This week in Nano (Week 40: 29th-05th September/October)

It was a week dominated by Ebola updates on twitter: So to start with this week’s blog a piece about the ongoing work by researchers at Bostons University College - an easily transportable nanodevice that has the potential to diagnose Ebola quickly and cheaply. The device is effectively antibodies bound to a silicon chip upon which the patient’s blood is distributed. By shining light on the chip the resulting light spectrum that bounces from the chip will have a different spectra for patients with and without Ebola. More here .

The wonderful world of Graphene: Research from MIT show that crumpling pieces of graphene ‘paper’ can yield a versatile material with properties useful for creating stretchable superconductors and store energy for flexible electronics More here in Science Reports

 
Nanopinion: What European Country knows the most about NanoTech? Check out the latest results from a questionnaire (sample size 8330) by Nanopinion http://results.nanopinion.eu/).

Photon Shuttling: Researchers have developed a nanoscale device that can capture, measure and transport particles of light (photons). More information here

NanoEcotoxicology: New research from Duke University have shown the tendency of CNT to accumulate in sediment. This was tested not in the laboratory setting but in an experimental wetland setting- they suggest these results show that CNT could indirectly impact the aquatic food chain. Read the paper here.

Silver Nanoparticles: Are always in the spotlight- a new study on their impact on Haemolysis, Platelet function and Coagulation has just been published in Nanobiomedicine. The study demonstrates that Ag NP do induce haemolysis and increase platelet adhesion. No observed effect concentration was reported to be 5Ug/ml. More here.  

To end a lovely picture of TiO2 from the cover of Nano Today was synthesized at Thin Film Materials Laboratory, Department of Physics India. It resulted from a Ph. D. work of Mr. Sachin A. Pawar. The TiO₂ produced has solar cell applications.

This week in Nano (Week 39: 22nd-28th September)

Nano standards are here. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have created what is called reference material ‘8027’ (RM 8027). Made from silicon and suspended in toluene this 2nm material is the smallest reference material created to date. This is really great news for anyone working in nanoresearch http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-09/nios-wsr092514.php

Nanoparticles ‘on patrol’ around the body. Will miniaturised internal ‘nanobots’ that give doctors real time data about patients condition ever be a reality? Listen to a radio expert from Science 2034 here: http://www.science2034.org/nanomedicine/nanoparticles-on-patrol/

Just add one disulfide bond.Chemists have created anticancer drugs in nanoparticle form by adding one disulphate bond to the anticancer prodrug molecules. This may hopefully be a more effective way to treat cancer as in naoparticle form the drug can carry more molecules per weight. When delivered into tumor cells the disulphite bond will be broken releasing the molecules. More info here: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/nl502044x (paywalled)or here: http://cen.acs.org/articles/92/web/2014/09/Disulfide-Bond-Helps-Cancer-Prodrugs.html

More papers/news form the wonderful world of graphene

• Graphene and Germanium: Researchers show graphene deposited on a germanium substrate acquires excellent electrical properties and its conductivity improves compared to pure graphene alone: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/nn503381m (paywalled)
• Free sample chapter on Graphene: From the recently published book ‘Graphene; Properties, Preparation, Characterisation and Devices (Jan 2014 Woodhead publishing): http://scitechconnect.elsevier.com/graphene-week-sample-chapter-properties-preparation-chracterisation-devices/#.VCfUAleTBRE
• Graphene biosensors: Out performs traditional methods: http://spectrum.ieee.org/nanoclast/biomedical/diagnostics/graphene-biosensor-is-faster-and-more-sensitive-than-elisa.
• A contender to graphene? Researchers at University of Southampton have fabricated ‘molybdenum di sulphate (MoS2). MoS2 is made by combining sulphur with molybdenum and this new thin metal/sulphide material has similar properties to graphene with properties such as mechanical strength and electronic conduction. The advantage over graphene? Light emitting qualities and the ability to produce on a larger scale= great promise for industry: http://pubs.rsc.org/en/Content/ArticleLanding/2014/NR/C4NR04228J#!divAbstract

Electron Microscopy Advances. From Nature this week a paper describing the 3D shape of a nanoscale crystal with atomic resolution from a electron microscope (EM) image. The paper described how researchers from the Ernst centre for microscopy and spectroscopy with electrons have calculated the spatial arrangement of the atoms from just a single EM image http://www.fz-juelich.de/SharedDocs/Pressemitteilungen/UK/EN/2014/14-09-21jia.html

This week in Nano ( Week 38:15th-21st September)

#WomenTweetSciencetToo. The excellent hashtag circulating on Twitter after the male dominated list of top scientist Twitterers was published by Sciencemagazine (http://tinyurl.com/px8f6jh) in response to the article published in Genome Biology by Neil Hall ‘The Kardashian index: a measure of discrepant social media profile for scientists‘ (http://genomebiology.com/2014/15/7/424).

Scientists can make your wine better with nanotechnology. A great headline this week, basically the story goes that researchers at the iNANO in Aarhus have developed a nanosensor that can measure the effect of astringency in your mouth when you drink wine. It uses salivary proteins to measure the sensation that occurs in your mouth when you drink. The researchers are researching how the proteins in saliva change upon interaction with the wine, and they can use this to describe the effect of the wine. http://tinyurl.com/k5zuj8m

Nanomaterials for Environmental Protection was published: http://tinyurl.com/kpc5pr8

Nano for extending the life of your iPhone. A paper published this week (http://tinyurl.com/npmkrot pay walled) is good news for all those tech junkies. As quoted from the paper ‘ we show that coating the lithium metal anode with a monolayer of interconnected amorphous hollow carbon nanospheres helps isolate the lithium metal depositions and facilitates the formation of a stable solid electrolyte interphase......This is significantly better than the bare unmodified samples....our results indicate that nanoscale interfacial engineering could be a promising strategy to tackle the intrinsic problems of lithium metal anodes. To read that in semi English see this link: http://tinyurl.com/nodu49j

More news on the wonders of Graphene. Nanosized hydrogen generator (http://tinyurl.com/o85rh36), scale ups (http://tinyurl.com/ocu8ahl), cooling down (http://tinyurl.com/la8yf5u) and the EU’s plan for Graphene (http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-14-1005_en.htm)

The OECD Issued a Report of the Questionnaire on Regulatory Regimes for Manufactured Nanomaterials 2010-2011 http://bit.ly/1wI6zcn. The Working Party on Manufactured Nanomaterials (WPMN) aims to gather information on the nanomaterials notified in OECD jurisdictions to provide an indication of regulatory activity and trends over time. This new document presents the info obtained from a questionnaire on said topic which was issued in 2010-2011. The main conclusion (as per the executive summary):
1. There was agreement between the responses on utilizing existing regulatory frameworks to regulate nanomaterials
2. Developing regulatory definitions is still a challenge for regulatory bodies
3. Challenges such as lack of test methodologies, information on uses of nanomaterials and approaches to consider nano-relevant endpoints hinder the risk assessment and risk management.
4. Collaboration remains critical in progressing our understanding of nanomaterials.
5. The international regulatory landscape has significantly changed since the original questionnaire (2008) but most jurisdictions are using existing frameworks to regulate nanomaterials, while there have been some developments on nano-specific reporting regimes (such as in France).