U.S. company mPhase/AlwaysReady, Inc. has developed nanostructure separators that enable the company’s proprietary Smart NanoBattery to have an “almost infinite shelf life”.

A Dutch researcher has shown that hydrogen can be efficiently stored in nanoscale particles of metal hydride sodium alanate, potentially enabling better storage of hydrogen for use in mobile applications.

A researcher from Rice University in the U.S. has developed a method for using gold and palladium nanoparticles and hydrogen to break down trichloroethylene (TCE), a common industrial solvent used to degrease metals that can potentially cause cancer, in groundwater.

The U.S.-based Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies (PEN) and U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) will be hosting the premiere of a new three-part television series called “Nanotechnology: Power of Small” which airs in April and focuses on the potentially implications of nanotechnology for privacy, the environment, and human health.

By combining more precise core-shell nanoparticle synthesis techniques with electronic structure theory to predict the properties of nanoparticles, nanotechnology researchers have produced a better catalyst for fuel cells. From “‘Designer’ catalyst fights fuel cell poisoning“:

US scientists have designed from first principles nanoparticles that efficiently oxidise carbon monoxide (CO) — a contaminant commonly found in hydrogen used to run fuel cells.

A major problem facing fuel cells is that the hydrogen-rich materials feeding the reaction often contain CO, which is formed during hydrogen production. This CO ‘poisons’ the electrodes in the fuel-cell devices, deteriorating their efficiency.

Now, a team led by Bryan Eichhorn of the University of Maryland and Manos Mavrikakis of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, have designed and made a catalyst for the preferential oxidation (PROX) of CO comprising a ruthenium (Ru) core inside a Platinum (Pt) shell…

The research was published in Nature Materials (abstract).
—Jim

Attaur Rehman, chairman of Pakistan’s Higher Education Commission (HEC), has said that the HEC will support Quaid-e-Azam University (QAU), also in Pakistan, to establish a research center for industrial nanomaterials such as nanomedicines, catalysts, and environmental cleaners.

U.S. company NanoViricides have announced that it will soon be starting preliminary animal trials of its HIV therapeutic drug HivCide-I.

While we wouldn’t call it nanotech porn exactly, as Wired magazine does, we agree that for us nanotech geeks it’s great fun to see nanotechnology tools up close. If you missed the MRS show in San Francisco this week, here’s the next best thing: photos of the latest nanotech-relevant machinery:

Nanotech tool vendors hawked their wares to innovative engineers at the spring meeting of the Materials Research Society this week at San Francisco’s Moscone Center. We took a break from presentations on molecular motors and the mechanical properties of human skin to take a walk across the showroom floor. What follows are close-ups of some of the most precise molecular-building and measurement tools in the world.

Materials science has much better PR these days since nanotech has heated up. —Christine

One intriguing road toward productive nanosystems is the integration of molecular motors derived from biology with other nanotech structures and devices. The 2003 Foresight Institute Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology for experimental work was awarded “for pioneering research into methods of integrating single molecule biological motors with nano-scale silicon devices”. Now another researcher has adopted a similar approach to pursue a near-term nanotech solution to an important set of problems. Nanotechnology may enable faster and more sensitive detection of disease by using a molecular motor to spin a gold nanorod in the presence of the right DNA molecule to connect the motor molecules to the nanorod. From “Biosensing nanodevice to revolutionize health screenings“:

One day soon a biosensing nanodevice developed by Arizona State University researcher Wayne Frasch may eliminate long lines at airport security checkpoints and revolutionize health screenings for diseases like anthrax, cancer and antibiotic resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).

Even more incredible than the device itself, is that it is based on the world’s tiniest rotary motor: a biological engine measured on the order of molecules.

Frasch works with the enzyme F1-adenosine triphosphatase, better known as F1- ATPase. This enzyme, only 10 to 12 nanometers in diameter, has an axle that spins and produces torque. This tiny wonder is part of a complex of proteins key to creating energy in all living things, including photosynthesis in plants. F1-ATPase breaks down adenosine triphosphate (ATP) to adenosine diphosphate (ADP), releasing energy.…

What Frasch and his colleagues show is that the enzyme can be armed with an optical probe (gold nanorod) and manipulated to emit a signal when it detects a single molecule of target DNA. This is achieved by anchoring a quiescent F1-ATPase motor to a surface. A single strand of a reference biotinylated DNA molecule is then attached to its axle. The marker protein, biotin, on the DNA is known to bind specifically and tightly to the glycoprotein avidin, so an avidin-coated gold nanorod is then added. The avidin-nanorod attaches to the biotinylated DNA strand and forms a stable complex.…

Coverage that includes an illustration: “DNA detection with a twist“. The research was published in Lab on a Chip (abstract).
—Jim

Sun Microsystems, Inc. was awarded $44.29 Million from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for a research project that will advance the development of lower cost, high performance, high productivity systems. The development of these advanced systems can be utlilized by various industries that need supercomputing systems, including biotechnology and energy exploration. The DARPA funding comes from the agency’s Ultraperformance Nanophotonic Intrachip Communication program, and the project will annually bring just over $8 million to Sun Microsystems' Microelectronics and Laboratories divisions. For more information on research at Sun, visit