(Press-News.org) AMES, Iowa - Researchers have developed new types of materials that combines two or three types of nanoparticles into structures that display fundamental new properties such as superfluorescence.
"The whole goal of this research is to make new materials with new properties and/or exotic new structures," said Alex Travesset, an Iowa State University professor of physics and astronomy and an associate scientist for the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory. "Those materials are made of very tiny materials, nanoparticles, and lead to properties not shared by more traditional materials made of atoms and molecules."
In this case, an international research team is combining perovskite nanocubes - tiny crystals with useful electrical or optical properties - with spherical nanoparticles to form a regular, repeating structure called a superlattice. The researchers successfully assembled three different superlattices, with one displaying superfluorescence, while another did not.
"This is an example of how structure determines function," Travesset said.
The researchers reported their discovery in a paper just published by the journal Nature that also made the issue's cover.
Maksym Kovalenko, a professor of chemistry and applied biosciences at ETH Zürich, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, is the leader of the project and the paper's corresponding author. Ihor Cherniukh, a doctoral student at ETH Zürich, is the first author.
This is the first time such nanoparticles have been combined, the researchers reported in the paper.
Travesset, whose campus website identifies him as a professor of "All things nanoparticles," said he provided the group with theoretical and computational guidance that established what structures would be possible and also made quantitative predictions.
It turned out the predictions were in agreement with the experimental results.
Travesset said the project demonstrates it's "the structure that determines the optoelectronic properties. These are properties that depend on the actual structures - on how the particles are arranged."
A four-year, $385,000 grant from the National Science Foundation supported Travesset's work on the project.
Researchers at ETH Zürich assembled the nanoparticles and researchers at IBM Research Europe measured the nanoparticles' superfluorescent properties.
Although the goal for this project was to advance fundamental science, Travesset said the basic discovery will lead to some practical uses such as ultrabright, quantum light sources.
Perovskite materials are very efficient at turning sunlight into electricity, and so they're being studied for use in solar cells. Now, with the assembly techniques discovered in this project, Travesset said different nanoparticles could be combined to produce novel materials with simultaneous complementary properties.
"We can now take the amazing properties of perovskites," Travesset said, "and combine them with nanoparticles with complementary properties and design materials that perform several functions at the same time."
INFORMATION:
Read the paper
"Perovskite-type superlattices from lead-halide perovskite nanocubes," Nature, May, 28, 2021
The Research Team
Iowa State University, Ames Laboratory: Alejandro Travesset
ETH Zürich, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology: Maksym Kovalenko, Ihor Cherniukh, Gabriele Rainò, Maryna Bodnarchuk
IBM Research Europe, Zürich: Thilo Stöferle, Rainer Mahrt
Paul Scherrer Institute, Switzerland: Max Burian
Graz University of Technology, Austria: Denys Naumenko, Heinz Amenitsch
Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research: Rolf Erni
Metal-organic framework compounds (MOFs) consist of inorganic and organic groups and are characterised by a large number of pores into which other molecules can be incorporated. MOFs are therefore interesting for many applications, for example for the storage of gases, but also for substance separation, sensor technology or catalysis. Some of these MOF structures react to different guest molecules by changing their structures. They are thus considered switchable.
One of these is "DUT-8", a material that has now been studied at the MX beamlines of BESSY II. "MOF crystals can be analysed very well at the MX beamlines," says HZB expert Dr. Manfred Weiss, who heads the MX team. ...
A breast cancer therapy that requires just one shot of radiotherapy is as effective as traditional radiotherapy, and avoids potential damage to nearby organs, according to a paper by UCL experts.
The results, published in the British Journal of Cancer, mean that eight out of ten patients who receive the treatment, TARGIT-IORT, will not need a long course of post-operative external beam radiotherapy (EBRT). These results strengthen and expand previously published outcomes.
Patients who received the treatment are less likely to go on to experience fatal cardiovascular disease such as heart attacks, lung problems or other cancers. As well as avoiding scattered radiation from EBRT that can damage nearby vital organs, delivering TARGIT-IORT during the lumpectomy procedure seems to ...
Much of human invention and innovation has been the result of our discovery and replication of natural phenomena, from birds serving to inspire human flight, to whales allowing us to dive deep into the ocean with submarines. For the first time ever, researchers have captured at the nanometer level the gliding machinery of the bacterium Mycoplasma mobile. Their findings were published in mBio. This brings us closer to understanding the origin and operating principle of motility, which could serve as a basis for the next generation of nanoscale devices and pharmaceuticals.
