News in NanoCarbon TeK

This week in PhysOrg the recent news in nanocarbon technology:

'Unzipped' carbon  nanotubes  could  help  energize  fuel  cells,  batteries

This drawing shows the damaged outer wall of a carbon nanotube with nanosized graphene pieces (white patches), which facilitate the formation of catalytic sites made of iron (yellow) and nitrogen (red) atoms. The catalyst reduces oxygen to water. Credit: Guosong Hong

Multi-walled carbon nanotubes riddled with defects and impurities on the outside could replace some of the expensive platinum catalysts used in fuel cells and metal-air batteries, according to scientists at Stanford University. Their findings are published in the May 27 online edition of the journal Nature Nanotechnology. (here)

Scientists  take  steps  toward  creating  artificial  graphene

(Phys.org) -- Researchers first observed graphene in 2004 by extracting the single-atom-thick sheets of carbon from bulk graphite. While graphene’s electrical and optical properties have proven to have extraordinary potential for many applications, creating atomically precise structures out of graphene remains challenging. In an effort to improve graphene’s usability, scientists have been searching for a way to fabricate artificial graphene, which could serve as a helpful structure where devices can be easily tested before their implementation with natural graphene. Now in a new study, scientists have identified all the main criteria required to make artificial graphene, which could provide a guide for experimentally realizing the material. (here)

Researchers  find  new  properties  of  the  carbon  material  graphene

Graphene has caused a lot of excitement among scientists since the extremely strong and thin carbon material was discovered in 2004. Just one atom thick, the honeycomb-shaped material has several remarkable properties combining mechanical toughness with superior electrical and thermal conductivity. (here)

News about the Graphene

Credit: ZeitNews

Two-dimensional  boron  has  potential  advantages  over  graphene

Theoretical physicist Boris Yakobson and his team at Rice University have taken an unusual approach to analyzing the possible configurations of two-dimensional sheets of boron, as reported this week in the American Chemical Society journal Nano Letters.

in PhysOrg

Graphene  boosts  efficiency  of  next-gen  solar  cells

The coolest new nanomaterial of the 21st century could boost the efficiency of the next generation of solar panels, a team of Michigan Technological University materials scientists has discovered.

in PhysOrg

New  material  shares  many  of  graphene's  unusual  properties

Graphene, a single-atom-thick layer of carbon, has spawned much research into its unique electronic, optical and mechanical properties. Now, researchers at MIT have found another compound that shares many of graphene’s unusual characteristics — and in some cases has interesting complementary properties to this much-heralded material.

in PhysOrg

New 10-year, billion-euro plan for graphene

GRAPHENE-CA, which started on 1 May 2011, will pave the way for the 10-year, EUR-1,000-million Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) Flagship Initiative 'Graphene-driven revolutions in ICT and beyond' (GRAPHENE). The action plan for the Flagship Initiative will be submitted to the European Commission in 2012, aiming for GRAPHENE to be launched as one of the two active Flagships in 2013.

in ZeitNews

Waterproof, Magnetic, Antibacterial Paper

Waterproof paper (photo courtesy of IIT)

Dr. Roberto Cingolani, Scientific Director at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) in Genoa (Italy) and his team have created a nanotechnological process that makes paper waterproof, magnetic, antibacterial without modifying any  basic properties of the paper.

The solution was a nanotech polymer. A nanoscale coating that can be changed depending on the result you want: Using iron oxide nanoparticles allows the paper to become magnetic, silver makes it antibacterial. The same polymer has also been proven to make paper waterproof, fluorescent, or self cleaning with the right ingredients.

Font: Forbes and Geek.

Graphene capsule reveals nanocrystal growth in action - physicsworld.com

Graphene capsule reveals nanocrystal growth in action - physicsworld.com

"The researchers filled the graphene capsules with a solution containing platinum nanocrystals and studied the capsule using an aberration-corrected form of TEM. Park explains that his group was able to see particle nucleation and growth on the very high-resolution angstrom-scale (0.1 nm). He says that his team also observed new and unexpected stages of nanocrystal growth as they happened, in particular how certain nanocrystals frequently coalesce along the same crystallographic direction, modify their shape and form facets on their surfaces."

in PhysicsWorld,com

Nanostructures could make high-efficiency solar cells easier to fabricate

Showing data from four different crescent-shaped nanostructures, this figure demonstrates the strong dependence of SP excitations on crescent shape. Most significantly, the study shows that nanostructures can have a continuous light absorption spectrum even when having blunt edges, greatly simplifying fabrication requirements. Image credit: Yu Luo, et al. ©2012 American Physical Society

(PhysOrg.com) -- One of the most promising methods for increasing the efficiency of solar cells consists of coating the cells’ surfaces with a thin layer of metal nanoparticles. The nanoparticles scatter incoming light in different directions, which allows the solar cells to absorb more light than they otherwise would. The scattering occurs when the incoming light stimulates the nanoparticles’ surface plasmons (SPs), which are coherent electron oscillations in the metal atoms that can reach a resonance mode when the electrons’ frequency matches the photons’ frequency. Under these conditions, the resulting “surface plasmon resonance” induces light scattering and enhances the light absorption of the surface.

in PhysOrg

A new method to measure nanoparticles

Precise measurement of the molecular weight, size and density of a nanoparticle in a single procedure is now possible, thanks to an ultracentrifugation method, dusted off by Swiss scientists at EPFL.

An innovative method for measuring nanoparticles

Precise measurement of the molecular weight, size and density of a nanoparticle in a single procedure is now possible, thanks to an ultracentrifugation method, dusted off by Swiss scientists at EPFL.

Read more here and here.

Carbon nanotube structure changes

Carbon nanotube structures changed by 'attack' from within, researchers discover
(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of researchers involving scientists from The University of Nottingham has shown for the first time that chemical reactions at the nano-level which change the structure of carbon nanotubes can be sparked by an 'attack' from within.

"The discovery challenges previous scientific thinking that the internal surface of the hollow nanostructures is chemically unreactive, largely restricting their use to that of an inert container or a ‘nano-reactor’ inside which other chemical reactions can take place.
Their research, published in the journal Nature Chemistry, shows that carbon nanotubes that have had their structures changed are exciting new materials that could be useful in the development of new technologies for gas storage devices, chemical sensors and parts of electronic devices such as transistors."

Read full article in PhysOrg.com