials say it's important to convey: They need professionals from all disciplines to make Quad C-the Computer Chip Commercialization Center at SUNYIT a success.

Local elected leaders were thrilled at the overwhelming response to the job fair.

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Nano Utica job fair draws thousands

Can be used to prototype a new generation of technologies, from energy-efficient transistors to nano-sized security tags to prevent document forgery

WASHINGTON, April 25, 2014 /PRNewswire/ National Geographic Kids today claimed its ninth GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS title for the Smallest Magazine Cover, using patented technology from IBM (NYSE: IBM), at the USA Science & Engineering Festival in Washington, D.C.

Flickr Photos: https://www.flickr.com/gp/ibm_research_zurich/dY33Lo/ YouTube: http://youtu.be/ucGbmsg5FvA

To create the record-setting cover, IBM scientists invented a tiny chisel with a heatable silicon tip 100,000 times smaller than a sharpened pencil point. Using this nano-sized tip, which creates patterns and structures on a microscopic scale, it took scientists just 10 minutes and 40 seconds to etch the magazine cover onto a polymer, the same substance of which plastics are made. The resulting magazine cover measures 11 14 micrometers, which is so small that 2,000 could fit on a grain of salt.

To select which cover to shrink, National Geographic Kids turned to its readers to vote online for their favorite design. The March 2014 cover that earned the most votes as well as a microscopic version, visible through a ZEISS Axio Imager 2 microscope, was unveiled at the USA Science & Engineering Festival. It will be on display at the National Geographic Kids and IBM booth #3728 on April 26 and 27.

National Geographic Kids magazine subscribers loved this cover, so it makes sense that a broader audience would vote it as their favorite of 2014 as well. And by helping to set this Guinness World Records title, theyre learning about science while having fun, which is what Kids is all about, said Rachel Buchholz, vice president and editor of National Geographic Kids.

National Geographic Kids eight previous GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS titles are: Longest Line of Footprints (10,932 prints measuring two miles, set in 2004); Largest Collection of Plush Toys (2,304 stuffed animals, set in 2006); Longest Chain of Shoes (10,512 shoes, set in 2008); Most Items of Clothing Collected for Recycling (33,088 items of denim clothing, set in 2009); Most People Doing Jumping Jacks in 24 Hours (300,265, set in 2011), Largest Collection of Shoes to Recycle (16,407, set in 2013); Most People Running 100 Meters in 24 hours (30,914, set in 2013); and Largest Online Photo Album (104,022 pictures, set in 2013).

How IBM researchers created the cover

The nanometer-sized tip, which can be heated to 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,832 degrees Fahrenheit), is attached to a bendable cantilever that controllably scans the surface of the substrate material, in this case a polymer invented by chemists at IBM Research in Almaden, California, with the accuracy of one nanometerone millionth of a millimeter. By applying heat and force, the tip can remove substrate material based on predefined patterns, thus operating like a nanomilling machine or a 3D printer with ultrahigh precision. Additional material can be removed to create complex 3D structures with nanometer precision by modulating the force or by readdressing individual spots.

This new capability may impact the prototyping of new transistor devices, including tunneling field effect transistors, for more energy-efficient and faster electronics for anything from cloud data centers to smartphones. By the end of the year IBM hopes to begin exploring the use of this technology to prototype transistor designs made of graphene like materials.

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GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS Title for the World's Smallest Magazine Cover Made with a Microscopic 3D Printer

The nanometer-sized tip, which creates patterns and structures on a microscopic scale, is 100,000 times smaller than a sharpened pencil point and can be heated to 1,000 degrees Celsius.

IBM claims that the same technique could be used to prototype a new generation of technologies, from energy-efficient transistors to nano-sized security tags to prevent document forgery.

With our novel technique we can achieve very a high resolution at 10 nanometers at greatly reduced cost and complexity," said Dr. Armin Knoll, a physicist and inventor at IBM Research.

"Now its up to the imagination of scientists and engineers to apply this technique to real-world challenges.

IBM has licensed the technology to a startup based in Switzerland called SwissLitho, which is bringing it to market under the name NanoFrazor.

Several weeks ago, the firm shipped its first NanoFrazor to McGill Universitys Nanotools Microfab in Canada. To celebrate the tools arrival, the university created a nano-sized map of Canada measuring 30 micrometers (0.030 millimeters) wide.

IBM hopes to begin exploring the use of this technology to prototype transistor designs made of graphene-like materials by the end of the year.

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World's smallest magazine cover created using IBM 'nano chisel'

IBM has unveiled the worlds smallest magazine cover at the USA Science and Engineering Festival in Washington, DC. Certified by the Guinness Book of World Records, the micro magazine is a reproduction of the cover of the March 2014 issue of National Geographic Kids and is many times smaller than a grain of salt at just 11 14 micrometers. Why, you ask? The tiny cover was created to demonstrate potential of a new nano-scale manufacturing technology, as well to encourage young peoples interest in science and technology.

