Latest Quantum dot Stories
A clever new microscope design allows nanotechnology researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to track the motions of nanoparticles in solution as they dart around in three dimensions. The researchers hope the technology, which NIST plans to patent, will lead to a better understanding of the dynamics of nanoparticles in fluids and, ultimately, process control techniques to optimize the assembly of nanotech devices.While some nanoscale fabrication techniques...
Many researchers and start-up companies are relying on new designs that exploit nanostructures (materials produced on a scale of a billionth of a meter) in a race to make solar cells cheaper and more efficient. Using nanotechnology, researchers can test and control how a material generates, captures, transports, and stores free electrons.There are two unique and hopefully promising methods using nanotechnology for engineering solar cell materials. One uses thin films of metal oxide...
By Jain, Kewal K Background: Nanobiotechnologies are being applied to molecular diagnostics and several technologies are in development. Methods: This review describes nanobiotechnologies that are already incorporated in molecular diagnostics or have potential applications in clinical diagnosis. Selected promising technologies from published literature as well as some technologies that are in commercial development but have not been reported are included. Results: Nanotechnologies enable...
By Dhara, S Ion beam irradiation is a potential tool for phase formation and material modification as a non-equilibrium technique. Localized rise in temperature and ultra fast (~10^sup -12^ s) dissipations of impinging energy make it an attractive tool for metastable phase formation. As a matter of fact, a major component of materials science is dominated by ion beam methods, either for synthesis of materials or for its characterization. The synthesis of nanostructures, and their...
Researchers at the EPFL (Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne) have developed a new machine that can reveal how electrons behave inside a single nano-object. The results from initial tests on pyramidal gallium-arsenide quantum dots are presented in an article in the November 24 issue of Nature. Hiding in the lab behind a dramatic black curtain, the hardware setup is not particularly imposing. It doesn't look expensive. Nonetheless, this machine in EPFL's Laboratory of quantum...
Researchers have taken an important step toward high-volume production of new nanometer-scale structures with the first systematic study of growth conditions that affect production of one-dimensional nanostructures from the optoelectronic material cadmium selenide (CdSe). Using the results from more than 150 different experiments in which temperature and pressure conditions were systematically varied, nanotechnology researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology created a "road...
HOUSTON, Oct. 4, 2005 -- Using a method for assessing the premiums that companies pay for insurance, a team of scientists and insurance experts have concluded that the manufacturing processes for five, near-market nanomaterials -- including quantum dots, carbon nanotubes and buckyballs -- present fewer risks to the environment than some common industrial processes like oil refining. For two of the nanomaterials "“ nanotubes and alumoxane nanoparticles -- manufacturing risks were comparable...
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania may not have turned lead into gold as alchemists once sought to do, but they did turn lead and selenium nanocrystals into solids with remarkable physical properties. In the October 5 edition of Physical Review Letters, online now, physicists Hugo E. Romero and Marija Drndic describe how they developed am artificial solid that can be transformed from an insulator to a semiconductor. The Penn physicists are among many modern researchers who have...
In an important advance toward the large-scale manufacture of fluorescent quantum dots, scientists at Rice University have developed a new method of replacing the pricey solvents used in quantum dot synthesis with cheaper oils that are commonplace at industrial chemical plants.Rice's study, which was conducted under the auspices of the Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology (CBEN), is published online and slated to appear in the October issue of the journal...
HOUSTON, Aug. 1, 2005 "“ Researchers from Rice University's Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology (CBEN) have developed a "smart" beacon hundreds of times smaller than a human cell that is programmed to light up only when activated by specific proteases. Altered expression of particular proteases is a common hallmark of cancer, atherosclerosis, and many other diseases. In the September issue of the journal Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, lead...
