Active Materials

GE Global Research, the centralized research organization of the General Electric Company, announced that scientists on their Nano Photovoltaics (PV) team have demonstrated a scalable silicon nanowire-based solar cell, which has the potential to achieve up to 18% efficiency and be produced at a dramatically lower cost than conventional solar cells. This demonstration represents a promising development in the effort to make PV systems more economically viable for consumers. More here

Scientists at George Mason University’s Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine have invented an innovative nanotechnology tool that may lead to a dramatic improvement in treatment results for patients diagnosed with cancer or other diseases. The novel diagnostic tool is uniquely suited for the discovery of new protein biomarkers in the blood that provide sensitive and specific disease detection at the earliest stage when treatment is most effective. More here

Researchers have turned a stubborn alloy into a shape-shifting foam by just giving it a little breathing room. David Dunand, James N. and Margie M. Krebs Professor of Materials Science and Engineering in Northwestern University’s McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science, has teamed up with Boise State University professor Peter Müllner and McCormick postdoctoral fellow Vee Boonyongmaneerat to create a foam from a nickel-manganese-gallium alloy (Ni-Mn-Ga) that changes shape when exposed to a magnetic field. The new foam could translate to smaller, lighter pumps and more aerodynamic airplane wings. More here

A Piezoelectric injector, common-rail direct fuel injection system allows
the engine to use of a lower static compression ratio. More here and here

Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructures are generating significant interest due to unique characteristics that make them good candidates for UV optoelectronic applications such as biosensors and resonators. These properties are due to the wide bandgap of ZnO (3.37eV at room temperature) and to its large exciton energy (60meV), which makes it possible to employ excitonic recombination as a UV-lasing mechanism. ZnO is also a piezoelectric and biosafe material that has probably spawned the richest family of nanostructures to date. Moreover, the ferromagnetic properties of ZnO doped with rare earth metals are also of interest for the design of novel devices that store information as a particular spin orientation (spintronics). Read the rest of the article here

As Australian Treasurer seeks to make savings of more than $10 billion, it has been decided that one of the casualties will be the four-year, $21.5 million National Nanotechnology Strategy. It is to be cut short by two years, saving Treasury almost $12 million.  More here

This is a story of two nanos.

Over the course of the last 12 months, the LexisNexis database of newspaper articles records 239 stories referring to nanotechnology in the British press. In the same period there have been 239 stories referring to “iPod” and “nano”.

On the one hand, there is considerable concern represented in the newspapers about the possibilities of nanotechnology. At the same time it has become a manufacturers’ shorthand for things that are really, really small. More here