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

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have identified how twisted graphene sheets behave and their stability at different sizes and temperatures. The scientists performed computer simulations at different temperatures for different sizes of graphene sheets and then used insights from these simulations to develop an analytical model to predict the number of local stable states and the critical temperature required to reach each of these states.

For more than a decade, two-dimensional nanomaterials, such as graphene, have been touted as the key to making better microchips, batteries, and antennas. But a significant challenge remains: ensuring that these atom-thin building materials can be produced in bulk quantities without losing their quality. For one of the most promising new types of 2D nanomaterials, MXenes, that's no longer a problem. Researchers at Drexel University and the Materials Research Center in Ukraine have designed a system that can be used to make large quantities of the material while preserving its unique properties.

For more than a decade, two-dimensional nanomaterials, such as graphene, have been touted as the key to making better microchips, batteries, and antennas. But a significant challenge remains: ensuring that these atom-thin building materials can be produced in bulk quantities without losing their quality. For one of the most promising new types of 2D nanomaterials, MXenes, that's no longer a problem. Researchers at Drexel University and the Materials Research Center in Ukraine have designed a system that can be used to make large quantities of the material while preserving its unique properties.

Ultrathin carbon nanotube crystals could have wondrous uses, like converting waste heat into electricity with near-perfect efficiency, and Rice University engineers have taken a big step toward that goal. They turned a mob of unruly nanotubes into a well-ordered collective. Of their own accord, and by the billions, nanotubes were willingly lying down side by side, like dry spaghetti in a box. But the reason for that behavior has not been revealed – until now: Tiny parallel grooves in the filter paper — an artifact of the paper’s production process — cause the nanotube alignment.

Ultrathin carbon nanotube crystals could have wondrous uses, like converting waste heat into electricity with near-perfect efficiency, and Rice University engineers have taken a big step toward that goal. They turned a mob of unruly nanotubes into a well-ordered collective. Of their own accord, and by the billions, nanotubes were willingly lying down side by side, like dry spaghetti in a box. But the reason for that behavior has not been revealed – until now: Tiny parallel grooves in the filter paper — an artifact of the paper’s production process — cause the nanotube alignment.

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have designed and synthesized chains of molecules with a precise sequence and length to efficiently protect 3-D DNA nanostructures from structural degradation under a variety of biomedically relevant conditions. They demonstrated how these "peptoid-coated DNA origami" have the potential to be used for delivering anti-cancer drugs and proteins, imaging biological molecules, and targeting cell-surface receptors implicated in cancer.

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have designed and synthesized chains of molecules with a precise sequence and length to efficiently protect 3-D DNA nanostructures from structural degradation under a variety of biomedically relevant conditions. They demonstrated how these "peptoid-coated DNA origami" have the potential to be used for delivering anti-cancer drugs and proteins, imaging biological molecules, and targeting cell-surface receptors implicated in cancer.

Researchers at Penn State, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed an atomically thin materials platform that will open a wide range of new applications in biomolecular sensing, quantum phenomena, catalysis, and nonlinear optics. If you were to combine a metal with other 2D materials via traditional synthesis processes, the chemical reactions during synthesis would ruin the properties of both the metal and layered material. To avoid these reactions, the team exploited a method that automatically caps the 2D metal with a single layer of graphene while creating the 2D metal.

Researchers at Penn State, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed an atomically thin materials platform that will open a wide range of new applications in biomolecular sensing, quantum phenomena, catalysis, and nonlinear optics. If you were to combine a metal with other 2D materials via traditional synthesis processes, the chemical reactions during synthesis would ruin the properties of both the metal and layered material. To avoid these reactions, the team exploited a method that automatically caps the 2D metal with a single layer of graphene while creating the 2D metal.

Researchers at NIST have devised a way to eliminate a long-standing problem affecting our understanding of both living cells and batteries. When a solid and an electrically conducting liquid come into contact, a thin sheet of charge forms between them. Although this interface, known as the electrical double layer (EDL), is only a few atoms thick, it plays a central role in a wide range of systems, such as keeping living cells nourished and maintaining the operation of batteries, fuel cells, and certain types of capacitors. The NIST researchers have now mapped variations in voltage across a sheet of EDL with nanoscale precision by using a thin membrane of graphene.