"My lab has been studying the molecular nature of bacteria from the Mycoplasma genus for years", ...
(Bethesda, MD - May 25, 2021) A new study published in Nature Scientific Reports has found that Methylene Blue, a century old medicine, has the potential to be a highly effective, broad-spectrum UV irradiation protector that absorbs UVA and UVB, repairs ROS and UV irradiation induced DNA damages, and is safe for coral reefs. The study suggests that Methylene Blue could become an alternative sunscreen ingredient that supports the environment and protects human skin health.80% of today's sunscreens use Oxybenzone as a chemical UV blocker, despite multiple studies that have shown it expedites the destruction of coral reefs. Several states and countries have now banned the use of Oxybenzone and its derivatives to stop the devastating ...
Viruses are perfect molecular machines. Their only goal is to insert their genetic material into healthy cells and thus multiply. With deadly precision, they thereby can cause diseases that cost millions of lives and keep the world on edge. One example for such a virus, although currently less discussed, is HIV that causes the ongoing global AIDS-epidemic. Despite the progress made in recent years, 690 000 people died in 2019 alone as a result of the virus infection. "If you want to know the enemy, you have to know all its friends," says Martin Obr, postdoc at the Schur group at IST Austria. Together with his colleagues, he therefore studies a virus belonging to the same ...
A new study exploits the characteristic epigenetic signatures of childhood tumors to detect, classify and monitor the disease. The scientists analyzed short fragments of tumor DNA that are circulating in the blood. These "liquid biopsy" analyses exploit the unique epigenetic landscape of bone tumors and do not depend on any genetic alterations, which are rare in childhood cancers. This approach promises to improve personalized diagnostics and, possibly, future therapies of childhood tumors such as Ewing sarcoma. The study has been published in Nature Communications.
A study led by scientists from St. Anna Children's Cancer Research Institute (St. Anna CCRI) in collaboration with CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences provides an innovative ...
The technology using DNA-based genealogy that solved a double murder in Linköping opens completely new possibilities in investigating serious crime. LiU researchers are now involved in spreading new knowledge about the technology, which brings hope to police forces and has aroused major international interest.
"We want to tell others about the problems that we faced when working with this pilot case, and how we dealt with them. We can prevent others reinventing the wheel, and make sure that the knowledge available is extended and improved", says Andreas Tillmar.
He is forensic geneticist at the National Board of Forensic Medicine, and adjunct senior lecturer ...
People living in deprived, less affluent neighborhoods spent less time indoors at home during lockdown, according to a study that tracked data from millions of mobile phone users across the United States.
The study, published in the journal Annals of the American Association of Geographers, adds to growing evidence that low earners are less likely to comply with stay-at-home orders, either because they simply can't afford to, or because they work in professions in which working from home is not possible.
The finding is concerning given the fact that vulnerable groups are already at greater risk from COVID.
In March 2020, the US like many countries in the world entered a state of lockdown, with its citizens advised to stay at home to curb the spread of Coronavirus. Non-essential ...
Plastic pollution has been found in seawater, on beaches and inside marine animals at the Galapagos Islands.
A new study - by the University of Exeter, Galapagos Conservation Trust (GCT) and the Galapagos Science Center - found plastic in all marine habitats at the island of San Cristobal, where Charles Darwin first landed in Galapagos.
At the worst "hotspots" - including a beach used by the rare "Godzilla" marine iguana - more than 400 plastic particles were found per square metre of beach.
Plastic was also found inside more than half of the marine invertebrates (such as barnacles and urchins) studied, and on the seabed.
The findings suggest most plastic pollution in Galapagos - a world-famous biodiversity haven - arrives on ocean currents.
The study also ...
Researchers from Tulane University and University of Maryland published a new paper in the Journal of Marketing that examines the dynamic interplay between free and paid versions of an app over its lifetime and suggests a possible remedy for the failure of apps.
The study, forthcoming in the Journal of Marketing, is titled "Managing the Versioning Decision over an App's Lifetime" and is authored by Seoungwoo Lee, Jie Zhang, and Michel Wedel.
Is it really over for paid mobile apps? The mobile app industry is unique because free apps are much more prevalent than paid apps in most app categories, contrary to many other product markets where free products primarily play a supportive role to the paid products. Apps have been trending toward the free version in the past decade, such ...
