https://phys.org/nanotech-news/nano-materials/ en-us The latest science news on nanomaterials, nanotechnology, nanoparticles and nanoscience. A research team led by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory has developed a new material that combines inorganic material with biological components to produce hydrogen peroxide more efficiently. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-layered-nano-biohybrid-sunlight-air.html Bio & Medicine Thu, 13 Aug 2026 19:20:02 EDT news705851881 Understanding how ions diffuse in solid materials is essential for technologies including batteries, electronics and chemical catalysts, but it has been hard for a simple reason: the materials are solids. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-tracer-exchange-reveals-ions-battery.html Nanophysics Thu, 13 Aug 2026 18:40:03 EDT news705850816 An international research team including Alexander Korsunsky from the Skoltech Engineering Center has, for the first time, directly measured mechanical stresses at the contact between a diamond indenter and a complex nanostructured coating at a resolution of less than 80 nanometers. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-multilayer-nanocoatings-dissipate-energy-nanoscale.html Nanophysics Thu, 13 Aug 2026 14:20:03 EDT news705848755 From smartphones to data centers, modern electronics rely on billions of tiny switches that consume electricity every time they turn on or off. As global demand for computing continues to grow, so does the energy required to power it. Scientists are therefore searching for alternatives that can perform the same tasks while using far less energy. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-magnetic-path-power.html Nanophysics Thu, 13 Aug 2026 10:00:04 EDT news705831481 The tiny bones in your fingers withstand countless taps and swipes thanks to a precise blend of materials. Flexible collagen fibers form the framework, reinforced by hard calcium phosphate hydroxyapatite crystals. This is just one of countless examples in which living organisms weave organic materials directly into inorganic crystals with exquisite precision. In a recent study published in Nature Communications, scientists attempted to recreate such precise spatial arrangements in biomimetic composite materials. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-protein-nanoparticles-crystals-enabling.html Bio & Medicine Thu, 13 Aug 2026 06:40:02 EDT news705724225 MXenes are two-dimensional materials made of very thin layers of metals, measured on the atomic scale. They conduct electricity well and have surfaces that can easily interact with other materials, making them excellent candidates for advanced electronic devices, computers and aerospace coatings. The only problem is that, until a recent innovation by James Tour's lab at Rice University, building them required a lengthy, acid-filled process called liquid-phase chemical etching. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-ultrafast-joule-significantly-mxene.html Nanomaterials Wed, 12 Aug 2026 18:30:04 EDT news705773701 Rice University researchers have shown that tiny wrinkles in graphene can change the material's electrical properties, providing evidence for flexoelectricity, a phenomenon in which a material generates an electric charge when it bends unevenly. The findings are published in Advanced Materials. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-graphene-nanowrinkles-reshape-electricity-future.html Nanophysics Wed, 12 Aug 2026 18:10:01 EDT news705773341 What if scientists could get a taste of discovery as soon as their experiment finishes? Thanks to a new machine learning tool called DONUT, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory are transforming how experiments are run at the Advanced Photon Source (APS), a DOE Office of Science user facility. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-real-ray-analysis-donut-materials.html Nanophysics Tue, 11 Aug 2026 19:20:01 EDT news705682545 Recent technological advances have enabled the development of increasingly sophisticated, sharper displays for electronic devices. Many modern displays use light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, tiny semiconductor-based components that emit light when an electrical current passes through them. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-technique-quantum-dots-tiny-pixels.html Nanophysics Sun, 09 Aug 2026 15:20:01 EDT news705314764 By rapidly twisting a microscopically small tip back and forth, researchers at the University of Maryland (UMD) have unlocked a new way to detect subtle changes on the surface of a material flexing in response to infrared light. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-high-res-view-2d-materials.html Nanomaterials Fri, 07 Aug 2026 18:00:03 EDT news705327588 Magnetic storage technologies, which store information in the direction of magnetization, play an essential role in modern data storage. Hard disk drives (HDDs) are widely used for long-term storage, while nonvolatile magnetic random-access memory (MRAM) is emerging as a promising alternative to flash memory. