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 world of aerospace increasingly relies on carbon fiber-reinforced polymer composites to build the structures of satellites, rockets, and jet aircraft. But the life of those materials is limited by how they handle heat. A team of researchers from Florida A&M University - Florida State University College of Engineering has developed a design for a heat shield that uses carbon nanotubes and better protects those extremely fast machines.

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

A Rutgers University-led team has created biosensor technology that may help lead to safe stem cell therapies for treating Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. The technology, which features a unique graphene and gold-based platform and high-tech imaging, monitors the fate of stem cells by detecting genetic material involved in turning such cells into brain cells.

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

A Rutgers University-led team has created biosensor technology that may help lead to safe stem cell therapies for treating Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. The technology, which features a unique graphene and gold-based platform and high-tech imaging, monitors the fate of stem cells by detecting genetic material involved in turning such cells into brain cells.

(Funded by the National Science Foundation)

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have revealed that, as a coating, carbon nanotubes can both repel and hold water in place, a useful property for applications such as printing, spectroscopy, water transport, or harvesting surfaces. When water is dropped on a carbon nanotube forest, the carbon nanotubes repel the water, which forms a sphere. But when the drop of water is flipped over, it does not fall to the ground but rather clings to the surface.

(Funded by the National Science Foundation)

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have revealed that, as a coating, carbon nanotubes can both repel and hold water in place, a useful property for applications such as printing, spectroscopy, water transport, or harvesting surfaces. When water is dropped on a carbon nanotube forest, the carbon nanotubes repel the water, which forms a sphere. But when the drop of water is flipped over, it does not fall to the ground but rather clings to the surface.

(Funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the National Science Foundation)

Researchers at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University have developed a diagnostic platform technology that enables the detection of a broad range of biomarkers with high sensitivity and selectivity in complex biological fluids, using as little as a single drop of blood. After experimenting with a variety of recipes, the research team developed a simple, porous, 3-D matrix consisting of bovine serum albumin cross-linked with glutaraldehyde and supported by a network of conducting nanomaterials, such as gold nanowires or carbon nanotubes.

(Funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the National Science Foundation)

Researchers at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University have developed a diagnostic platform technology that enables the detection of a broad range of biomarkers with high sensitivity and selectivity in complex biological fluids, using as little as a single drop of blood. After experimenting with a variety of recipes, the research team developed a simple, porous, 3-D matrix consisting of bovine serum albumin cross-linked with glutaraldehyde and supported by a network of conducting nanomaterials, such as gold nanowires or carbon nanotubes.

(Funded by the National Science Foundation)

Chemistry researchers at Georgia State University have established a new imaging strategy that can track single molecules as they shimmy through tiny pores in the shells of silica spheres and that can monitor the chemical reaction dynamics on catalytic centers at the core. This discovery has led to the first quantitative measurements of how confinement at the nanoscale speeds up catalytic reactions. Understanding this surprising "nanoconfinement effect" could help guide the precise design of more efficient industrial catalysts that can conserve energy.

(Funded by the National Science Foundation)

Chemistry researchers at Georgia State University have established a new imaging strategy that can track single molecules as they shimmy through tiny pores in the shells of silica spheres and that can monitor the chemical reaction dynamics on catalytic centers at the core. This discovery has led to the first quantitative measurements of how confinement at the nanoscale speeds up catalytic reactions. Understanding this surprising "nanoconfinement effect" could help guide the precise design of more efficient industrial catalysts that can conserve energy.

(Funded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research)

One of the most significant challenges standing in the way of widespread adoption of electric vehicles and aircraft has to do with mass, because the most current electric vehicle batteries and supercapacitors are incredibly heavy. A research team from the Texas A&M University College of Engineering has created strong and stiff supercapacitor electrodes based on dopamine-functionalized graphene and Kevlar nanofibers, which might enable energy to be stored within the structural body panels of electric vehicles and aircraft and, as a result, make them lighter.