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  • Invisibility possibilities in the visible
    Long before the Klingons came at Captain Kirk with ‘cloaked’ space craft in the 1960s, the imagined possibilities of invisibility have been dreamed of by schoolboys, scientists, the military and almost everyone else.
  • SMAs for mechanical damping
    Until now both scientific and technological fields have been unable to agree whether the stress-induced martensitic transformation of shape memory alloys (SMAs) exhibits a size dependence similar to that observed in crystal plasticity.
  • From ABC monomers to multifunctional nanoarchitectures
    It is widely known that the ability to attach different functional moieties to a molecular building block can lead to applications in fields such as nanoelectronics, nanophotonics, intelligent sensing and drug delivery.
  • Bend it, stretch it!
    It has been known for some time that stretchability properties in materials will significantly expand the scope of applications in the electronics industry particularly for large-area electronic displays, sensors and actuators, and unlike conventional devices stretchable electronics can cover arbitrary surfaces and movable parts, opening up a wealth of opportunities.
  • A waterproof gas nanosensor
    There is increasing demand for low-cost gas sensors that can discriminate between low concentrations of analytes.
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Webinars

  • Confocal Microscopy in a New Light
    This educational webinar headed by Dr Andrew Dixon, one of the pioneers of the confocal microscope will introduce you to the principle and history of the technique, giving examples and typical applications in materials science. You will learn about the advantages this powerful tool has to offer, as well as the unique opportunity of asking our expert panel questions relevant to your current research needs.
  • Open up a New World of Analysis
    Energy Dispersive Spectrometry (EDS) has long been admired for its ability to quickly and accurately characterise a large and diverse range of materials. The recent introduction of silicon drift detectors (SDDs) has revolutionised EDS analysis on scanning electron microscopes (SEMs). Collection times have been reduced and spectrum imaging is much more practical, but productivity is often limited by small sensor sizes (<30mm²).
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COVER COMPETITION 2008This year again Materials Today cover competition has been a resounding success, with over 100 participants and more than 125 pictures submitted!

Features

  • Nanofabrication by self-assembly Nanofabrication by self-assembly
    The self-assembly paradigm in chemistry, physics and biology has matured scientifically over the past two-decades to a point of sophistication that one can begin to exploit its numerous attributes in nanofabrication. In what follows we will take a brief look at current thinking about self-assembly and with some recent examples taken from our own work examine how nanofabrication has benefited from self-assembly.
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  • Nanofabrication by DNA self-assembly Nanofabrication by DNA self-assembly
    Molecular self-assembly strategies involve the formation of nanometer scale objects and materials in the absence of significant external control. One increasingly popular self-assembly approach makes use of the unique properties of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) including its diminutive size and high capacity for information storage. For many applications, DNA stands alone as the top choice for the programmable construction of supramolecular materials due to its specific and well-understood base-pairing interactions. In this review, we will discuss recent advances in the fabrication of materials via DNA based self-assembly.
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  • Directed assembly of nanowires Directed assembly of nanowires
    Nanowires of a diverse range of compositions with tailored physical properties can be produced through synthetic means. These structures have been used as key components in flexible electronics, electronic logic gates, renewable energy technologies, and biological or gas sensing applications. Integrating these nanostructures into device or technology platforms will complement existing nanofabrication procedures by broadening the types of nanostructured materials that are utilized in device fabrication. This integration requires an ability to assemble these nanowires as controllable building blocks. Techniques are being developed that can quickly manipulate large quantities of nanowires through parallel processes.
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  • Functional hybrid materials Functional hybrid materials
    Nanofabrication via self-assembly of hybrid materials into well-defined architectures is essential for the next generation of miniaturized devices. This paper describes our group's achievements towards the development of multifunctional nanostructures via self-assembly of hybrid systems based on the block copolymer PS-b-P4VP and inorganic nanoparticles (NPs) into 0D, 1D, 2D and complex 3D periodic nanostructures. The morphologies of these architectures are adjusted to gain functions via structural control at different dimensions.
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Downloads

  • Semiconductor nanowire devices
    In the past ten years the idea of using self-assembled nanostructures to overcome the limitations of top-down fabrication approach was the driving force behind the tremendous interest in semiconducting nanowires and nanotubes.
  • Carbon nanotube-based neat fibers
    Macroscopic fibers containing only Carbon NanoTubes (CNTs) will yield great advances in high-tech applications if they can attain a significant portion of the extraordinary mechanical and electrical properties of individual CNTs.
  • Spiderman gloves
    Theoretical van der Waals gloves could generate an adhesion force comparable to the body weight of 500 men.
  • Nanoparticle-modified polyelectrolyte capsules
    The concept of polyelectrolyte capsules as multifunctional carrier systems is described. The walls of a capsule can be functionalized with fluorescent, magnetic, and heatable colloidal nanoparticles and also biological macromolecules, while its cavity can be loaded with cargo molecules. Potential applications of this carrier system for delivery and sensing in cells are discussed.
  • Self-assembling peptide nanotubes
    Biological proteins and peptides have the intrinsic ability to self-assemble into elongated solid nanofibrils, which may give rise to amyloid diseases or inspire applications ranging from tissue engineering to nanoelectronics.
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