The tiny publication has nothing to do with breaking into the magazines-for-microbes market. Its creation is part of an effort by IBM to deal with Moores Law, the famous observation that number of transistors on an integrated circuit doubles every two years. Thats held true for decades, but IBM says that as chips grow ever smaller Moore's Law is close to reaching its limits, as can be seen in the example of processor clock speeds not increasing by much for the past five years.

IBM sees the possible solution to this barrier in materials other than silicon and new types of transistors as the basis for new electronics. However, that creates its own problems because using these new materials and working on tinier scales requires new ways of fabricating them. Until now, the standard technique has been using an electron beam to create prototype circuits in a technique called e-beam lithography. This works, but its expensive, slow, and needs a lot of equipment.

The heatable silicon tip is 100,000 times smaller than a sharpened pencil point

What IBM wanted was something cheaper, faster, and more compact. It had to be able to fabricate prototypes of new components quickly, and had to work on scales below 30 nanometers. To give some idea of this scale, one nanometer is 80,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair.

IBMs solution was called nanopatterning or nanomilling. Taking a page from the ancient Egyptians, who used to chisel hieroglyphics in stone, IBM researchers decided that instead of printing circuits as with an electron beam, theyd chisel them out using a tiny, heatable silicon tip with a sharp apex that's 100,000 times smaller than the tip of a sharpened pencil. As the tip, heated to 1000 C (1,832 F), moves over the surface of a tiny sheet of polymer, it acts like a 3D printer that chisels away material by local evaporation. This also makes it a much more compact machine that fits on a tabletop and can print items in minutes that an electron beam would take hours to accomplish due to e-lithographys complex processing and imaging steps.

With our novel technique we can achieve very a high resolution at 10 nanometers at greatly reduced cost and complexity," says Dr. Armin Knoll, a physicist at IBM Research. "In particular by controlling the amount of material evaporated, we can also produce 3D relief patterns at the unprecedented accuracy of merely one nanometer in a vertical direction. Now its up to the imagination of scientists and engineers to apply this technique to real-world challenges.

But what has this to do with magazines? IBM and National Geographic Kids magazine decided to show the capabilities of the new nano-chisel in a way that might also spark the enthusiasm of young people. After running a poll that let kids select which cover to use, IBM used the tool to print the cover on a sheet of polymer, which measures 11 14 micrometers. Thats small enough for 2,000 to fit on a grain of salt and to get into the Guinness Book of World Records.

National Geographic Kids magazine subscribers loved this cover, so it makes sense that a broader audience would vote it as their favorite of 2014 as well," says Rachel Buchholz, vice president and editor of National Geographic Kids. "And by helping to set this Guinness World Records title, they're learning about science while having fun, which is what Kids is all about.

Developed at IBM, the chisel technology is now on the market and Swiss company SwissLitho has obtained a license to make nanopatterning tools under the brand NanoFrazor, the first of which was recently delivered to McGill Universitys Nanotools Microfab in Canada, where it was used to make a nano-sized map of Canada measuring 30 micrometers long.

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IBM creates world's smallest magazine cover

Nazarbayev University is a newly established institution of higher education in Astana, Kazakhstan, It opened its doors in 2011, as a Western style, English-speaking university with a predominant foreign academic staff. It provides undergraduate programs in Science and Technology, Social Sciences & Humanities and Engineering. The School of Engineering features a 4-year BEng curriculum, with majors in Mechanical, Civil, Electrical & Electronic and Chemical Engineering. University College London is the partner university of the School. The School is investing heavily in its teaching and learning infrastructure, has started preparations to set up graduate programs, and is breaking ground to build a new research facility and extend the teaching facilities. The academic staff is rapidly increasing in size.

The Department of Chemical Engineering invites applications for an associate or full professor position in materials science and engineering, with an emphasis on complex functional materials and nano materials. We are looking for a dynamic and motivated person with an excellent research record, who is able to develop curriculum and deliver high quality courses related to the development of engineering materials, especially in the graduate program of Materials Science and Engineering.

Required Qualifications: Ph.D. degree in Chemistry or Chemical Engineering, or a closely related field, with a proven background in teaching, research and service. For an associate and full professor position, at least 5, respectively 10 years of full time research and teaching experience are required. Experience in supervision of PhD students and research assistants is required.

An attractive salary and reward package, including rent-free accommodation, child education and personal shipment allowance, vacation allowance and no-cost international health insurance is offered.

Applicants should send a cover letter, CV, the names and contact details of three referees, and supporting materials to Professor Alfred Bliek, Dean of the Nazarbayev University School of Engineering at hiring-engineering@nu.edu.kz. For additional information about the School and the position job description, please visit our website (http://seng.nu.edu.kz/seng/Careers). Review of applications will begin immediately.

