News from the NNI Community - Research Advances Funded by Agencies Participating in the NNI

Date Published
(Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Office, the Office of Naval Research and the National Science Foundation)

Researchers at Rice and Northwestern universities, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and Argonne National Laboratory have discovered that they can grow elongated hexagon-shaped flakes of borophene – the atom-thick allotrope of boron – by using a substrate made of silver. This discovery will help streamline the manufacture of borophene, which shows potential for use in wearable and transparent electronics, plasmonic sensor, and energy storage.

(Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Office, the Office of Naval Research and the National Science Foundation)

Researchers at Rice and Northwestern universities, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and Argonne National Laboratory have discovered that they can grow elongated hexagon-shaped flakes of borophene – the atom-thick allotrope of boron – by using a substrate made of silver. This discovery will help streamline the manufacture of borophene, which shows potential for use in wearable and transparent electronics, plasmonic sensor, and energy storage.

(Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation)

Researchers at MIT and collaborators have demonstrated that they can alter the magnetic properties of chromium trichloride – an ultra-thin material that features a honeycomb-shaped atomic structure — by shifting the stacking order of layers. The researchers peeled away two-dimensional (2-D) layers of chromium trichloride using and found that the magnetism is different in 2-D and 3-D crystals, due to different stacking arrangements between atoms in adjacent layers.

(Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation)

Researchers at MIT and collaborators have demonstrated that they can alter the magnetic properties of chromium trichloride – an ultra-thin material that features a honeycomb-shaped atomic structure — by shifting the stacking order of layers. The researchers peeled away two-dimensional (2-D) layers of chromium trichloride using and found that the magnetism is different in 2-D and 3-D crystals, due to different stacking arrangements between atoms in adjacent layers.

(Funded by the National Institutes of Health)

Chemical engineers at MIT have developed a new series of lipid nanoparticles to deliver RNA vaccines and have shown that the particles trigger efficient production of the protein encoded by the RNA. Also, the engineers used this RNA vaccine to successfully inhibit the growth of melanoma tumors in mice.

(Funded by the National Institutes of Health)

Chemical engineers at MIT have developed a new series of lipid nanoparticles to deliver RNA vaccines and have shown that the particles trigger efficient production of the protein encoded by the RNA. Also, the engineers used this RNA vaccine to successfully inhibit the growth of melanoma tumors in mice.

(Funded by the National Institutes of Health)

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have used nanoparticles to test the mucus of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The researchers hope that their approach will allow for early detection of COPD progression and will therefore help clinicians to deliver therapies in a more timely manner.

(Funded by the National Institutes of Health)

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have used nanoparticles to test the mucus of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The researchers hope that their approach will allow for early detection of COPD progression and will therefore help clinicians to deliver therapies in a more timely manner.

(Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and the National Institutes of Health)

Scientists have used advanced imaging techniques that can measure and visualize in color the orientation of individual enamel nanocrystals in human teeth. They found that these crystals are not perfectly aligned, as had been previously thought, and that this misorientation likely deflects cracks, leading to enamel's lifelong strength.

(Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and the National Institutes of Health)

Scientists have used advanced imaging techniques that can measure and visualize in color the orientation of individual enamel nanocrystals in human teeth. They found that these crystals are not perfectly aligned, as had been previously thought, and that this misorientation likely deflects cracks, leading to enamel's lifelong strength.