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

Researchers from Rice University, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, NASA Langley Research Center, the National Institute of Aerospace, and BNNT Materials, LLC, have reported that boron nitride nanotubes can assemble themselves into liquid crystals under the right conditions. These liquid crystals are easier to process than the tangled nanotubes that usually form in solution. Boron nitride nanotubes are like carbon nanotubes, but with alternating boron and nitrogen atoms, instead of carbon in their hexagonal lattices. 

As they grow, solid tumors surround themselves with a thick, hard-to-penetrate wall of molecular defenses. Getting drugs past that barricade is notoriously difficult. Now, scientists from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and the University of Texas at Arlington have developed nanoparticles that can break down the physical barriers around tumors to reach cancer cells. Once inside, the nanoparticles released their payload: a gene editing system that alters DNA inside the tumor, blocking its growth, and activating the immune system.

Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh and Princeton University have unexpectedly discovered that two-dimensional polymer sheets can rise and rotate in spiral helices without the application of external power. Through computational modeling, the researchers placed passive, uncoated polymer sheets around a circular, catalytic patch within a fluid-filled chamber and then added hydrogen peroxide to initiate a catalytic reaction. They noticed that the polymer sheets autonomously self-assembled into a tower-like structure.

Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh, Georgia Tech, and Allegheny Health Network have created patient-specific 3D-printed smart metamaterial implants that double as sensors to monitor spinal column healing. The power, generated using a built-in triboelectric nanogenerator mechanism, eliminates the need for a separate power source. Also, a tiny chip records data, which can be read noninvasively using a portable ultrasound scanner.

Researchers from North Carolina State University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the Institute for Physical Chemistry and Polymer Physics in Dresden, Germany, have demonstrated a technique that allows them to align gold nanorods using magnetic fields, while preserving the underlying optical properties of the gold nanorods. The researchers made separate solutions of gold nanorods and iron oxide nanoparticles and then mixed the solutions, causing the iron oxide nanoparticles to assemble onto the surface of the gold nanorods. The resulting "coated" nanorods could then be controlled using a low-strength magnetic field.

According to a team of scientists from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Purdue University, Duke University, and North Carolina State University, 2D materials and their interfaces – which researchers intend to be flat when stacked on top of each other – may not, in fact, be flat. Potential benefits from this study include giving the scientific community more control over the fabrication of transistor devices that incorporate 2D materials.

The silicon-based computer chips that power our modern devices require vast amounts of energy to operate, so researchers in the electronics and materials sciences communities are seeking ways to sustainably manage the global need for computing power. Now, a team of researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California, Berkeley, have identified an energy-efficient route by creating films of barium titanate just 25 nanometers thin, whose orientation of charged atoms, or polarization, switches as quickly and efficiently as in the bulk version of a computer chip.

Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University have developed an electronic tattoo that can be worn comfortably on the wrist for hours and deliver continuous blood pressure measurements at an accuracy level exceeding nearly all available options on the market today. Graphene, one of the strongest and thinnest materials in existence, is a key ingredient in this electronic tattoo.

After exposing silicon carbide to conditions similar to those found around dying stars, researchers at the University of Arizona have observed the spontaneous formation of carbon nanotubes. The work builds on previous work by the same researchers showing that they could create buckyballs using the same experimental setup. This new work suggests that buckyballs and carbon nanotubes could form when silicon carbide dust made by dying stars is hit by high temperatures, shock waves, and high-energy particles, leaching silicon from the surface and leaving carbon behind.

In a study with mice, MIT researchers have designed sensors that can distinguish between viral and bacterial pneumonia infections within two hours, which they hope will help doctors choose the appropriate treatment. The sensors consist of nanoparticles coated with #peptides that can be cleaved by enzymes present in the body. Each peptide is labeled with a reporter molecule that is freed when the peptides are cleaved by the enzymes. The reporter molecules are eventually excreted in the urine, which can then be analyzed to determine which of these enzymes are most active in the lungs.