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Associate/full professor in materials science and engineering

April 25, 2014

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com Your Universe Online

According to a new report in the journal ACS Nano, a team of Australian engineers have modelled a kind of laser called a spaser that would allow for the creation of smartphones so small and flexible they could be printed on a t-shirt.

Simply put, spasers are nanoscale lasers that emit a beam of light via the vibration of free electrons, as opposed to the relatively space-consuming beam of a traditional laser. While spasers, short for surface plasmon amplification by stimulated emission of radiation, have been made before the new spaser described in the report would be made from carbon.

Other spasers designed to date are made of gold or silver nanoparticles and semiconductor quantum dots while our device would be comprised of a graphene resonator and a carbon nanotube gain element, study author Chanaka Rupasinghe, an engineering postgraduate student at Australias Monash University, said in a recent statement.

The use of carbon means our spaser would be more robust and flexible, would operate at high temperatures, and be eco-friendly, Chanaka said. Because of these properties, there is the possibility that in the future an extremely thin mobile phone could be printed on clothing.

Spaser-based gadgets would be a replacement for existing transistor-based device components including microprocessors, memory, and displays that would address current miniaturizing and bandwidth restrictions.

The scientists said their spaser would be built using graphene and carbon nanotubes, which are over a hundred times harder than steel and have superior heat and electricity conduction capabilities. They can also tolerate much higher temperatures.

The study team showed that graphene and carbon nanotubes can interrelate and transport energy to each other via light. These optical relationships are very quick and energy-efficient, making them suitable for computer processors and other uses.

Graphene and carbon nanotubes can be used in applications where you need strong, lightweight, conducting, and thermally stable materials due to their outstanding mechanical, electrical and optical properties, Chanaka said. They have been tested as nanoscale antennas, electric conductors and waveguides.

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Spaser Technology Could Make A Printable Smartphone Possible

By Lance Ulanoff2014-04-25 13:30:33 UTC

At the intersection of nano technology and 3D printing lies IBM's Microscopic 3D Printer, which now holds the distinction of printing the smallest magazine cover in the world.

IBM and National Geographic Kids unveiled the cover, which is small enough to fit on a single grain of salt 2,000 times, at the USA Science and Engineering Festival in Washington, D.C., where The Guinness Book of World Records officially proclaimed it as the world's smallest magazine cover.

The gray-scale duplication of NatGeo Kids' cover is actually invisible to the naked eye. Dr. Colin Rawlings, a physicist at IBM Research, said that even with a microscope, you'd only be able to make our a blurry image. To see it in full, you need an electron microscope.

The National Geographic Kids nano-printed cover (left) alongside the original.

IBM used a special kind of nano-printer which, unlike traditional 3D printers that print layer-by-layer, removes material to create its work. The silicon tip of the nano-printer reaches 1,000 degrees Celsius and literally vaporizes the material in this case, a polymer to create indents of varying depths, depending on the light qualities of each pixel in the original scanned image. Put simply, the nano tip, which is many thousands of times smaller than the tip of a pencil, carves away at the surface to create the final 3D product. It took about 10 minutes to print the black and white replica of the National Geographic Kids cover.

The tiny cover is a fun demonstration of the micro 3D printers capabilities, but its true purpose lies elsewhere. Rawlings said that the printer, which is now being used commercially at the University of McGill in Canada, is a perfect tool for rapid prototyping.

"Scientists make a lot of mistakes so being able to prototype things quickly and accurately is really important and thats what this lets you do," he said.

Ultimately, the printer could be used to work out the pathways for future processors. IBM's own newly introduced high-end mainframe processor the Power8, uses a 22 nanometer production process. The micro printer can go as low as 8 nanometers. Ostensibly, this means, the printer is ready to prototype a road map for the future of processors.

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IBM 3D Prints World's Smallest Magazine Cover

The University of Minnesotas new $84.5 million Physics and Nanotechnology Building offers space for hundreds of students, faculty and visiting researchers, including this study area. (Staff photo: Bill Klotz)

Vibration testing may not sound like the most fascinating task in the world, but it provided some dramatic moments during construction of the University of Minnesotas new $84.5 million Physics and Nanotechnology Building.

The recently opened 144,000-square-foot building, at 115 Union St. S.E. on the U of Ms East Bank in Minneapolis, accommodates laboratories and clean rooms where people conduct critical research thats highly sensitive to vibration.

After the concrete was poured, the project team tested the building for shakes, rattles and rolls by having trucks drive by on the adjacent street. On the inside, vibration monitoring equipment rested on the concrete to measure the effects of the noise and traffic.

We all kind of held our breath, said Steve Campbell, director of the Minnesota Nano Center in the College of Science and Engineering.

