Category archives: Technology

Growing chiral graphene nanoribbons

Growing chiral graphene nanoribbons

ChemistryCondensed matterMaterials

By DIPC

Graphene nanoribbons (GNRs), are strips of graphene with ultra-thin width (<50 nm). Graphene ribbons were introduced as a theoretical model by Mitsutaka Fujita and coauthors to examine the edge and nanoscale size effect in graphene. GNRs are very interesting structures, partly due to their attractive electronic properties. Those properties vary dramatically with changes in the […]

A new source of X-ray fluorescence for art

A new source of X-ray fluorescence for art

ChemistryPhysics

By Invited Researcher

A lthough unfortunately it takes place in rare situations, the synergies between scientific and artistic disciplines offer a vast number of possible applications. The benefits are clear: on one hand artists, conservators and restorers profit from the detailed knowledge about matter and its natural transformation processes that Science provides, and on the other hand, scientists […]

Ruthenium nitrosyl complexes: a useful kind of molecular photoswitches

Ruthenium nitrosyl complexes: a useful kind of molecular photoswitches

ChemistryMaterialsTCCM

By TCCM

Author: Francesco Talotta is a Ph.D. student (ITN-EJD-TCCM) at Université Toulouse III A molecular switch consists in a molecular device able to change its physical or chemical properties (as its color for example) in a well definite way. In the best cases changing can be fully controlled, normally by an external chemical or physical factor […]

The Dark Side of Al(III) Chelation Therapy:  A New Computational Hope

The Dark Side of Al(III) Chelation Therapy: A New Computational Hope

ChemistryPharmacyTCCM

By TCCM

Author: Gabriele Dalla Torre is a Ph.D. student (ITN-EJD-TCCM) at UPV/EHU Aluminum is the third most abundant element in Earth’s crust, after oxygen and silicon. As a consequence, during the last century, human intervention has made aluminum so highly bioavailable that C. Exley, one of the leading researcher on Al(III) biochemistry, stated that we are […]

Looking for new materials with applications in organic solar cells

Looking for new materials with applications in organic solar cells

ChemistryMaterialsTCCM

By TCCM

Author: María A. Izquierdo-Morelos is a Ph.D. student (ITN-EJD-TCCM) at University of Groningen Over the past several decades researchers have thought how materials and device architectures can efficiently convert solar radiation into electrical power through the photovoltaic effect. Those efforts have led to different methods and processes to produce green energy. In this context, organic […]

MI weekly selection #203

MI weekly selection #203

Humanities & Social SciencesScienceTechnologyWeekly Selection

By César Tomé

Strange objects near neighboring galaxies brighten, then dim A pair of unknown objects near neighboring galaxies appear to produce extremely bright X-ray flares, then dim after about an hour. Astronomers aren’t sure what these objects are, noting that nothing like them has ever been spotted in the Milky Way. New Scientist Landslides appear to have […]

Novel sources of clean energy: Where functional polynitrogen materials meet society’s needs.

Novel sources of clean energy: Where functional polynitrogen materials meet society’s needs.

ChemistryMaterialsTCCM

By TCCM

Author: Stefano Battaglia is a Ph.D. student (ITN-EJD-TCCM) at Université de Toulouse III Since the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded in 2010 to Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov for groundbreaking discoveries on the two-dimensional material graphene, the research in low-dimensional carbon nanostructures has seen an incredible increase of interest. Among the different types of […]

Graphene band gap engineering using boron

Graphene band gap engineering using boron

ChemistryCondensed matterMaterialsNanotechnology

By DIPC

Among the astonishing properties of graphene, a high mobility of the charge carriers has placed this material into the focus of intensive research efforts, aimed at developing high-speed graphene-based electronic devices. The first device of this family, a graphene field-effect transistor (GFET), still remains a promising candidate for applications in flexible electronic circuits. An essential […]