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

Date Published
(Funded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, the National Science Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Energy)

Perovskite nanocrystals hold promise for improving a wide variety of optoelectronic devices, but problems with their durability still limit the material's broad commercial use. Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have demonstrated a novel approach aimed at addressing the material's durability problem: encasing the perovskite inside a double-layer protection system made from plastic and silica.

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

Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin and the University of California, Riverside have found a way to transfer energy between silicon and organic, carbon-based molecules—a breakthrough that has implications for information storage in quantum computing, solar energy conversion, and medical imaging. The discovery provides a way to boost silicon's efficiency by pairing it with a carbon-based material that converts blue photons into pairs of red photons that can be more efficiently used by silicon.

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

Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin and the University of California, Riverside have found a way to transfer energy between silicon and organic, carbon-based molecules—a breakthrough that has implications for information storage in quantum computing, solar energy conversion, and medical imaging. The discovery provides a way to boost silicon's efficiency by pairing it with a carbon-based material that converts blue photons into pairs of red photons that can be more efficiently used by silicon.

(Funded by the Army Research Laboratory)

The University of Southern California has partnered with Carbonics, Inc., to develop a carbon nanotube technology that, for the first time, achieved speeds exceeding 100 gigahertz in radio frequency applications. The milestone eclipses the performance of traditional Radio Frequency Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (RF-CMOS) technology, which is ubiquitous in modern consumer electronics, including cell phones.

(Funded by the Army Research Laboratory)

The University of Southern California has partnered with Carbonics, Inc., to develop a carbon nanotube technology that, for the first time, achieved speeds exceeding 100 gigahertz in radio frequency applications. The milestone eclipses the performance of traditional Radio Frequency Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (RF-CMOS) technology, which is ubiquitous in modern consumer electronics, including cell phones.

(Funded by the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency)

Scientists at Cornell University have used magnets to design self-assembling systems that could be created in nanoscale form. The researchers made centimeter-sized acrylic panels, each containing four tiny magnets in a square pattern. To activate the self-assembly, the magnets were scattered on a shaker table, with the table’s vibrations preventing the magnets from forming bonds. As the shaking amplitude was decreased, the magnets attached in their designated order and formed the target structures. While nanoscale machines and self-assembling systems are not new, this project marks the first time the two concepts have been combined with magnetic encoding.

(Funded by the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency)

Scientists at Cornell University have used magnets to design self-assembling systems that could be created in nanoscale form. The researchers made centimeter-sized acrylic panels, each containing four tiny magnets in a square pattern. To activate the self-assembly, the magnets were scattered on a shaker table, with the table’s vibrations preventing the magnets from forming bonds. As the shaking amplitude was decreased, the magnets attached in their designated order and formed the target structures. While nanoscale machines and self-assembling systems are not new, this project marks the first time the two concepts have been combined with magnetic encoding.

(Funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation)

By folding snippets of DNA into the shape of a five-pointed star using structural DNA nanotechnology, researchers have created a trap that captures Dengue virus as it floats in the bloodstream. Once sprung, the trap—which is non-toxic and is naturally cleared from the body—lights up. It's the most sensitive test for the mosquito-borne diseases yet devised.

(Funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation)

By folding snippets of DNA into the shape of a five-pointed star using structural DNA nanotechnology, researchers have created a trap that captures Dengue virus as it floats in the bloodstream. Once sprung, the trap—which is non-toxic and is naturally cleared from the body—lights up. It's the most sensitive test for the mosquito-borne diseases yet devised.

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

This article reviews an article published in the journal Science that presents a comprehensive analysis of two decades of energy storage research involving nanomaterials. The article’s authors lay out a roadmap for how this technology can enable the world's urgent shift toward better energy storage devices and sustainability.