Materials Sciences

Thanks to a team of materials scientists at Northwestern University, molecular electronics may be one step closer to reality. The researchers, led by Mark Hersam, assistant professor of materials science and engineering, have become the first to measure a unique and versatile nanoelectronic effect — called resonant tunneling — through individual molecules mounted directly on silicon.

The findings were published online Nov. 1 by Nano Letters, a publication of the American Chemical Society.

Molecular coating could aid nanoscale assembly, microfuidics

Materials researchers at Iowa State University, working in part under a grant from the National Science Foundation, have demonstrated a novel coating that makes surfaces “smart”—meaning the surfaces can be switched back and forth between glassy-slick and rubbery on a scale of nanometers, the size of just a few molecules.

Possible applications include the directed assembly of inorganic nanoparticles, proteins, and na

Silicone rubber and other rubber-like materials have a wide variety of uses, but in almost every case they must be reinforced with particles to make them stronger or less permeable to gases or liquids. University of Cincinnati (UC) chemistry professor James Mark and colleagues have devised a technique that strengthens silicone rubber with nanoscale particles, but leaves the material crystal clear.

Silicone rubber is often reinforced by tiny particles of silica (the primary component of sand

Scientist have created a new material which could save the electronics industry millions of pounds each year and could also be more effective.

Several attempts have been made over the last twenty years to make gold nitride but now a researcher at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne has solved the puzzle.

Gold is used extensively in the electronics industry, as a conductor of electricity in products such as computers, mobile phones and smart cards. This is because it is relatively

The addition of buckyballs or carbon nanotubes to nematic liquid crystals changes their properties and makes them low-cost alternatives for holographic and image processing applications, according to Penn State electrical engineers.

“By incorporating nanotubular and nano carbon 60 structures into liquid crystals, we make the nonlinear optical properties a million times bigger than all other existing materials,” says Dr. Iam-Choon Khoo, professor of electrical engineering.

Khoo, work

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a new class of nanometer-scale structures that spontaneously form helical shapes from long ribbon-like single crystals of zinc oxide (ZnO). Dubbed “nanosprings,” the new structures have piezoelectric and electrostatic polarization properties that could make them useful in small-scale sensing and micro-system applications.

Just 10 to 60 nanometers wide and 5-20 nanometers thick – but up to several millimeters long – the new st