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

At the nanoscale, water freezes in various ways, and not all of them are completely understood. A researcher at Yale University has focused on a particularly fast process known as contact freezing, in which a supercooled (below freezing, but unfrozen) liquid droplet in the atmosphere collides with a nucleating particle—that is, a particle that facilitates the freezing of a liquid that comes into contact with it. His team of researchers has demonstrated that the proximity of surfaces is enough to induce freezing, but it happens only when there is a liquid prone to surface freezing.

Physicists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory have made a discovery that could facilitate production of carbon nanotubes. The physicists produced a model showing that nanoparticle formation depends on several factors and that as the electric current transitions from low-to-high strength, the evaporation rate of the carbon atoms also transitions from low-to-high strength. This finding is important because researchers want to control the evaporation of carbon atoms at a moderate rather than rapid rate when performing experiments and creating nanoparticles for industry.

An international research team led by the University at Buffalo has developed a technique for pairing a magnet with graphene, inducing what they describe as “artificial magnetic texture” in the otherwise nonmagnetic material. This discovery could open the door to spintronic graphene devices, potentially leading to more powerful semiconductors and computers.

In an effort to gauge the full potential of 2D polymers – which have a repeatable, symmetric pattern akin to "chicken wire” – researchers from the U.S. Army and Northeastern University have started to computationally design 2D polymers in the hopes that they may develop a superior alternative to conventional aramid fibers, for applications such as armor and fire-resistant clothing. Through computer simulations, the researchers compared the thermal stability of the 1D polymer Kevlar; a 2D polymer called an amide covalent organic framework, known as amCOF; and a hypothetical 2D polymer designed by the laboratory, called graphamid. The results showed that graphamid could potentially withstand temperatures as high as 700 degrees Celsius, which exceeds the limits of both Kevlar and amCOF.

In an effort to gauge the full potential of 2D polymers – which have a repeatable, symmetric pattern akin to "chicken wire” – researchers from the U.S. Army and Northeastern University have started to computationally design 2D polymers in the hopes that they may develop a superior alternative to conventional aramid fibers, for applications such as armor and fire-resistant clothing. Through computer simulations, the researchers compared the thermal stability of the 1D polymer Kevlar; a 2D polymer called an amide covalent organic framework, known as amCOF; and a hypothetical 2D polymer designed by the laboratory, called graphamid. The results showed that graphamid could potentially withstand temperatures as high as 700 degrees Celsius, which exceeds the limits of both Kevlar and amCOF.

A team led by researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has captured real-time high-resolution videos of liquid structures taking shape, as nanoparticle surfactants – soap-like particles just billionths of a meter in size – jam tightly together, side by side, to form a solid-like layer at the interface between oil and water. Their findings could help researchers better optimize liquid structures to advance reconfigurable microfluidics for drug discovery and all-liquid robotics for targeted cancer drug delivery.

A team led by researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has captured real-time high-resolution videos of liquid structures taking shape, as nanoparticle surfactants – soap-like particles just billionths of a meter in size – jam tightly together, side by side, to form a solid-like layer at the interface between oil and water. Their findings could help researchers better optimize liquid structures to advance reconfigurable microfluidics for drug discovery and all-liquid robotics for targeted cancer drug delivery.

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University; the University of Nevada, Reno; and the Desert Research Institute in Reno, Nevada, have described a way to measure levels of a specific kind of carbon nanotube in plant tissues. The researchers grew hydroponic lettuce in the presence of carbon nanotubes and then analyzed the lettuce leaves for traces of carbon nanotubes. This is the first study to measure levels of this kind of carbon nanotube in plants by using thermal analysis.

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University; the University of Nevada, Reno; and the Desert Research Institute in Reno, Nevada, have described a way to measure levels of a specific kind of carbon nanotube in plant tissues. The researchers grew hydroponic lettuce in the presence of carbon nanotubes and then analyzed the lettuce leaves for traces of carbon nanotubes. This is the first study to measure levels of this kind of carbon nanotube in plants by using thermal analysis.

Researchers at Georgia Tech have found a method to engineer membranes made from graphene oxide, a chemically resistant material based on carbon, so they can work effectively in industrial applications. Many industries that use large amounts of water in their production processes may stand to benefit from using these graphene oxide nanofiltration membranes.