(Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. National Science Foundation)
University of Missouri scientists are unlocking the secrets of halide perovskites – a material that might bring us closer to energy-efficient optoelectronics. The scientists are studying the material at the nanoscale. At this level, the material is astonishingly efficient at converting sunlight into energy. To optimize the material for electronic applications, the scientists used a method called ice lithography, known for its ability to fabricate materials at the nanometer scale. This ultra-cool method allowed the team to create distinct properties for the material using an electron beam.

(Funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Defense, and the National Institutes of Health)
Researchers from Northwestern University, Duke University, and Cornell University have developed the first two-dimensional mechanically interlocked material. Looking like the interlocking links in chainmail, the nanoscale material exhibits exceptional flexibility and strength. With further work, this material holds promise for use in high-performance, light-weight body armor and other uses that demand lightweight, flexible, and tough materials. “We made a completely new polymer structure,” said William Dichtel, the study’s corresponding author. “It’s similar to chainmail in that it cannot easily rip because each of the mechanical bonds has a bit of freedom to slide around. If you pull it, it can dissipate the applied force in multiple directions. And if you want to rip it apart, you would have to break it in many, many different places.”

(Funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation)
Researchers from Case Western Reserve University, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Adamas Nanotechnologies (Raleigh, NC), the University of Luxembourg in Luxemburg, Umeå University in Sweden, and Aix Marseille University in France have found that boron-doped diamonds exhibit plasmons – waves of electrons that move when light hits them – allowing electric fields to be controlled and enhanced on a nanometer scale. Previously, boron-doped diamonds were known to conduct electricity and become superconductors, but not to have plasmonic properties. Plasmonic materials, which affect light at the nanoscale, have captivated humans for centuries. For example, the vibrant colors in medieval stained-glass windows result from metal nanoparticles embedded in the glass, and when light passes through, these nanoparticles generate plasmons that produce specific colors.

(Funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the U.S. National Science Foundation)
Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Purdue University, Stanford University, Rice University, and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory have described how a type of quasiparticle, called a polaron, behaves in tellurene, a nanomaterial made up of tiny chains of tellurium atoms. A polaron forms when charge-carrying particles such as electrons interact with vibrations in the atomic or molecular lattice of a material. The researchers had hypothesized that as tellurene transitions from bulk to nanometer thickness, polarons change from large, spread-out electron-vibration interactions to smaller, localized interactions. Computations and experimental measurements backed up this scenario.

(Funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health)
Researchers from Georgia Tech and the University of California Riverside have developed biosensors made of iron oxide nanoparticles and special molecules called cyclic peptides that recognize tumor cells better than current biosensors. The cyclic peptides respond only when they encounter two specific types of enzymes – one secreted by the immune system, the other by cancer cells. In animal studies, the biosensors distinguished between tumors that responded to a common cancer treatment that enhances the immune system from tumors that resisted treatment.