We modeled it, built it and tested it to see if it actually met the requirements at the end, added Matt Stringfellow, a U of M senior project manager who worked on the building. That was a tense moment.

Fortunately for the project team, the building met the strict requirements, though it will be tested yet again when the Green Line light rail trains start running on nearby Washington Avenue in mid-June.

We will see if theres a negative impact or not, Stringfellow said. I think, because of the design and the modeling we have done, we are not really worried about it.

The project was completed last fall after more than two years of construction, and people have been working there since January.

On Wednesday, U of M officials showed off the building to the news media in advance of a public open house.

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Not your parents physics building

Keeping heat and electricity from leaking out of integrated circuits becomes so difficult below the 20nm level that everyone from large chipmakers to academic researchers resort to pretty extreme measures to get chips to work right.

There are plenty of research efforts under way to develop reliable ways to build processors with circuits smaller than 14 nm (the current commercial state of the art). MIT researchers say that the circuits should assemble themselves. Others are putting their faith in exotic materials or super-refined versions of current methods that use high-energy ultraviolet light, rather than the tired old visible spectrum.

However, researchers at the University of Rochester have slimmed things down far below even the ambitious targets of those projects. They have found a way to send an electric charge across a circuit one molecule wide while insulating it enough to smother the static and field leakage that make microscale circuits (let alone nanoscale ones) difficult to use.

An inert organic layer one molecule thick insulates the conductor above, whose load capacity can be raised or lowered by tweaking its hydrogen content. (Source: University of Rochester)

"Until now, scientists have been unable to reliably direct a charge from one molecule to another," Alexander Shestopalov, an assistant professor of chemical engineering at the University of Rochester, said in a press release. "But that's exactly what we need to do when working with electronic circuits that are one or two molecules thin." His team published a paper describing the process in the April issue of the journal Advanced Materials Interfaces (registration required).

Shestopalov's team linked an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) to a power source using a microscopic strand of inorganic conductor laid across a one-molecule-thick layer of nonreactive organic material, which insulated the conductor from the underlying environment and allowed for a clean flow of electricity to the OLED.

The insulating layer also contained the charge well enough within the conducting layer to let the researchers closely control the flow by manipulating the charge or changing the hydrogen content in the conducting material to increase or decrease the rate of flow to match the volume required by the OLED.

The bi-layer approach counteracts the variability of even heavily insulated single-layer nanoscale conductors or those that function with little or no insulation.

The resulting product is relatively simple to manufacture, and its performance is consistent and predictable, but it is too fragile to be practical with the materials Shestopalov used as a proof point. "The system we developed degrades quickly at high temperatures. What we need are devices that last for years and that will take time to accomplish."

His goal is to create practical, effective materials that combine layers of semi-conductive materials into composites that can be used for high-efficiency solar cells and other photovoltaics and to increase the efficiency of optical devices by shrinking their components to nanoscale using techniques and materials that make it possible to microprint them easily and cost-effectively.

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Slimming ICs to a Single Molecule Wide

SANS - Survey on application security programs

US scientists have tackled two main stumbling blocks to the development of injectable nanomachines for medical and scientific use.

The breakthroughs were announced in a paper entitled "Virus-Inspired Membrane Encapsulation of DNA Nanostructures To Achieve In Vivo Stability", published in the journal ACS Nano on Tuesday.

Scientists from the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard said they had worked out how to protect DNA nanostructures from nuclease degradation (when an enzyme found in blood breaks the bonds which hold DNA together), and also how to stop them triggering inflammatory immune system responses.

This gets rid of one of the main roadblocks to a future when illnesses such as cancer are treated via targeted "smart" medicine rather than extremely blunt tools such as chemotherapy, and people can augment their own bodies with swarms of nano machines: rejection by the body.

Here on El Reg's science faction desk we've spoken to boffins about breakthroughs such as programmable synthetic circuits and nanomotors that can be inserted into cells.

But as exciting as these breakthroughs are, they're worthless if the injectable nanomachines set off immune responses as they flow around the body and it's that barrier which the Wyss researchers think they have overcome.

The boffins made this breakthrough by taking inspiration from how naturally occurring viruses are able to infiltrate the body.

They were able to cloak the nanomachines by creating a "DNA NanoOctahedron" scaffold which had a diameter of around 50 nanometers, which was then coated it in a lipid layer (a "liposome").

They refined this design by giving the NanoOctahedron some "outer handles" to better bind the lipids onto it. This design ultimately proved resilient to nuclease degradation and also stopped immune system flare-ups.

