Protein-enhanced polymer ties titanium implants to bone
Titanium is a common joint replacement material, but it must be attached to bone with difficult-to-use ceramics. In place of ceramics scientists are now experimenting with a fibrous polymer enhanced with synthetic fibronectin, an important binding protein. Recent results show a 70% improvement in bone growth around implants.
High-cost chemicals gleaned (greenly) from biofuel waste
A pound of previously useless glycerin is produced for every 10 pounds of biofuel. Rice Univ. scientists have refined methods they say will use common enteric bacteria to convert this into valuable organic acids like formate and succinate. A company to commercialize the technology will begin operations in a year.
Microchip “radiator” delivers five-fold cooling advantage
Liquid coolants, particularly dielectrics like hydrofluorocarbons, have been stymied by poor and inconsistent performance. The addition of microjets and a water-to-vapor dynamic to an on-chip microchannel system yields a 1,000 W/cm2 capacity.
Gold, light and DNA give “core satellites” sensing potential
A complicated self-assembly of gold nanoparticles and DNA is able to contract or expand when contacting certain DNA molecules. The light absorbed or scattered by the nanostructures as their shape changes allows scientists to use these new nano-satellites as biological sensors.
3-D nanostructures for MEMS now have magnetic personality
Damascene metallization, the art of designing with metal-in-metal inlays, is often adapted in the nanoscale to form high-aspect ratio 3-D structures suitable for MEMS use. NIST scientists have now created ferromagnetic structures in combination with non-magnetic materials without the void problems common to the method.
Boiling efficiency takes a 30-fold leap
Water limits boiling efficiency by flooding flat surfaces during bubble nucleation. But adding a layer of copper nanorods to the phase change interface, RPI researchers have found, greatly multiplies the number of bubble nucleation sites. This has led them to a microchip cooling method.
Organic self-assembly of platinum turns metallurgy on its ear
Cornell Univ. materials specialists have formed precise, porous metal nanostructures using a complicated process involving co-polymers and organic ligands. It’s a first for materials science and immediate applications include microchip plasmonics and fuel cells catalysts.
Lab gets first snapshot of water in a nanotube
We know water readily flows in carbon nanotubes, and already speculation is growing around nanotube-enabled desalination and filtration. But until recent nuclear magnetic resonance imaging at Lawrence Livermore National Lab, we didn’t have a clear picture of how water travels.
Water molecules are behind diamond’s slippery reputation
A Univ. of Pennsylvania-led research team used photoelectron emission microscopy to discover that the dissociative adsorption of water aided the passivation of atomic bonds at the surface of diamond. The finding refutes the notion that diamond turns into its more stable form, graphite, when bonds are broken during a sliding event.
Physicists perform “impossible” superconductor feat Canadian scientists, using a copper oxide in an ultra-high vacuum, deposited potassium atoms to a surface, leaving behind electrons. Exposed to light, the electrons on the surface absorbed and ejected light in a measurable way. This manipulation of electrons, never before done, will help development of high-temperature superconductors.
Gold nanoparticles found in nature In what could be the first observations of the nanoscale mobility of gold, Australian researchers have found in salty, acidic soil gold particles and plates which are normally invisible to electron beams. They were identical to those used in laboratories.
Why glass can never be a solid Glass solidifies as it cools, but new research—using colloids to mimic atoms so as to observe them using microscopy—suggests glasses never actually crystallize. This opens the door to building new strong and highly flexible metallic glasses for use in aviation.
Tiny coolers beat the heat on the go Miniature microchip refrigeration systems now under development may soon be small enough to fit inside laptop computers. New sensor technology is allowing researchers to finally identify how refrigerants boil and vaporize inside the microchannels of these systems.
Structural Health Monitoring—An Opportunity for MicroNano? No, not our health! We are fine, thank you. We want to discuss the health monitoring of bridges, high rise buildings, dikes, etc. As one of the writers of this column is Dutch, we thought it fitting to start this article with an example from below sea level: there is a voluntary organization the Dutch call Dijkwacht (dike guard) which has existed for more than 700 years now.
Carbon nanotubes interfere with protozoan function A new study suggests nano-carbon structures could interfere with the feeding function of Tetrahymena thermophila, a common waterborne micro-organism often used for treating wastewater. While death and immobility raised warning flags, the carbon nanotubes had other interesting effects.
