Latest Nature Materials Stories
Plastic electronics hold the promise of cheap, mass-produced devices. But plastic semiconductors have an important flaw: the electronic current is influenced by "charge traps" in the material. These traps, which have a negative impact on plastic light-emitting diodes and solar cells, are poorly understood. However, a new study by a team of researchers from the University of Groningen and the Georgia Institute of Technology reveals a common mechanism underlying these traps and provides a...
Cancers are notorious for secreting chemicals that confuse the immune system and thwarting biological defenses. To counter that effect, some cancer treatments try to neutralize the cancer's chemical arsenal and boost a patient's immune response--though attempts to do both at the same time are rarely successful. Now, researchers have developed a novel system to simultaneously deliver a sustained dose of both an immune-system booster and a chemical to counter the cancer's secretions,...
Successful imaging of individual atoms and associated electric fields in ferroelectrics could lead the way to a new era of advanced electronics As scientists learn to manipulate little-understood nanoscale materials, they are laying the foundation for a future of more compact, efficient, and innovative devices. In research to be published online July 8 in the journal Nature Materials, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National...
The news a cancer patient most fears is that the disease has spread and become much more difficult to treat. A new method to isolate and grow the most dangerous cancer cells could enable new research into how cancer spreads and, ultimately, how to fight it. University of Illinois researchers, in collaboration with scientists at the Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China, published their results in the journal Nature Materials. “This may open the door for understanding...
Researchers are hopeful that new advances in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine could one day make a replacement liver from a patient's own cells, or animal muscle tissue that could be cut into steaks without ever being inside a cow. Bioengineers can already make 2D structures out of many kinds of tissue, but one of the major roadblocks to making the jump to 3D is keeping the cells within large structures from suffocating; organs have complicated 3D blood vessel networks that are...
A novel porous material that has unique carbon dioxide retention properties has been developed through research led by The University of Nottingham. The findings, published in the prestigious peer-reviewed journal Nature Materials, form part of ongoing efforts to develop new materials for gas storage applications and could have an impact in the advancement of new carbon capture products for reducing emissions from fossil fuel processes. It focuses on the metal organic framework...
A novel porous material that has unique carbon dioxide retention properties has been developed through research led by The University of Nottingham. The findings, published in the prestigious peer-reviewed journal Nature Materials, form part of ongoing efforts to develop new materials for gas storage applications and could have an impact in the advancement of new carbon capture products for reducing emissions from fossil fuel processes. It focuses on the metal organic framework...
Scientists have developed an ultra-sensitive test that should enable them to detect signs of a disease in its earliest stages Scientists have developed an ultra-sensitive test that should enable them to detect signs of a disease in its earliest stages, in research published today in the journal Nature Materials. The scientists, from Imperial College London and the University of Vigo, have created a test to detect particular molecules that indicate the presence of disease, even when...
Model vets millions of structures to find ones that will improve efficiency of current technology When power plants begin capturing their carbon emissions to reduce greenhouse gases – and to most in the electric power industry, it's a question of when, not if – it will be an expensive undertaking. Current technologies would use about one-third of the energy generated by the plants – what's called "parasitic energy" – and, as a result, substantially drive up the price of...
By employing powerful X-rays that can see down to the molecular level of organic materials used in printable electronics, researchers are now able to determine why some materials perform better than others. Their findings, published in the journal Nature Materials, could lead to cheaper, more efficient printable electronic devices. "This work is exciting because it helps reveal in new detail how we can achieve high performance transistors and solar cells with polymers," said UC Santa...
