Glow sticks – Not just for parties anymore

University of Houston researcher using popular party favor to detect biothreats for US Navy

12-Jan-2024 - Remember that party where you were swinging glow sticks above your head or wearing them as necklaces? Fun times, right? Science times, too. Turns out those fun party favors are now being used by a University of Houston researcher to identify emerging biothreats for the United States Navy. It’s ...

Next generation solar fuels: How a record-breaking copper catalyst converts CO₂ into liquid fuels

Researchers have made real-time movies of copper nanoparticles as they evolve to convert carbon dioxide and water into renewable fuels and chemicals

21-Feb-2023 - Since the 1970s, scientists have known that copper has a special ability to transform carbon dioxide into valuable chemicals and fuels. But for many years, scientists have struggled to understand how this common metal works as an electrocatalyst, a mechanism that uses energy from electrons to ...

Even low concentrations of silver can foil wastewater treatment

17-May-2018 - Research at Oregon State University has shed new light how an increasingly common consumer product component - silver nanoparticles - can potentially interfere with the treatment of wastewater. The findings suggest conventional toxicity testing methods for silver concentrations at treatment ...

Atomic blasting creates new devices to measure nanoparticles

18-Dec-2017 - Like sandblasting at the nanometer scale, focused beams of ions ablate hard materials to form intricate three-dimensional patterns. The beams can create tiny features in the lateral dimensions--length and width, but to create the next generation of nanometer-scale devices, the energetic ions must ...

Gold shines through properties of nano biosensors

Fluorescence in ligand-protected gold nanoclusters is an intrinsic property of the gold particles themselves

17-Aug-2017 - With their remarkable electrical and optical properties, along with biocompatibility, photostability and chemical stability, gold nanoclusters are gaining a foothold in a number of research areas, particularly in biosensing and biolabeling. These gold nanoclusters are chemically protected by ...

Strange forces acting on nanoparticles discovered

12-Apr-2017 - A new scientific paper published, in part, by a University of New Mexico physicist is shedding light on a strange force impacting particles at the smallest level of the material world. The discovery was made by an international team of researchers lead by UNM Assistant Professor Alejandro ...

Small nanoparticles have surprisingly big effects on polymer nanocomposites

10-Mar-2017 - Polymer nanocomposites mix particles billionths of a meter (nanometers, nm) in diameter with polymers, which are long molecular chains. Often used to make injection-molded products, they are common in automobiles, fire retardants, packaging materials, drug-delivery systems, medical devices, ...

Method improves accuracy of imaging systems

09-Feb-2017 - New research provides scientists looking at single molecules or into deep space a more accurate way to analyze imaging data captured by microscopes, telescopes and other devices. The improved method for determining the position of objects captured by imaging systems is the result of new research ...

Nanobionic spinach plants can detect explosives

After sensing dangerous chemicals, the carbon-nanotube-enhanced plants send an alert.

01-Nov-2016 - Spinach is no longer just a superfood: By embedding leaves with carbon nanotubes, MIT engineers have transformed spinach plants into sensors that can detect explosives and wirelessly relay that information to a handheld device similar to a smartphone. This is one of the first demonstrations of ...

Silver nanoparticle concentration too low to be harmful in water supply

17-Oct-2016 - Silver nanoparticles have a wide array of uses, one of which is to treat drinking water for harmful bacteria and viruses. But do silver nanoparticles also kill off potentially beneficial bacteria or cause other harmful effects to water-based ecosystems? A new paper from a team of University of ...