Dr Li Li has received a Queensland International Fellowship.

The materials scientist from UQ's Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN) is working with experts from the Chinese Academy of Sciences to reduce emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

Dr Li has received a Queensland International Fellowship to help her travel to China and work with Research Center for Eco-Environmental Science Professor Zhengping Hao.

The fellowship, worth $16,000, will cement a collaboration between AIBN, based at The University of Queensland, and the Chinese academy involving the development of high-performance catalysts for VOC removal, using a catalytic oxidation process.

Dr Li said a desire to help improve air quality motivated her in her research with AIBN supervisors, Professor Chengzhong (Michael) Yu and Associate Professor Zhiping (Gordon) Xu.

VOC emissions greatly affect air quality in our cities. Each year in Australia more than 60,000 tonnes of VOCs are released into the atmosphere, she said.

They are very toxic to human health and cause severe environmental problems through the formation of photochemical smog.

This is what attracted me to this area of research and motivates me to try to develop a cheaper catalyst to eliminate VOCs to improve air quality.

Dr Li said VOCs were carbon-based chemicals that easily evaporated into gaseous forms at room temperature.

The collaboration with Professor Hao aimed to develop a high-performance and cost-effective metal oxide catalysts for VOC elimination.

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Green feel for collaboration with China

Scientists are reporting an advance toward treating disease with minute capsules containing not drugs but the DNA and other biological machinery for making the drug. In an article in ACS' journal Nano Letters, they describe engineering micro- and nano-sized capsules that contain the genetically coded instructions, plus the read-out gear and assembly line for protein synthesis that can be switched on with an external signal.

Daniel Anderson and colleagues explain that development of nanoscale production units for protein-based drugs in the human body may provide a new approach for treating disease. These production units could be turned on when needed, producing medicines that cannot be taken orally or are toxic and would harm other parts of the body. Until now, researchers have only done this with live bacteria that were designed to make proteins at disease sites. But unlike bacterial systems, artificial ones are modular, and it is easier to modify them. That's why Anderson's group developed an artificial, remotely activated nanoparticle system containing DNA and the other "parts" necessary to make proteins, which are the workhorses of the human cell and are often used as drugs.

They describe the nanoscale production units, which are tiny spheres encapsulating protein-making machinery like that found in living cells. The resulting nanoparticles produced active proteins on demand when the researchers shined a laser light on them. The nanoparticles even worked when they were injected into mice, which are stand-ins for humans in the laboratory, producing proteins when a laser was shone onto the animals. This innovation "may find utility in the localized delivery of therapeutics," say the researchers.

More information: "Remotely Activated Protein-Producing Nanoparticles, Nano Lett., 2012, 12 (6), pp 26852689. DOI: 10.1021/nl2036047

Abstract The development of responsive nanomaterials, nanoscale systems that actively respond to stimuli, is one general goal of nanotechnology. Here we develop nanoparticles that can be controllably triggered to synthesize proteins. The nanoparticles consist of lipid vesicles filled with the cellular machinery responsible for transcription and translation, including amino acids, ribosomes, and DNA caged with a photolabile protecting group. These particles served as nanofactories capable of producing proteins including green fluorescent protein (GFP) and enzymatically active luciferase. In vitro and in vivo, protein synthesis was spatially and temporally controllable, and could be initiated by irradiating micrometer-scale regions on the time scale of milliseconds. The ability to control protein synthesis inside nanomaterials may enable new strategies to facilitate the study of orthogonal proteins in a confined environment and for remotely activated drug delivery.

Journal reference: Nano Letters

Provided by American Chemical Society

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A step toward minute factories that produce medicine inside the body

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/9lpbg8/mems_nano_and_sma) has announced the addition of the "MEMS, NANO and Smart Systems" report to their offering.

Series: Advanced Materials Research, Volumes 403 - 408

Selected, peer reviewed papers from the 2011 7th International Conference on MEMS, NANO and Smart Systems (ICMENS 2011), November 4-6, 2011, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

The object of this collection of peer-reviewed papers is to provide a forum for the discussion of new developments, recent progress and innovations in the design and implementation of MEMS, NANO and Smart Systems-on-Chip. It addresses all aspects of the design methodology of such systems, with the emphasis on current and future challenges in research and development in both academia and industry.

The 983 papers are grouped into 22 chapters: Materials Behavior, Casting and Solidification, Surface, Subsurface and Interface Phenomena, Coatings and Surface Engineering, Composite Materials, Materials Forming, Machining, Nanomaterials and Nanomanufacturing, Biomedical Manufacturing, Environmentally Sustainable Manufacturing Processes and Systems, Manufacturing Process Planning and Scheduling, Meso/Micro-Manufacturing Equipment and Processes, Modeling, Analysis and Simulation of Manufacturing Processes, Computer-Aided Design, Manufacturing and Engineering, Semiconductor Materials Manufacturing, Laser-Based Manufacturing, Precision Molding Processes, Rapid Manufacturing Technologies, Nontraditional Manufacturing, Nanofabrication, Nanometrology and Applications, Metrology and Measurement, and Mechanical and Electronic Engineering Control. The huge volume of information makes this a veritable encyclopedia of the subject matter.

