Tag: chemistry
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NSF Grant to Fund Study of Energy Storage Nanomaterials
A physics professor at Clemson University in South Carolina will lead a team developing new nanoscale carbon materials for storing energy, funded by a grant from National Science Foundation. The four-year, $1.2 million project is headed by physicist Apparao Rao and includes participants from Clemson and the University of California-San Diego. The research is expected…
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University to Build Toxic Gas Sensor for Firefighters
Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Massachusetts received a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to develop a portable sensor that alerts firefighters to the presence of toxic gases in burning buildings. The $1 million award will support the work of researchers in WPI’s Fire Protection Engineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering departments. The project…
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Polymer Nanoparticles Tested to Respond,Treat Inflammation
Pharmaceutical scientists and engineers at University of California in San Diego developed a degradable polymer in nanoscale form that can respond to measurable concentrations of hydrogen peroxide, an indicator of inflammation associated with many disorders. The team led by pharmacy professor Adah Almutairi (pictured left) published its findings online earlier this month in the Journal…
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Study to Genetically Alter Algae for Faster Biofuel Output
Biochemists and engineers at Texas A&M AgriLife Research in College Station are researching the genetic characteristics of algae to produce a type of the organism that can quickly make fuel-grade oil in commercial quantities. The project that includes collaborators from Cornell University and Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research is funded by a $2 million…
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Synthetic Nanomaterial Developed for Semiconductors
Chemists and physicists at University at Buffalo in New York created a synthetic nanoscale material with properties making it a potential replacement for silicon in electronic components. The team led by chemist Sarbajit Banerjee and physicist Sambandamurthy Ganapathy published its findings in a recent issue of the journal Advanced Functional Materials (paid subscription required). The…
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Nanoscale Bar Codes Developed to Combat Counterfeiting
Engineers and chemists at South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (SDSMT) in Rapid City and University of South Dakota in Vermillion devised invisible, nanoscale high-density bar codes that can authenticate paper documents and other solid objects. The team published its findings in the journal Nanotechnology, published by Institute of Physics (free registration required). The…
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Nanotech Process Devised for Graphene Semiconductors
Researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim developed a process to make semiconductors by growing nanoscale wires on a graphene substrate. Helge Weman (pictured left), a professor of electronics, led the research team that published its findings last month in the journal Nano Letters; paid subscription required. Weman also co-founded a…
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Nanotech Process Developed to Detect Heavy Metal Pollution
Researchers at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland and Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois developed a nanoscale process to test for heavy metals such as mercury and cadmium in water and fish. Their findings appear onlne in the journal Nature Materials (paid subscription required). The process created by EPFL nanomaterials scientist Francesco Stellacci (pictured…
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New Materials Developed with Vast Surface Areas
Materials scientists and engineers at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois and University of Surrey in the U.K. created two new synthetic materials with the largest reported amounts of internal surface area. The researchers published their findings online in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (paid subscription required). The two new materials, known as NU-109…
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Tough, Stretchable Hydrogel Cartilage Replacement Developed
Biomedical engineers at Harvard University created a tough, stretchable, and biocompatible synthetic material with the capacity to replace damaged cartilage in human joints. The findings from Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences appears in this week’s issue of the journal Nature (paid subscription required). The hydrogel developed by lead author and postdoctoral researcher Jeong-Yun…