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STEALTHY NANOROBOTS dress up as viruses, prepare to sneak into YOUR BODY

Assistant Professor Christian A. Nijhuis of the Department of Chemistry at the National University of Singapore's (NUS) Faculty of Science, in collaboration with researchers from the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), namely Dr Bai Ping of the Institute of High Performance Computing and Dr Michel Bosman of the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering has successfully designed and fabricated electrical circuits that can operate at hundreds of terahertz frequencies, which is tens of thousands times faster than today's state-of-the-art microprocessors.

This novel invention uses a new physical process called 'quantum plasmonic tunnelling'. By changing the molecules in the molecular electronic device, the frequency of the circuits can be altered in hundreds of terahertz regime.

The new circuits can potentially be used to construct ultra-fast computers or single molecule detectors in the future, and open up new possibilities in nano-electronic devices. The study is funded by the National Research Foundation (NRF) and A*STAR and results of the research were first published in prestigious scientific journal Science on 28 March 2014.

The quest to be super-small and super-fast Light is used as an information carrier and transmitted in optical fibre cables. Photonic elements are large but they operate at extremely high frequencies of 100 terahertz - about 10,000 times faster than the desktop computer. But current state-of-the-art nano-electronic devices operate at length scales that are much smaller, making it very difficult to combine the ultra-fast properties of photonic elements with nano-scale electronics.

Scientists have long known that light can interact with certain metals and can be captured in the form of plasmons, which are collective, ultra-fast oscillations of electrons that can be manipulated at the nano-scale. The so-called quantum plasmon modes have been theoretically predicted to occur at atomic length scales. However, current state-of-the-art fabrication techniques can only reach length scales that are about five nanometre larger, therefore quantum-plasmon effects have been difficult to investigate.

In this landmark study, the research team demonstrated that quantum-plasmonics is possible at length scales that are useful for real applications. Researchers successfully fabricated an element of a molecular electronic circuit using two plasmonic resonators, which are structures that can capture light in the form of plasmons, bridged by a layer of molecules that is exactly one molecule thick. The layer of molecules switches on the quantum plasmonic tunneling effects, enabling the circuits to operate at terahertz frequencies.

Dr Bosman used an advanced electron microscopy technique to visualise and measure the opto-electronic properties of these structures with nanometer resolution. The measurements revealed the existence of the quantum plasmon mode and that its speed could be controlled by varying the molecular properties of the devices.

By performing quantum-corrected simulations, Dr Bai confirmed that the quantum plasmonic properties could be controlled in the molecular electronic devices at frequencies 10,000 times faster than current processors.

Explaining the significance of the findings, Asst Prof Nijhuis said, "We are very excited by the new findings. Our team is the first to observe the quantum plasmonic tunneling effects directly. This is also the first time that a research team has demonstrated theoretically and experimentally that very fast-switching at optical frequencies are indeed possible in molecular electronic devices."

The results open up possible new design routes for plasmonic-electronics that combines nano-electronics with the fast operating speed of optics.

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Ultra-fast electrical circuits using light-generated tunneling currents

A new nano-membrane made out of the 'super material' graphene is extremely light and breathable. Not only can this open the door to a new generation of functional waterproof clothing, but also to ultra-rapid filtration. The new membrane just produced is as thin as is technologically possible.

Researchers have produced a stable porous membrane that is thinner than a nanometre. This is a 100,000 times thinner than the diameter of a human hair. The membrane consists of two layers of the much exalted "super material" graphene, a two-dimensional film made of carbon atoms, on which the team of researchers, led by Professor Hyung Gyu Park at the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering at ETH Zurich, etched tiny pores of a precisely defined size.

The membrane can thus permeate tiny molecules. Larger molecules or particles, on the other hand, can pass only slowly or not at all. "With a thickness of just two carbon atoms, this is the thinnest porous membrane that is technologically possible to make," says PhD student Jakob Buchheim, one of the two lead authors of the study, which was conducted by ETH-Zurich researchers in collaboration with scientists from Empa and a research laboratory of LG Electronics. The study has just been published in journal Science.

The ultra-thin graphene membrane may one day be used for a range of different purposes, including waterproof clothing. "Our membrane is not only very light and flexible, but it is also a thousand fold more breathable than Goretex," says Kemal Celebi, a postdoc in Park's laboratory and also one of the lead authors of the study. The membrane could also potentially be used to separate gaseous mixtures into their constituent parts or to filter impurities from fluids. The researchers were able to demonstrate for the first time that graphene membranes could be suitable for water filtration. The researchers also see a potential use for the membrane in devices used for the accurate measurement of gas and fluid flow rates that are crucial to unveiling the physics around mass transfer at nanoscales and separation of chemical mixtures.