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/9lpbg8/mems_nano_and_sma

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Research and Markets: MEMS, NANO and Smart Systems - Selected papers from the 2011 7th International Conference on ...

Public release date: 25-Jun-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Matthew Chin mchin@support.ucla.edu 310-206-0680 University of California - Los Angeles

A team of UCLA researchers has created the most powerful high-performance nanoscale microwave oscillators in the world, a development that could lead to cheaper, more energy-efficient mobile communication devices that deliver much better signal quality.

Today's cell phones, WiFienabled tablets and other electronic gadgets all use microwave oscillators, tiny devices that generate the electrical signals used in communications. In a cell phone, for example, the transmitter and receiver circuits contain oscillators that produce radio-frequency signals, which are then converted by the phone's antenna into incoming and outgoing electromagnetic waves.

Current oscillators are silicon-based and use the charge of an electron to create microwaves. The UCLA-developed oscillators, however, utilize the spin of an electron, as in the case of magnetism, and carry several orders-of-magnitude advantages over the oscillators commonly in use today.

UCLA's electron spinbased oscillators grew out of research at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). This research focused on STT-RAM, or spin-transfer torque magnetoresistive random access memory, which has great potential over other types of memory in terms of both speed and power efficiency.

"We realized that the layered nanoscale structures that make STT-RAM such a great candidate for memory could also be developed for microwave oscillators for communications," said principal investigator and research co-author Kang L. Wang, UCLA Engineering's Raytheon Professor of Electrical Engineering and director of the Western Institute for Nanoelectronics (WIN).

The structures, called spin-transfer nano-oscillators, or STNOs, are composed of two distinct magnetic layers. One layer has a fixed magnetic polar direction, while the other layer's magnetic direction can be manipulated to gyrate by passing an electric current through it. This allows the structure to produce very precise oscillating microwaves.

"Previously, there had been no demonstration of a spin-transfer oscillator with sufficiently high output power and simultaneously good signal quality, which are the two main metrics of an oscillator hence preventing practical applications," said co-author Pedram Khalili, project manager for the UCLADARPA research programs in STT-RAM and non-volatile logic. "We have realized both these requirements in a single structure."

The SNTO was tested to show a record-high output power of close to 1 micro-watt, with a record narrow signal linewidth of 25 megahertz. Output power refers to the strength of the signal, and 1 micro-watt is the desired level for STNOs to be practical for applications. Also, a narrow signal linewidth corresponds to a higher quality signal at a given frequency. This means less noise and interference, for a cleaner voice and video signal. It also means more users can be accommodated onto a given frequency band.

Original post:

UCLA-led research team develops world's most powerful nanoscale microwave oscillators

Schematic representation of a spin-transfer nano-oscillator (STNO) with free and pinned magnetic layers (left), and a scanning-electron-microscopy (SEM) image of a cross-section of an STNO (right), showing top and bottom metallic electrodes used for electrical connections. The lateral size of the STNO is about 100nm. (Image courtesy of UCLA Engineering)

(Phys.org) -- A team of UCLA researchers has created the most powerful high-performance nanoscale microwave oscillators in the world, a development that could lead to cheaper, more energy-efficient mobile communication devices that deliver much better signal quality.

Today's cell phones, WiFienabled tablets and other electronic gadgets all use microwave oscillators, tiny devices that generate the electrical signals used in communications. In a cell phone, for example, the transmitter and receiver circuits contain oscillators that produce radio-frequency signals, which are then converted by the phone's antenna into incoming and outgoing electromagnetic waves.

Current oscillators are silicon-based and use the charge of an electron to create microwaves. The UCLA-developed oscillators, however, utilize the spin of an electron, as in the case of magnetism, and carry several orders-of-magnitude advantages over the oscillators commonly in use today.

UCLA's electron spinbased oscillators grew out of research at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). This research focused on STT-RAM, or spin-transfer torque magnetoresistive random access memory, which has great potential over other types of memory in terms of both speed and power efficiency.

"We realized that the layered nanoscale structures that make STT-RAM such a great candidate for memory could also be developed for microwave oscillators for communications," said principal investigator and research co-author Kang L. Wang, UCLA Engineering's Raytheon Professor of Electrical Engineering and director of the Western Instituteof Nanoelectronics (WIN).

The structures, called spin-transfer nano-oscillators, or STNOs, are composed of two distinct magnetic layers. One layer has a fixed magnetic polar direction, while the other layer's magnetic direction can be manipulated to gyrate by passing an electric current through it. This allows the structure to produce very precise oscillating microwaves.