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-50c-ultrathin-magnetic-stays-flat.html Nanomaterials Fri, 07 Aug 2026 12:40:07 EDT news705316862 The explosion of new data centers being proposed and built around the U.S. has increased demand for energy to keep them powered and cooled. The Electric Power Research Institute estimates that data centers could consume up to 9% of U.S. electricity generation annually by 2030, up from 4% of total load in 2023. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-carbon-nanostructure-fuel-cell-catalyst.html Nanomaterials Thu, 06 Aug 2026 13:20:07 EDT news705234001 Nanoscience, which studies small objects, has a big problem. According to a team of scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the field confronts a pervasive data analysis error that can give misleading insights into how these tiny objects' properties depend on their size. The team also offers a practical solution—a mathematical correction that can reveal how these materials truly behave. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-sizing-errors-true-nanoparticle-behavior.html Nanomaterials Thu, 06 Aug 2026 03:00:02 EDT news705141061 Researchers created an electrically tunable quantum nanoscale corral that traps charged excitons and enables precise electrical control of tiny light sources, including their brightness, color and quantum states, the team, led by Boston College physicists, reports today in Nature Nanotechnology. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-electrostatic-nanocorral-excitons-quantum.html Nanophysics Wed, 05 Aug 2026 17:40:03 EDT news705160321 Researchers at the University of Bayreuth, together with colleagues from Freie Universität Berlin and the Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research Dresden, have developed a synthetic fiber system inspired by the cellular cytoskeleton that protects itself through controlled bundling. The findings open up new avenues for smart, switchable materials whose properties can be deliberately altered in response to a specific stimulus. The research is published in the journal Advanced Materials. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-cell-synthetic-fibers-reveal-reversible.html Nanophysics Wed, 05 Aug 2026 12:40:01 EDT news705148801 Researchers at the 4th Physics Institute of the University of Stuttgart and the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) in Milan have demonstrated a new mechanism for directing light in a naturally hyperbolic van der Waals material without conventional nanofabricated waveguides. The discovery opens new possibilities for integrated photonics, on-chip optical communication and future quantum technologies. The paper is published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-nano-optics-mechanism-channeling-natural.html Nanophysics Tue, 04 Aug 2026 14:40:03 EDT news705065941 Scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory have demonstrated a new quantum-dot mechanism that could significantly expand the reach of light-driven chemistry. By introducing magnetic manganese dopants into semiconductor quantum dots, the team created an ultrafast spin-exchange pathway that captures hot-electron energy before it is lost as heat and uses it to drive chemical reduction. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-magnetic-dopants-quantum-dots-chemical.html Nanophysics Tue, 04 Aug 2026 09:40:03 EDT news705054241 Researchers at the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering have developed a new approach to nanoscale 3D printing that improves both speed and fidelity, overcoming a challenge that has limited the technology's broader use in manufacturing. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-pixel-patterns-harness-diffraction-faster.html Nanophysics Mon, 03 Aug 2026 16:20:02 EDT news704985845 Researchers in the lab of Sam Peng, the Pfizer Inc.–Gerald Laubach Career Development Assistant Professor of Chemistry at MIT and a core institute member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, have developed a super-resolution imaging technology. It allows scientists to visualize molecular structures with angstrom-level localization precision—three orders of magnitude beyond the nanometer-scale limits of standard fluorescent dyes—while simplifying the imaging process. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-microscopy-method-angstrom-scale-localization.html Nanophysics Sun, 02 Aug 2026 14:00:05 EDT news704556380 Most sensors are designed to do only one thing: detect what passes through them. But what if a sensor could do more? To create a new generation of technology, researchers have looked to living systems for inspiration. If a sensor could detect molecules, could it also remember previous interactions and selectively respond to them? https://phys.org/news/2026-07-smart-sensor-molecules.html Nanomaterials Sun, 02 Aug 2026 09:00:01 EDT news704646029 PFAS, otherwise known as forever chemicals, have become commonplace in numerous everyday and industrial products. At the same time, they are some of the most problematic pollutants of our times: They are extremely durable, accumulate in the environment and in organisms and can only be removed from water with difficulty. