Touchscreens made of carbon

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Ultrabroadband photodetector made using graphene ink

Interdigitated electrode on a SiO₂/Si substrate coated with graphene flakes senses light from ultraviolet through to infrared
nanotechweb.org: lab talk

Transistor made from just seven atoms sets the pace

Transistor made from just seven atoms sets the pace
Researchers show off a transistor made from just seven atoms that could be used to create smaller, more powerful computers.

Read more on BBC News

Nanothermal trumpet: thermoacoustic sound source made with a suspended metal nanowire

From the paper “Suspended metal wire array as a thermoacoustic sound source,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, 163102 (2009); by AO Niskanen, J. Hassel, M. Tikander, P. Maijala, L. Grönberg, P. Helistö, from VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, PO BOX 1000, 02044 VTT, Finland. dx.doi.org A suspended metal wire array is used to produce high-pressure sound waves over a wide spectrum using the thermoacoustic effect. It is fabricated with an air-bridge arrays containing up to 2×105 wires covering an area of a few square centimeters. The supporting silicon wafer was isotropically plasma etched to release the wires thereby avoiding heat contact with the substrate. Sound pressure levels reaching 110 db at a distance of 8 cm were demonstrated near 40 khz in free field. The devices are also able to reproduce music and speech. They have potential for applications especially in the ultrasound range.

U.S. Scientists use nano-coating made of paper-based battery

?China Coating Online News U.S. scientists at Stanford University, made the use of nanotechnology-based fast-ordinary office paper for ultra-lightweight, flexible battery or super capacitor. Related Articles published in this week’s U.S. “National Academy of Sciences” on-line edition.

Materials Science and Engineering at Stanford University assistant professor Yi Cui (phonetic) said it would provide a paper covered with silver nanowires with carbon nanotubes and coating raw materials can be turned into a good conductive energy storage device. He said that these nano-materials with a diameter of a small three-dimensional structure, which enable nano-materials, dressing more closely attached to the surface of the paper fibers, making a more durable battery or super capacitor. This paper can achieve a super capacitor, or 40000 times charge-discharge cycles, or at least comparable to the number of lithium battery charge and discharge an order of magnitude higher. The nano-materials, more efficient charge transfer can also make it more advantages than conventional capacitors, the effect would be better.

Research team tried a plastic substrate made of nano-materials for energy storage devices, dressings and paper and as a close bond resistance, this paper as the base of the battery than the battery more durable plastic substrate. More importantly, the paper batteries are not afraid of crumple and fold, or even their being immersed in acidic solution, it will not affect performance, but also to effectively reduce production costs.

Cui Yi, said paper-based flexibility to achieve a variety of intelligent applications, such as brushes can be such a high electrical conductivity of the dressing smear on the wall above, and its fast becoming a large-scale energy storage device. When it with light-emitting diode (LED) and so connected, it can provide sufficient electricity for the LED source. In addition, this technology can be used for power distribution networks, will generate surplus electricity at night up centralized storage and ease pressure on electricity during the day time peak. In the wind farms and solar energy storage systems can also achieve similar applications. It is worth noting that the paper super capacitor may also be used to electric or hybrid vehicles into. Two kinds of cars depends on the rapid transmission of electricity, while the paper capacitor high ratio of surface area and volume, which created its presence in the automotive application of a great advantage.

As a leader in nanotechnology, the University of California at Berkeley professor of chemistry Peidong Yang, said the technology’s ability to achieve in the short term commercial potential. He believes that this technology will not just be limited to the field of energy storage devices, and its low cost and flexible properties make it fit with any electrical device electrode, the prospects quite broad. More importantly, we can use the most common life of the paper as a substrate, through a simple process,  apple ibook g4 14-inch series laptop battery made of conductive features strong, which will fundamentally nanotechnology will be linked with people’s daily lives.

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