Nanotechnology

  2010 AUG 4 - (VerticalNews.com) -- According to a study from Tsukuba, Japan, "The search for active semiconductor photocatalysts that directly split water under visible-light irradiation remains one of the most challenging tasks for solar-energy utilization(1-6). Over the past 30 years, the search for such materials has focused mainly on metal-ion substitution as in In1-xNixTaO4 and (V-; Fe- or Mn-) TiO2 (refs 7,8), non-metal-ion substitution as in TiO2-xNx and Sm2Ti2O5S2 (refs 9,10) or solid-solution fabrication as in (Ga1-xZnx)(N1-xOx) and ZnS-CuInS2-AgInS2 (refs 11,12). ...read more

  2010 MAY 3 - (VerticalNews.com) -- "A straightforward roll-to-roll process for fabricating flexible and stretchable superaligned carbon nanotube films as transparent conducting films is demonstrated," investigators in Beijing, People's Republic of China report.

  "Practical touch panels assembled by using these carbon nanotube conducting films are superior in flexibility and wearability and comparable in linearity to touch panels based on indium tin oxide (ITO) films. After suitable laser trimming and deposition of Ni and Au metal, the carbon nanotube film possesses excellent performance with two typical values of sheet resistances and transmittances (208 Omega rectangle(-1), 90% and 24 Omega rectangle(-1), 83.4%), which are comparable to ITO films and better than the present carbon nanotube conducting films in literature," wrote C. Feng and colleagues, Tsinghua University ...read more

  2010 MAY 3 - (VerticalNews.com) -- According to a study from India, "Electrochemical polymerization of aniline was carried out in micellar solutions of camphor sulphonic acid (CSA, anionic surfactant), cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB, cationic surfactant) and TritonX 100 (Tx100, nonionic surfactant), to reveal the morphology against the nature of the surfactant molecule."

  "The resultant polyaniline film was characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopic and cyclic voltammetric techniques. The surface morphology observed from different surfactant molecules was found to be distinctly different," wrote J.A. Raj and colleagues, Alagappa University ...read more