In recent advancements in bioelectronic technology, researchers have developed a groundbreaking approach involving stretchable and conductive nanocomposites. These innovations are instrumental in creating more effective wearable devices, such as skin-like electronics, and enhancing the capabilities of implantable bioelectronics and soft robots. Traditional design approaches in this field have struggled to integrate brittle electrode materials with stretchable polymers. The core issue lies in the mechanical mismatch between these components, a significant barrier to achieving seamless integrati ..read more

In an innovative stride within the field of cancer therapy, a research group led by Prof. Wang Hui from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, which is part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has introduced a groundbreaking approach. They have developed a metal-free enzyme based on graphene quantum dots (GQDs) that holds great promise for highly efficient tumour hemodynamic therapy (CDT), as reported in their study published in Matter. Graphene quantum dots, emerging as a safer and more effective alternative to traditional metal-based nanozymes, address significant toxicity concerns in tum ..read more

The global industries are grappling with a dire challenge: the pressing need for compounds that are adaptable, efficient, and responsive. This is particularly evident in the fast-evolving world of scientific materials where sectors from technology to medicine, are hungry for versatile and functional materials. However, conventional methods of producing these materials often fall short, marred by their complexity and limitations in adaptability. Shinshu University's Leap Towards Revolutionary Thermoresponsive Materials Explore the advanced realm of two-dimensional graphene-based materials. Fore ..read more

As the world tries to shift from a dependence on fossil fuels as an energy provider, renewable energy technologies have become an increasingly popular and clean option. While there are many renewable energy technologies out there which are being used in the fight against climate change, solar cells are by and far the most widely commercialised technology. Solar cells come in many forms and new advancements in their power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) are always coming to the fore and new technologies are always hitting the market—be it from new materials or new solar cell architectures (which ..read more

Construction materials—such as concrete, cement and asphalt—are some of the world’s most widely used materials and major contributors to carbon emissions. And their use won’t be reduced in the future, as humans must create new buildings and roads in the face of an ever-growing population. Concrete alone accounts for 8% of all carbon emissions today. Cement, a key ingredient in concrete, is also the most widely produced man-made resource in the world – over four billion tonnes are produced annually. Given the continued use of both cement and concrete, as well as asphalt (created from petroleum ..read more

In 2021, lanthanide-doped nanoparticles made waves—or rather, an avalanche—when Changwan Lee, then a Ph.D. student in Jim Schuck's lab at Columbia Engineering, set off an extreme light-producing chain reaction from ultrasmall crystals developed at the Molecular Foundry at Berkeley Lab. Those same crystals are back again with a blink that can now be deliberately and indefinitely controlled. "We've found the first fully photostable, fully photoswitchable nanoparticle—a holy grail of nanoprobe design," said Schuck, associate professor of mechanical engineering. This unique material was synthesize ..read more

Ever since the discovery of the two-dimensional form of graphite (called graphene) almost twenty years ago, interest in 2D materials and their special physical properties has skyrocketed. Famously, graphene was produced by exfoliating bulk graphite using sticky tape. Although it was good enough for a Nobel Prize, this method has its drawbacks. An international team of surface scientists has now developed a simple method to produce large and very clean 2D samples from a range of materials using three different substrates. Their method, kinetic in situ single-layer synthesis (KISS) is described ..read more

DGIST Professor Yoonkyu Lee's research team used intense light on the surface of a copper wire to synthesize graphene, thereby increasing the production rate and lowering the production cost of the high-quality transparent-flexible electrode materials and consequently enabling its mass production. The results were published in the February 23 issue of Nano Energy. This technology is applicable to various 2D materials, and its applicability can be extended to the synthesis of various metal-2D material nanowires. The research team used copper-graphene nanowires to implement high-performance tran ..read more

When charged particles are shot through ultra-thin layers of material, sometimes spectacular micro-explosions occur, and sometimes the material remains almost intact. The reasons for this have now been explained by researchers at the TU Wien. It sounds a bit like a magic trick: Some materials can be shot through with fast, electrically charged ions without exhibiting holes afterwards. What would be impossible at the macroscopic level is allowed at the level of individual particles. However, not all materials behave the same in such situations—in recent years, different research groups have co ..read more

New research led by University of Massachusetts Amherst assistant professor Jinglei Ping has overcome a major challenge to isolating and detecting molecules at the same time and at the same location in a microdevice. The work, recently published in ACS Nano, demonstrates an important advance in using graphene for electrokinetic biosample processing and analysis, and could allow lab-on-a-chip devices to become smaller and achieve results faster. The process of detecting biomolecules has been complicated and time-consuming. "We usually first have to isolate them in a complex medium in a device a ..read more