Blog
- 2D materials combine, becoming polarized and giving rise to photovoltaic effect 06/04/2021 For the first time, researchers have discovered a way to obtain polarity and photovoltaic behavior from certain nonphotovoltaic, atomically flat (2D) materials. The key lies in the special way in which the materials are arranged. The resulting effect is different from, and potentially superior to, the photovoltaic effect commonly found in solar cells.
- Cadmium cyanide surprises chemists by shrinking when irradiated with x-rays 01/04/2021 Contraction expands potential applications for inorganic materials
- Subtle quantum phenomenon found to alter chemical reactivity for the first time 30/03/2021
- Ionization source for mass spectrometry needs no external power supply 25/03/2021 Device could have applications for portable instruments
- Warped nanographene at odds with aromaticity 23/03/2021 Scientists discover a π-electron circuit with an odd number of electrons in a polycyclic system
- Nano-gate: Researchers create voltage-controlled nanopores that can trap particles as they try to pass through 18/03/2021 Scientists from the Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research at Osaka University fabricated nanopores in silicon dioxide, that were only 300 nm, in diameter surrounded by electrodes. These nanopores could prevent particles from entering just by applying a voltage, which may permit the development of sensors that can detect very small concentrations of target molecules, as well as next-generation DNA sequencing technology.
- Stable 2D boron material created for the first time 16/03/2021 Atomically thin boron stabilised by hydrogenating the material to create borophane
- Subtle quantum phenomenon found to alter chemical reactivity for the first time 11/03/2021 A new frontier has been discovered in how quantum phenomena control chemical reactivity. By colliding beams of two different reactants, a Chinese team spanning three universities has shown that the outcome can only be explained by interactions between electron spin and orbital angular momentum. This is the first time that electronic angular momentum has been found to affect such reactions, explains Xueming Yang from South University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen. The finding is ‘very special’, adds his colleague Zhigang Sun from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics.
- Taking 2-D materials for a spin 09/03/2021 Scientists from the University of Tsukuba and a scientist from the Institute of High Pressure Physics detected and mapped the electronic spins moving in a working transistor made of molybdenum disulfide. This research may lead to much faster computers that take advantage of the natural magnetism of electrons, as opposed to just their charge.
- A New Class of Superconductors: Commonly Mistaken Name Leads to Discovery 04/03/2021 A new theory that could explain how unconventional superconductivity arises in a diverse set of compounds might never have happened if physicists Qimiao Si and Emilian Nica had chosen a different name for their 2017 model of orbital-selective superconductivity.
- Quantum quirk yields giant magnetic effect, where none should exist 02/03/2021 In a twist befitting the strange nature of quantum mechanics, physicists have discovered the Hall effect -- a characteristic change in the way electricity is conducted in the presence of a magnetic field -- in a nonmagnetic quantum material to which no magnetic field was applied.