(Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation)
Nanoporous membranes with holes smaller than one-billionth of a meter have powerful potential for decontaminating polluted water or for osmotic power generators. But these applications have been limited in part by the tedious process of tunneling individual sub-nanometer pores one by one. Now, researchers from the University of Chicago have found a novel path around this long-standing problem. They created a new method of pore generation that builds materials with intentional weak spots and then applies a remote electric field to generate multiple nanoscale pores all at once.

(Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Department Defense)
For the first time ever, researchers have witnessed – in real time and at the molecular-scale – hydrogen and oxygen atoms merge to form tiny, nano-sized bubbles of water. The event occurred as part of a new Northwestern University study, during which scientists sought to understand how palladium, a rare metallic element, catalyzes the gaseous reaction to generate water. “Think of Matt Damon’s character, Mark Watney, in the movie ‘The Martian’,” said Northwestern’s Vinayak Dravid, senior author of the study. “He burned rocket fuel to extract hydrogen and then added oxygen from his oxygenator. Our process is analogous, except we bypass the need for fire and other extreme conditions. We simply mixed palladium and gases together.” Dravid is the founding director of the Northwestern University Atomic and Nanoscale Characterization Experimental (NUANCE) Center, where the study was conducted.

(Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy)
Cellulose nanocrystals derived from renewable resources have shown great potential for use in composites, biomedical materials, and packaging. But a major challenge in the production of cellulose nanocrystals is the energy-intensive drying process. To address this issue, a team of researchers from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Purdue University, and North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University has introduced a novel multi-frequency ultrasonic drying technology. This method not only accelerates the drying process but also reduces energy consumption, compared to traditional drying techniques.

(Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy)
Supplies of nickel and cobalt, which are commonly used in the cathodes of lithium-ion batteries, are limited. Now, new research led by researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory opens up a potential low-cost, safe alternative in manganese, the fifth most abundant metal in the Earth’s crust. The researchers showed that manganese can be effectively used in emerging cathode materials called disordered rock salts. They used state-of-the-art electron microscopes to capture atomic-scale pictures of the manganese-based material in action and found that it formed a nanoscale semi-ordered structure that enhanced the battery performance.

(Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation)
Researchers from New York University have begun to explore exosomes, tiny membrane-bound vesicles, as promising tools for wound healing. These nanovesicles carry various biological materials – nucleic acids, proteins, and lipids – allowing them to mediate intercellular communication and influence processes such as tissue repair. By combining them with hydrogels, which are composed of networks of cross-linked polymers, the researchers showed that hydrogel-exosome combinations consistently lead to faster wound closure than either hydrogels or exosomes used alone.