Microwave oven cooks up solar cell material

University of Utah metallurgists used an old microwave oven to produce a nanocrystal semiconductor rapidly using cheap, abundant and less toxic metals than other semiconductors. They hope it will be used for more efficient ...

Solving electron transfer

EPFL scientists have shown how a solvent can interfere with electron transfer by using unprecedented time resolution in ultrafast fluorescence spectroscopy.

Dutch researchers develop anthrax sensor

Nanotechnologists at University of Twente's MESA+ research institute have developed a sensor that can detect anthrax spores. The invention is more sensitive and efficient than existing detection methods. The research is being ...

How molecules interact with a laser field

When molecules interact with the oscillating field of a laser, an instantaneous, time-dependent dipole is induced. This very general effect underlies diverse physical phenomena such as optical tweezers, for which Arthur Ashkin ...

Listening to ancient colors

A team of McGill chemists have discovered that a technique known as photoacoustic infrared spectroscopy could be used to identify the composition of pigments used in art work that is decades or even centuries old. Pigments ...

Controlling charge flow by managing electron holes

Much remains to be learned about how charge moves along the molecules that make up the layers of materials in solar cells. These details have remained hidden because of the challenges of direct, real-time observation of motion ...

Catching fast changes in excited molecules

It's hard to see certain molecules react. The reaction is just that fast. Until now. A team of scientists devised a way to reveal time- and energy-resolved information on "dark" states of molecules—ones that are normally ...

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