An international team of researchers, including scientists from Shinshu University (Japan) and the director of Penn State’s ATOMIC Center, has developed a graphene-based coating for desalination membranes that is more robust and scalable than current nanofiltration membrane technologies. The result could be a sturdy and practical membrane for clean water solutions as well as protein separation, wastewater treatment and pharmaceutical and food industry applications.
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One of the most interesting predictions resulting from quantum physics, is the violation of classical symmetries, collectively referred to as anomalies. A remarkable class of anomalies occurs when the continuous scale symmetry of a scale-free quantum system is broken into a discrete scale symmetry for a critical value of a control parameter. This is an example of a (zero temperature) quantum phase transition. Such an anomaly takes place for the quantum inverse square potential known to describe ‘Efimov physics’. Broken continuous scale symmetry into discrete scale symmetry also appears for a charged and massless Dirac fermion in an attractive 1/r Coulomb potential. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the universality of this quantum phase transition and to present convincing experimental evidence of its existence for a charged and massless fermion in an attractive Coulomb potential as realized in graphene.
Melik Demirel and Mauricio Terrones and their colleagues at The Pennsylvania State University recently published a study in the journal Carbon (doi:10.1016/j.carbon.2017.03.053) detailing a novel method for creating a layered graphene-based molecular composite that achieves bulk microstructural order, thus overcoming one of the main obstacles facing two-dimensional (2D) materials utilization. At the heart of their strategy was the ability to tune the spacing between the stacked layers with atomic-level precision, where the resulting composite could be integrated into a highly flexible and efficient thermal actuator.
When I was little, my cousin introduced me to Star Wars. I loved how Jedi’s could move things without touching them and had lightsabers. In this project, we try to move things without touching them using lasers, that’s good enough for me!
On a more serious note, I saw this project as a great chance to be involved first hand in all the steps required to take a scientific experiment from just an idea to a real experiment. Having the support and contribution of ESA and the team has made this an ideal situation to test some of the skills that are required in a scientist but are usually a prerogative of professors and principal investigators.
A team of Researchers from Spain and Italy have created a series of 3D hydrogel scaffolds for neuronal growth using a combination of aqueous graphene dispersions and acrylamide synthesized by in situ radical polymerization.
Scientists at the University of Texas have developed a tattoo that can read and monitor various bodily statistics related to the heart and brain.
Researchers say that the ultra-thin Graphene Electronic Tattoo (GET) is stretchable and has an ultra low areal mass density that stays in contact with the skin and keep itself intact without any need for adhesives for several hours.
“Lithium is a bit overrated. It’s simply not sensible that a single component in battery production is getting so much media coverage. What we should talk about instead is the recycling of lithium, which is something that needs to improve,” says Christina Lampe-Önnerud, the founder of Cadenza Innovation.
Gas sensors play an important role in a wide range of both home and industrial applications such as gas leakage detection, air-quality monitoring and breath-analysis. Among the various types of gas sensors, chemiresistors are probably the most promising due to their easy fabrication, low cost, high sensitivity and wide detection range. Gas sensors can complement as an alternative to more sophisticated instruments or systems for various detection purposes.
Salvador Barazza-Lopez, associate professor of physics at the University of Arkansas, is part of a team that published a review article on the properties of strained graphene and other strained two-dimensional atomic materials in the prestigious Reports of Progress in Physics, a review-style journal published by the Institute of Physics in the United Kingdom that has a large impact factor of 14.3.
Insulin is a rather small molecule (molecular weight 5.8 kD) and weakly charged in solution (isoelectric point 5.8) and therefore, low concentrations (<1 µM) are difficult to detect using traditional (e.g., electrochemical) methods.