Breakthrough in nanofabrication

The researchers not only succeeded in producing the starting material, a double-layer graphene film with a high level of purity, but they also mastered a technique called focused ion beam milling to etch pores into the graphene film. In this process, which is also used in the production of semiconductors, a beam of helium or gallium ions is controlled with a high level of precision in order to etch away material. The researchers were able to etch pores of a specified number and size into the graphene with unprecedented precision. This process, which could easily take days to complete, took only a few hours in the current work. "This is a breakthrough that enables the nanofabrication of the porous graphene membranes," explains Ivan Shorubalko, a scientist at Empa that also contributed to the study.

In order to achieve this level of precision, the researchers had to work with double-layer graphene. "It wouldn't have been possible for this method to create such a membrane with only one layer because graphene in practice isn't perfect," says Park. The material can exhibit certain irregularities in the honeycomb structure of the carbon atoms. Now and again, individual atoms are missing from the structure, which not only impairs the stability of the material but also makes it impossible to etch a high-precision pore onto such a defect. The researchers solved this problem by laying two graphene layers on top of each other. The probability of two defects settling directly above one another is extremely low, explains Park.

Fastest possible filtration

A key advantage of the tiny dimensions is that the thinner a membrane, the lower its permeation resistance. The lower the resistance, the higher the energy-efficiency of the filtration process. "With such atomically thin membranes we can reach maximal permeation for a membrane of a given pore size and we believe that they allow the fastest feasible rate of permeation," says Celebi. However, before these applications are ready for use on an industrial scale or for the production of functional waterproof clothing, the manufacturing process needs to be further developed. To investigate the fundamental science, the researchers worked with tiny pieces of membrane with a surface area of less than one hundredth of a square millimetre. Objectives from now on will be to produce larger membrane surfaces and impose various filtering mechanisms.

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Thinnest membrane feasible has been produced

Science, technology, engineering and math took the spotlight last week at the first city-wide Science Week, a series of activities designed to highlight the importance of the STEM fields to Western New Yorks innovation economy, including the emerging life sciences and advanced manufacturing industries.

Science Week was presented by UB, SUNY Buffalo State and Erie Community College, along with the city of Buffalo and the Buffalo Public Schools (BPS).

The idea for Science Week was conceived by SUNY Trustee Eunice Lewin, who approached UB and the areas other SUNY institutions, as well as the city, the schools and SUNY central administration, for help in bringing the initiative to life.

It featured national speakers, professional development workshops for teachers and hands-on science activities in BPS classrooms.

Among those science activities were student-led wind tunnel and shake table demonstrations on Friday at Burgard High School, one of 12 Buffalo schools participating in the Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Partnership. ISEP, funded by a $10 million National Science Foundation grant, is a coalition of partners, led by UB, that aims to transform how science is taught. It helps fill classrooms with hands-on activities that make science exciting for kids, as well as providing professional development for teachers.

About 300 Burgard students joined guests and dignitaries, including scientist and City Honors senior Yankang Yang who served as master of ceremonies; BPS Superintendent Pamela Brown; Alexander N. Cartwright, UB vice president for research and economic engagement; Buffalo State Interim President Howard Cohen; ECC President Jack Quinn; Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown; Common Council Majority Leader and Burgard graduate Demone Smith; Assemblyman Sean Ryan; Rep. Brian Higgins; Life Technologies scientist Mwita Phelps; and guest speaker Shirley Malcom. Malcom, head of education and human resources programs at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, is internationally known for her work on STEM education.

Another ISEP school, Native American Magnet School 19, opened Science Week on Monday with in-class science activities in three classrooms.

Thursday was Nano Day and nearly 450 students from Buffalos public and charter schools heard presentations and interacted with polymer worms, computer hard drives and hydrophobicity exploration at sessions at Roswell Park Cancer Institute hosted by SUNYs College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering

Wednesday was Teacher Development Day, with Buffalo State and SUNY hosting morning sessions on Gov. Andrew Cuomo's Master Teacher Program and the TeachLive Lab.Nearly 50 BPS teachers joined other area teachers, SUNY, UB and Buffalo State leaders for the discussions and demonstrations.In the afternoon, about 175 BPS science teachers took part in four round-robin sessions at McKinley High School that focused on best practices in the classroom.It included a poster session by ISEP teachers.

Perhaps the best endorsement for STEM comes from UB students studying in the fields. The students, most of whom are graduates of the Buffalo Public Schools, produced videos for Science Week.

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Science Week puts STEM in the spotlight

Interview with Stanislaw Ostoja-Starzewski to mark his selection as a finalist for the MIT TR35 Young French Innovator of the Year contest, which LAtelier partners. The Engineering graduate of the Lyon Applied Science Institute INSA, who is fascinated by space, is creating with his company, NovaNano, disruptive solutions around nano-satellites to provide low-cost communications capability.

