(Funded by the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of Energy)
Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Berkeley National Laboratory; the University of California, Berkeley; and Adamas Nanotechnologies Inc. in Raleigh, NC, have encased nanodiamonds – diamonds that are less than 100 nanometers in size – in tiny moving droplets of water to improve quantum sensing, a technology that uses quantum mechanics to measure physical quantities with high precision. As the droplets flowed past a laser and were hit by microwaves, the nanodiamonds gave off light. The amount of light in the presence of a microwave field was related to the materials around the nanodiamond, letting scientists determine whether a chemical of interest was nearby.

(Funded by the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. National Science Foundation)
Researchers from Cornell University and the Army Research Laboratory have devised a new method for designing metals and alloys that can withstand extreme impacts. When a metallic material is struck at an extremely high speed, it immediately ruptures and fails. The reason for that failure is embrittlement – the material loses its ability to bend without breaking – when deformed rapidly. The researchers created a nanocrystalline alloy made of copper and tantalum in which dislocations could barely move more than a few nanometers before they were stopped in their tracks, effectively suppressing embrittlement. Dislocations are tiny defects that move through a crystal. During rapid, extreme strains, the dislocations accelerate and interact with lattice vibrations, which create substantial resistance that leads to embrittlement.

(Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. National Science Foundation)
Researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Purdue University, and the University of Illinois Urbana−Champaign have used a nanoscale quantum sensor to measure spin fluctuations near a phase transition in a magnetic thin film. Thin films with magnetic properties at room temperature are essential for data storage, sensors and electronic devices because their magnetic properties can be precisely controlled and manipulated. The researchers used a specialized instrument called a scanning nitrogen-vacancy center microscope at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, a DOE Office of Science user facility at ORNL. A nitrogen-vacancy center is an atomic-scale defect in diamond in which a nitrogen atom takes the place of a carbon atom, and a neighboring carbon atom is missing, creating a special configuration of quantum spin states.

(Funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation)
Scientists have blended electron microscopy with artificial intelligence (AI) so they can observe the movements of atoms in nanoparticles at an unprecedented time resolution. Because the atoms are usually barely visible in electron microscope images, scientists cannot be sure how they are behaving. So, the scientists in this study trained a deep neural network, AI’s computational engine, that can “light up” the electron-microscope images, revealing the underlying atoms and their dynamic behaviors. “We have developed an artificial-intelligence method that opens a new window for the exploration of atomic-level structural dynamics in materials,” says Carlos Fernandez-Granda, one of the scientists involved in this study.

(Funded by the National Institutes of Health)
Researchers from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have developed organic-material-based nanozymes – synthetic nanomaterials that have enzyme-like catalytic properties – that are non-toxic, environmentally friendly, and cost effective. To create these nanozymes, the researchers used a novel particle synthesis technique that brought each nanozyme’s size down to less than 100 nanometers. In one study, the researchers showed that these nanozymes, combined with a colorimetric sensing platform, could detect the presence of histamine in spinach and eggplant. In another study, the nanozymes were used to detect the presence of glyphosate, a common agricultural herbicide, in plants. “We were able to show that our system doesn’t just work in the lab, it has the potential to be utilized for real-world applications as a cost-effective molecule sensing system for food and agriculture,” said Dong Hoon Lee, lead author of the study.