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-magnetic-nanoparticles-chemicals.html Nanomaterials Fri, 31 Jul 2026 13:20:06 EDT news704715481 The energy system of the future will require sustainable catalysts that, for example, enable the efficient production of green hydrogen. Materials consisting of mixtures of five chemical elements show great promise for enabling ideal catalysts in the future. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-randomly-atoms-rows-columns-sustainable.html Nanomaterials Fri, 31 Jul 2026 11:00:05 EDT news704710261 What if glowing molecules could synchronize, much like fireflies flashing in unison? Researchers have discovered that molecules confined within tiny gold nanostructures can behave collectively, coordinating their interactions even under conditions where this was previously thought impossible. The finding challenges long standing assumptions about how optical coherence forms and opens new possibilities for highly sensitive sensors, molecular photonics, and future quantum technologies capable of operating at room temperature. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-scientists-molecules-cooperate-room-temperature.html Nanophysics Thu, 30 Jul 2026 18:10:02 EDT news704649001 A collaborative research group led by Hiroshi Daimon, a specially appointed research fellow at the Institute for Molecular Science, National Institutes of Natural Sciences, has developed an "atom-holography microscope" capable of directly observing three-dimensional atomic arrangements in nanoscale regions by combining the electron beam of a scanning electron microscope (SEM) with CoDELMA, a newly developed two-dimensional display-type analyzer. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-atom-holography-microscope-visualization-3d.html Bio & Medicine Thu, 30 Jul 2026 09:40:07 EDT news704621479 Nanoplastics—plastic particles smaller than one micrometer—are generated through the degradation and abrasion of plastic products and are increasingly detected in food, drinking water, air and biological tissues. Although the presence of plastic particles in animals and humans is well-established, determining how nanoplastics are distributed within complex organs, such as the brain, remains challenging. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-dimensional-visualization-nanoplastic-neonatal-mouse.html Bio & Medicine Wed, 29 Jul 2026 21:40:01 EDT news704540097 As materials become thinner—now reaching the thickness of single atoms—it has become increasingly difficult to create sufficiently large sheets and transfer them without cracking them into tiny flakes. Recent work by a broad Amsterdam-based team of scientists, published in the journal ACS Nano, presents a new technique that solves this problem using an unexpected material found in any home kitchen. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-kitchen-centimeter-scale-ultrathin-electronics.html Nanophysics Wed, 29 Jul 2026 14:40:06 EDT news704544001 Spin waves (SWs), or magnons, are collective excitations of magnetization in magnetic materials arising from electron spins. They have attracted considerable attention as information carriers and have shown promise in logic circuits, memory devices and physical neural networks. Among the emerging platforms for manipulating SWs are magnonic crystals (MCs), engineered magnetic materials with periodic structures designed to control magnon propagation. These periodic structures give rise to magnonic band structures and mode profiles, much like semiconductor crystals control electron transport. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-inverse-2d-magnonic-crystals-widen.html Nanophysics Tue, 28 Jul 2026 17:00:07 EDT news704470382 Nanoporous material-based separation technology is vital in many applications because it can precisely distinguish between and separate nearly identical chemical or biochemical molecules. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-dynamic-nanopore-maximize-efficiency-molecule.html Bio & Medicine Tue, 28 Jul 2026 10:40:06 EDT news704450222 Nanocarbons are molecular-scale carbon structures considered to be the building blocks for next-generation materials. Until now, scientists have built them by fusing small, flat carbon molecules together at their edges. Modifying the inside of a molecule was considered challenging because inner bonds are locked into flat, rigid structures that resist change. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-scientists-rebuild-molecules-chiral-nanocarbons.html Nanomaterials Tue, 28 Jul 2026 05:00:01 EDT news704364241 Many of today's electronic devices—from the semiconductors in your cell phone to the photovoltaic cells in your solar panels—are built on thin-film substrates. The thin film is an electrically conductive material, while the substrate is an inert material. Or is it? https://phys.org/news/2026-07-thin-substrates-longer-inert-path.html Nanophysics Mon, 27 Jul 2026 18:00:05 EDT news704382661