Yes, and one who has been passionate about space since his earliest years. I was already excited about the exploits of the astronauts and the moon landings when I was five years old, confesses 29-year-old Stanislaw. And he was already building experimental rockets up to 10 feet in length as a member of a university club while he was studying at the National Institute of Applied Sciences (INSA Lyon). He also had the opportunity to take part in a rocket launch campaign with the French space agency CNES, and really started thinking of working in this field. During his studies, he met Spas Balinov and their friendship turned into a decision to set up NovaNano together when they graduated in 2009.

To build miniature satellites equipped with receivers to provide a means of radio communication all over the world, even in the most inaccessible areas. Their NovaSat nano-satellite is a space platform with a specific purpose. Every satellite has a function it might be Earth observation, a listening device or a communication resource, and thats the path that we chose, explains Stanislaw. The two engineers have been working with telecommunications experts, combining the two technological fields in order to create their business model around global connectivity. "Spas and I felt that something really disruptive was about to happen in the next few years. That was rather a historic moment for us," reveals Stanislaw. As regards nano-satellites: "This is a vector which is going to bring about new applications and create disruption in terms of costs, vis--vis the services that exist today."

During various exchange programmes and internships, Stanislaw realised that while miniaturised satellites were being developed on university campuses they still remained at the stage of an experimental concept. "Systems had already been launched in the early 2000s but they werent really working properly. Performance and quality still fell a long way short of the target. Universities simply dont have the industrial resources to bring this type of project to fruition. So we saw an opportunity there." The two colleagues embarked on their adventure, in full awareness that they were not the only ones likely to be attracted to the field of nano-satellite construction. "Following the miniaturisation of electronics, due largely to the progress described by Moores Law, i.e. Gordon Moores prediction that computer chip performance would double every eighteen months, were able today to build satellites small enough (weighing less than 50kg) to launch as a sort of extra passenger on a rocket, car-pooling for satellites if you like. And development costs are low enough for a startup to be able to get into this business." In fact space projects are mostly state-run "The space field previously used to be the preserve of major manufacturers nourished by State contracts," stresses Stanislaw so a startup/small business like NovaNano can feel relieved to have been able to obtain financing to build and launch satellites into space.

"Today, two thirds of the worlds population is still not connected to the Internet. This lack of connectivity and communication capability is affecting the development potential of those people and economic activity in those regions." Through NovaNano, Stanislaw intends to connect as many geographical areas as possible at an affordable cost. The basic principle of a satellite is that it orbits the Earth so as to provide global coverage. This ability to reach any and every point on the Earths surface and thus enable information to be exchanged with areas not covered by the traditional networks is certainly going to have an impact on those societies.

The company is planning to embark on the pilot phase, which means demonstrating the full system, as of July this year. 2014. The partners envisage launching two demo satellites in order to assess how they function in orbit. The testing phase will be backed by a number of clients who wish to help set in motion and perfect the system. NovaNano is now seeking to raise funds 2.5 million is the target for this financing round and is currently in discussions with various potential industrial and financial partners.

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[Portrait of an Innovator] Stanislaw Ostoja-Starzewski looks to nano-satellites to connect the world up at an ...

One of the winning images of the 2014 Nano Today Cover Competition. Look out for more cover competition winners, here on Materials Today.

The new issue of Nano Today (Volume 9, Issue 1) is out now. Click here to read the articles.

Zinc oxide (ZnO) is a metal oxide material that exhibits unique semiconducting, piezoelectric, and pyroelectric properties. With a direct wide bandgap (3.37 eV) and a high exciton binding energy (60 meV) at room temperature, it has received significant attention in applications ranging from solar cells, chemical sensors, optoelectronic devices, piezoelectric transducers and actuators, and environmental photocatalysis [1-4]. Particularly for the latter application, and despite its unfavorable electrochemical properties, ZnO has become an efficient alternative for titanium dioxide, the benchmark photocatalyst [5-8].

Controlling the morphology is a very important challenge in the synthesis of inorganic materials since it greatly affects their properties and corresponding potential applications. ZnO is a very versatile material in terms of morphology. One- (wires, rods and tubes) two- (sheets and ribbons) or even three-dimensional (rings, bows, helices and springs) structures can be obtained by selecting the appropriate synthesis method and preparation conditions [9]. Various routes including chemical vapor deposition, thermal evaporation, electrodeposition, solvothermal and hydrothermal methods have been reported for the preparation of ZnO materials with distinct morphologies at the micro/nanoscale [10]. Amongst the different synthesis procedures, the hydrothermal route is attractive mainly because of its simplicity and environmentally friendly conditions [11].

The cover image on Volume 9, Issue 1 of Nano Today shows flower-like ZnO structures produced through a hydrothermal procedure starting from an aqueous solution of zinc nitrate hexahydrate and hexamethylenetetramine. The mixture was thermally treated at 90 C for 12 h in a Teflon-lined stainless steel autoclave after adjusting the pH to 10.0 using an ammonium solution. Finally, the obtained material was thoroughly washed with deionized water, in order to eliminate residual salts, and dried at 60 C under vacuum.

