(Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy)
Researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Rice University; and Penn State University have revealed an adaptive response with a ferroelectric device, which responds to light pulses in a way that resembles the plasticity of neural networks. This behavior could find application in energy-efficient microelectronics. The material is laden with networked islands or domains that are nanometers in size and can rearrange themselves in response to light pulses.

(Funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture)
Scientists from the University of Massachusetts Amherst; The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven, CT; the University of Bern in Switzerland; the University of Auckland in New Zealand; Guangdong University of Technology in China; Central South University of Forestry and Technology in Changsha, China; the Chinese Academy of Forestry in Hangzhou, China; and Beijing Forestry University in China have shown that nutrients on the nanometer scale can not only blunt some of the worst effects of heavy metal and metalloid contamination, but increase crop yields and nutrient content. The scientists found that nanomaterials are more effective than conventional fertilizers at mitigating the harmful effects of polluted soil (by 38.3%), can enhance crop yields (by 22.8%) and the nutritional value of those crops (by 30%), as well as combat plant stress (by 21.6%) due to metal and metalloid pollution.

(Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Department of Defense)
Researchers from North Carolina State University and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have developed and demonstrated a technique that allows them to engineer a class of materials called layered hybrid perovskites down to the atomic level, which dictates precisely how the materials convert electrical charge into light. Layered hybrid perovskites can be laid down as thin films consisting of multiple sheets of perovskite and organic spacer layers. These materials are desirable because they can efficiently convert electrical charge into light. The researchers discovered that individual sheets of the perovskite material, called nanoplatelets, form on the surface of the solution that is used to create the layered hybrid perovskites, and these nanoplatelets serve as templates for layered materials that form under them.

(Funded by the National Institutes of Health)
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen–Nuremberg in Germany have developed novel magnetic nanodiscs that could provide a less invasive way of stimulating parts of the brain, paving the way for stimulation therapies without implants or genetic modification. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a common clinical procedure that uses electrodes implanted in the target brain regions to treat symptoms of neurological and psychiatric conditions. Despite its efficacy, the surgical difficulty and clinical complications associated with DBS limit the number of cases where such an invasive procedure is warranted. The new nanodiscs could provide a more benign way of achieving the same results.

(Funded by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the National Institutes of Health)
Using peptides and a snippet of the large molecules in plastics, scientists at Northwestern University have developed materials made of tiny, flexible nano-sized ribbons that can be charged just like a battery to store energy or record digital information. Highly energy efficient, biocompatible and made from sustainable materials, the systems could give rise to new types of ultralight electronic devices while reducing the environmental impact of electronic manufacturing and disposal. “This is a wholly new concept in materials science and soft materials research,” said Samuel I. Stupp, the scientist who led the study. “We imagine a future where you could wear a shirt with air conditioning built into it or rely on soft bioactive implants that feel like tissues and are activated wirelessly to improve heart or brain function.”