News tagged with nanostructures

New nanostructure for batteries keeps going and going

(Phys.org) -- For more than a decade, scientists have tried to improve lithium-based batteries by replacing the graphite in one terminal with silicon, which can store 10 times more charge. But after just a ...

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created May 11, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (67) | comments 28 | with audio podcast

Blunt nanostructures could make high-efficiency solar cells easier to fabricate

(PhysOrg.com) -- One of the most promising methods for increasing the efficiency of solar cells consists of coating the cells’ surfaces with a thin layer of metal nanoparticles. The nanoparticles scatter ...

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Jan 24, 2012 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (7) | comments 9 | with audio podcast feature

DNA as invisible ink can reversibly hide patterns

(PhysOrg.com) -- While most people know of DNA as the building blocks of life, these large molecules also have potential applications in areas such as biosensing, nanoparticle assembly, and building supramolecular ...

Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine

created Jan 23, 2012 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (8) | comments 0 | with audio podcast feature

Engineered materials: Custom-made magnets

A novel approach to designing artificial materials could enable magnetic devices with a wider range of properties than those now available. An international team of researchers have now extended the properties ...

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created May 24, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Researchers produce world's first programmable nanoprocessor

Engineers and scientists collaborating at Harvard University and the MITRE Corporation have developed and demonstrated the world's first programmable nanoprocessor.

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Feb 09, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (36) | comments 8 | with audio podcast

Brittle silicon shows exceptional plasticity on the nanoscale

(PhysOrg.com) -- On the macroscale, silicon is a brittle material that cannot be easily molded into a desired shape. But scientists have found that a piece of silicon just 3 nm long can be stretched to more than 20 times ...

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created Aug 26, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 2 | with audio podcast feature

New OLETs emit light more efficiently than equivalent OLEDs

(PhysOrg.com) -- Already, organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) are becoming commercialized for light display applications due to their advantages such as low fabrication costs and large-area emission. But ...

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created May 31, 2010 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (33) | comments 8 | with audio podcast feature

Nanostructure of 5,000-year-old mummy skin reveals insight into mummification process

(PhysOrg.com) -- Using cutting-edge microscopy techniques, researchers have gained insight into how human mummies can be extremely well-preserved for thousands of years. A team of scientists from Germany and ...

Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine

created Apr 20, 2010 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (16) | comments 0 | with audio podcast feature

Graphene-Based Nanomat Could Lead to Next-Generation Catalysts

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers have found a new use for graphene, the single-atom-thick sheet of carbon atoms that resembles chicken wire. Ever since graphene was first observed in 2004, its large surface area, ...

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created Jan 19, 2010 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (13) | comments 0 | with audio podcast feature

'Molecular torch' between carbon nanotubes emits electroluminescence

(PhysOrg.com) -- A single molecule bridging a "broken" single-walled carbon nanotube (CNT) is barely visible through a powerful scanning electron microscope, but the precisely assembled system can act as a ...

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Dec 20, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (14) | comments 6 | with audio podcast feature

Producing graphene layers using crystallization

(PhysOrg.com) -- Ever since it's relatively recent discovery, graphene has generated a great deal of interest. Graphene is extracted from graphite in many cases, and consists of a sheet of carbon atoms bound together in a ...

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created Mar 02, 2010 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (12) | comments 1 | with audio podcast feature

Feathers show their true colors

(Phys.org) -- For millennia birds have been prized, even hunted, for their beautiful plumage but what makes their feathers so colorful?

Chemistry / Materials Science

created May 11, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Scientists Build Nanostructures out of Single DNA Strands

(PhysOrg.com) -- With its unique double-helical structure, DNA has the ability to be used as a programmable building material to construct designer nanoscale architectures. Complex DNA architectures could ...

Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine

created Sep 08, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 5 feature

'Tunable' metal nanostructures for fuel cells, batteries and solar energy

(PhysOrg.com) -- For catalysts in fuel cells and electrodes in batteries, engineers would like to manufacture metal films that are porous, to make more surface area available for chemical reactions, and highly ...

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created Apr 03, 2012 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (8) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Atom Pinhole Camera Acts as a Shrinking Copy Machine

(PhysOrg.com) -- In 1983, Richard Feynman proposed the idea of a machine that could create smaller scale replicas of itself. Today, such a system is still a challenge, but a machine that can produce nanometer-sized ...

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Jun 01, 2009 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (20) | comments 8 feature

Nanostructure

A nanostructure is an object of intermediate size between molecular and microscopic (micrometer-sized) structures.

In describing nanostructures it is necessary to differentiate between the number of dimensions on the nanoscale. Nanotextured surfaces have one dimension on the nanoscale, i.e., only the thickness of the surface of an object is between 0.1 and 100 nm. Nanotubes have two dimensions on the nanoscale, i.e., the diameter of the tube is between 0.1 and 100 nm; its length could be much greater. Finally, spherical nanoparticles have three dimensions on the nanoscale, i.e., the particle is between 0.1 and 100 nm in each spatial dimension. The terms nanoparticles and ultrafine particles (UFP) often are used synonymously although UFP can reach into the micrometre range.

For more information about Nanostructure, read the full article at Wikipedia.
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