The ZnO bundles strongly resemble natural flowers. A single flower consists of needle-like crystals (petals) radiating from the center. The micrograph was made using a high resolution (Schottky) environmental scanning electron microscope with X-raymicroanalysis and electron backscattered diffraction analysis (Quanta 400 FEG ESEM/EDAX Genesis X4M; secondary electron detector, 20 000, 15.00 kV) at the Materials Centre of the University of Porto (CEMUP), Portugal.

The material was synthesized at Laboratory of Catalysis and Materials (LCM), Associate Laboratory LSRE-LCM, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto (Portugal). It resulted from an ongoing joint collaboration between LCM and the Institute of Physics of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil), on the effect of the synthesis route in the morphology, optical properties and photocatalytic activity of ZnO materials. The ZnO materials produced are being used (ongoing work) as catalysts for two specific applications: the removal of organic pollutants from wastewater and hydrogen production from biomass compounds.

Acknowledgments: The authors acknowledge Project PEst-C/EQB/LA0020/2013, financed by FEDER through COMPETE - Programa Operacional Factores de Competitividade, and by FCT - Fundao para a Cincia e a Tecnologia, and co-financed by QREN, ON2 and FEDER (Project NORTE-07-0124-FEDER-0000015). FCT is acknowledged for funding the Post-Doctoral grant SFRH/BPD/48777/2008. Dr. Carlos M. S (CEMUP) is acknowledged for assistance with SEM/EDS analyses. Support by Brazilian agencies CNPq and CAPES is also acknowledged.

Further reading: [1] A. Janotti, C.G. van de Walle, Rep. Prog. Phys. 2009, 72, 126501; [2] A. Moezzi, A.M. McDonagh, M.B. Cortie, Chem. Eng. J. 2012, 185-186, 1; [3] S.A.C. Carabineiro, B.F. Machado, R.R. Bacsa, P. Serp, G. Draic, J.L. Faria, J.L. Figueiredo, J. Catal. 2010, 273, 191; [4] S.A.C. Carabineiro, B.F. Machado, G. Draic, R.R. Bacsa, P. Serp, J.L. Figueiredo, J.L. Faria, Stud. Surf. Sci. Catal. 2010, 175, 629; [5] M.D. Hernndez-Alonso, F. Fresno, S. Surez, J.M. Coronado, Energy Environ. Sci. 2009, 2, 1231; [6] C. Martnez, M. Canle L., M.I. Fernndez, J.A. Santaballa, J.L. Faria, Appl. Catal. B 2011, 102, 563; [7] C.G. Silva, J.L. Faria, J. Mol. Catal. A 2009, 305, 147; [8] C.G. Silva, J. Monteiro, R.R.N. Marques, A.M.T. Silva, C. Martnez, M. Canle L., J.L. Faria, Photochem. Photobiol. Sci. 2013, 12, 638; [9] Y. Wang, X. Li, N. Wang, X. Quan, Y. Chen, Sep. Purif. Technol. 2008, 62, 727; [10] M. Vaseem, A. Umar, Y.-B. Hahn in ZnO Nanoparticles: Growth, Properties, and Applications, 2010, 136; [11] S. Baruah, J. Dutta, Sci. Technol. Adv. Mater. 2009,10, 013001.

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SEM image of a flower-like ZnO material

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

14-Apr-2014

Contact: Andrea Boyle Tippett aboyle@udel.edu 302-831-1421 University of Delaware

Significant advances have been made in chemotherapy over the past decade, but targeting drugs to cancer cells while avoiding healthy tissues continues to be a major challenge.

Nanotechnology has unlocked new pathways for targeted drug delivery, including the use of nanocarriers, or capsules, that can transport cargoes of small-molecule therapeutics to specific locations in the body.

The catch? These carriers are tiny, and it matters just how tiny they are. Change the size from 10 nanometers to 100 nanometers, and the drugs can end up in the wrong cells or organs and thereby damage healthy tissues.

A common assumption is that once a nanocarrier is created, it maintains its size and shape on the shelf as well as in the body.

However, recent work by a group of researchers led by Thomas H. Epps, III, and Millicent Sullivan in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Delaware has shown that routine procedures in handling and processing nanocarrier solutions can have a significant influence on the size and shape of these miniscule structures.

Their findings are reported in a paper, "Size Evolution of Highly Amphiphilic Macromolecular Solution Assemblies Via a Distinct Bimodal Pathway," published in Nature Communications on April 7.

Sullivan explains that chemotherapeutic agents are designed to affect processes related to cell division. Therefore, they not only kill cancer cells but also are toxic to other rapidly proliferating cells such as those in hair follicles and bone marrow. Side effects can range from hair loss to compromised immune systems.

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Nano shake-up