A group of researchers at the University of California, Riverside Bourns College of Engineering have developed a technique to keep cool a semiconductor material used in everything from traffic lights to electric cars.
(Phys.org) — Imagine tracking a deer through a forest by clipping a radio transmitter to its ear and monitoring the deer’s location remotely. Now imagine that transmitter is the size of a house, and you understand the problem researchers may encounter when they try to use nanoparticles to track proteins in live cells.
(Phys.org) — A carbon nanotube sponge that can soak up oil in water with unparalleled efficiency has been developed with help from computational simulations performed at the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
(Phys.org) — For more than a decade, scientists have tried to improve lithium-based batteries by replacing the graphite in one terminal with silicon, which can store 10 times more charge. But after just a few charge/discharge cycles, the silicon structure would crack and crumble, rendering the battery useless.
As recently as twenty-five years ago, chemists considered gold to be one of the most inert metallic elements, until the discovery that nanoscale-sized dispersions of gold had high catalytic activity forced a re-think of old principles. Researchers soon found that gold nanoparticles could promote many industrially important reactions, such as the removal of harmful carbon monoxide gas from emission streams…
Quantum dots brighten the future of lighting
– phys.org
(Phys.org) — With the age of the incandescent light bulb fading rapidly, the holy grail of the lighting industry is to develop a highly efficient form of solid-state lighting that produces high quality white light.
Socks, T-shirts and other garments could become less hospitable to odor-causing bacteria, thanks to new antimicrobial treatments being investigated by U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists in New Orleans, La.