Sabotaged carbon nanotubes lead to better catalysts Santa Fe Institute engineers, working from the theory that some materials attract chemical attachments better when they feature defects, have built a “roughed-up” carbon nanotube thin film solar cell that nearly matches platinum. Advantages? Transparency for starters.
Advanced materials help scrub polluted river sediment As much as a fifth of the upper-layer sediment is U.S. fresh-waterways has been claimed to be contaminated, which has spurred Univ. of New Hampshire scientists to design geotextile mats to cap and stabilize pollutants as they sit.
The ultimate sleep mode: new chip uses 30 picowatts A new low-power sensor chip achieves a 10-fold power reduction in active mode and a 30,000-fold reduction in sleep mode in part because it uses narrow power gates which cut down on energy leaks. Low-power, not performance, is seen as the key for robust, battery-powered sensor networks.
Chomping microbes make bid for “Oil 2.0” Silicon Valley’s LS9 has gotten plenty of attention for its biofuel plans, from TIME to The Washington Post, and now it says it’s a month away from powering a vehicle with its product: a fuel created in nearly burnable form by engineered microbes. The carbon negative process, says LS9, will use agricultural waste as feedstock.
Microcontact printing moves e-paper into view Engineers at Japan’s leading industrial science institute have made an organic, five-layer patterned thin-film transistor—the building block of active-matrix electronic paper—using a new flexible array. The innovation depends on applying ink to a pattern formed on a silicone rubber mold, then transferring that to the substrate.
Tactile feedback film wraps around finger like a band-aid Collaborators from Korea and the U.S. have demonstrated a flexible screen that communicates information through our one whole-body sense: touch. The device avoids the use of complex electronics by using electroactive polymers which expand under voltage.
Scientists discover nanoscale rapid transit for water Carbon nanotubes of a particular diameter cause water molecules to interact strongly via hydrogen bonds. These chains allow molecules to travel smoothly and quickly. Such a discovery indicates carbon nanotubes will be a useful starting point in next-generation seawater desalination membranes.
Nanodielectrics face their biggest test in space Transistors using silicon dioxide dielectrics are radiation resistant, but lack the flexibility needed for many space exploration applications. Self-dissembled thin film dielectrics designed by a team of Northwestern Univ. researchers have the desired transparency and mass printability. But can they handle space travel?
Permeable glass microspheres boast Ångstrom-scale pores In yesterday’s R&D Daily, we reported on glass’s ability to build calcium in vivo. DOE researchers, meanwhile, have invented a whole new class of materials called “porous wall-hollow glass microspheres.” Filled with drugs, hydrogen, or other gases, these microballoons are small enough to behave as a fluid.
Striped nanoparticles pass safely through cell walls A series of alternating nanoscales bands of molecules, attached the outside of gold nanoparticles, allows passage through the cell wall and into the cytosol, or main fluid section of the cell. Few other methods are able to accomplish this effectively without killing the cell.
Last Thursday, the R&D Daily made one of its occasional forays into the fast-paced world of semiconductor technology, specifically extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL). According to new measurements from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the photoresists designed for use with this hotly-anticipated new technology are twice as effective is previously thought.
The discrepancy was caused by an older measurement method. Unfortunately, it’s not great news for EUV developers because it strongly indicates existing optics are only half as effective as previously thought.
However, judging from a recent conversations with technical leaders at Cymer, a major U.S. maker of radiation sources for semiconductor lithography, the rolling ball that is EUVL won’t be stopped anytime soon.
Cymer is one of just a few companies at the forefront of a race to develop a viable EUV scanner to replace existing 193 nm argon-fluoride-based devices which now dominate the semiconductor industry. Like other companies, it pushing to design a powerful light source in the about 13 nm wavelength range. So far, it has achieved 25 W of continuous power and intends to break 100 W by year’s end. And, like other companies, it must deal with the intense heat generated by such light and design robust optics which are efficient enough to achieve conversion goals.
Only with adequate conversion efficiency will developers of EUVL be in a position to deliver the performance needed when the market wants it.
It remains to be seen whether EUVL is the new standard in 2012 (the target date for widespread adoption of new scanners). But R&D Magazine will be closely following the progress of this and other technologies aimed at the next-generation of microchips; the push to keep us on the path of that oft-cited economic law of Gordon Moore will continue to surprise us.