"Previously, there had been no demonstration of a spin-transfer oscillator with sufficiently high output power and simultaneously good signal quality, which are the two main metrics of an oscillator hence preventing practical applications," said co-author Pedram Khalili, project manager for the UCLADARPA research programs in STT-RAM and non-volatile logic."We have realized both these requirements in a single structure."

The SNTO was tested to show a record-high output power of close to 1 micro-watt, with a record narrow signal linewidth of 25 megahertz. Output power refers to the strength of the signal, and 1 micro-watt is the desired level for STNOs to be practical for applications. Also, a narrow signal linewidth corresponds to a higher quality signal at a given frequency. This means less noise and interference, for a cleaner voice and video signal. It also means more users can be accommodated onto a given frequency band.

In addition, the new nanoscale system is about 10,000-times smaller than the silicon-based oscillators used today. The nano-oscillators can easily be incorporated into existing integrated circuits (computer chips), as they are compatible with current design and manufacturing standards in the computer and electronic device industries. And the oscillators can be used in both analog (voice) and digital (data) communications, which means smart phones could take full advantage of them.

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Team develops world's most powerful nanoscale microwave oscillators

Researchers from North Carolina State University have found a way to create much slimmer thin-film solar cells without sacrificing the cells' ability to absorb solar energy. The active layer can be as little as 70 nanometers thick. Credit: Dr. Linyou Cao, North Carolina State University

(Phys.org) -- Researchers from North Carolina State University have found a way to create much slimmer thin-film solar cells without sacrificing the cells' ability to absorb solar energy. Making the cells thinner should significantly decrease manufacturing costs for the technology.

"We were able to create solar cells using a 'nanoscale sandwich' design with an ultra-thin 'active' layer," says Dr. Linyou Cao, an assistant professor of materials science and engineering at NC State and co-author of a paper describing the research. "For example, we created a solar cell with an active layer of amorphous silicon that is only 70 nanometers (nm) thick. This is a significant improvement, because typical thin-film solar cells currently on the market that also use amorphous silicon have active layers between 300 and 500 nm thick." The "active" layer in thin-film solar cells is the layer of material that actually absorbs solar energy for conversion into electricity or chemical fuel.

"The technique we've developed is very important because it can be generally applied to many other solar cell materials, such as cadmium telluride, copper indium gallium selenide, and organic materials," Cao adds.

The new technique relies largely on conventional manufacturing processes, but results in a very different finished product. The first step is to create a pattern on the substrate using standard lithography techniques. The pattern outlines structures made of transparent, dielectric material measuring between 200 and 300 nm. The researchers then coat the substrate and the nanostructures with an extremely thin layer of active material, such as amorphous silicon. This active layer is then coated with another layer of dielectric material.

Using dielectric nanostructures beneath the active layer creates a thin film with elevated surfaces evenly spaced all along the film like crenellations at the top of a medieval castle.

"One key aspect of this technique is the design of the 'nanoscale sandwich,' with the active materials in the middle of two dielectric layers. The nanostructures act as very efficient optical antennas," Cao says, "focusing the solar energy into the active material. This focusing means we can use a thinner active layer without sacrificing performance. In the conventional thin-film design, using a thinner active layer would impair the solar cell's efficiency."

More information: The paper, Dielectric Core-shell Optical Antennas for Strong Solar Absorption Enhancement, is published online in Nano Letters. Lead author of the paper is Yiling Yu, a Ph.D. student at NC State.

Dielectric Core-shell Optical Antennas for Strong Solar Absorption Enhancement

Authors: Yiling Yu and Linyou Cao, North Carolina State University; Vivian E. Ferry and A. Paul Alivisatos, U.C. Berkeley

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Nano-sandwich technique slims down solar cells, improves efficiency

Washington, June 22 (ANI): Two Indian origin scientists are included in a Rice University team who have developed a new type of paint that can reveal strain in materials by its fluorescence.

Originally posted here:

Now, nano-infused paint to detect strain in buildings, bridges and airplanes

Tata Group’s automobile arm Tata Motors had garnered all the global attention with its Tata Nano, the world’s cheapest car and now it has once again set to attract.....

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Tatas developing an under $ 20,000 electric car

HOUSTON, June 21 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers say a nano-infused "strain paint" can reveal stress in materials and holds promise for detecting strain in aircraft, bridges and buildings.

Scientists at Rice University say the material made with carbon nanotubes can reveal deformations in structures by its fluorescence that could be read by a handheld infrared spectrometer, allowing in-the-field stress detection.

The strain paint could tell where a material is showing signs of deformation well before the effects become visible to the naked eye, and without touching the structure, they said.

That's a big advantage over conventional strain gauges, they said, which must be physically connected to their read-out devices.

Nanotube fluorescence shows large, predictable wavelength shifts when the tubes are deformed by tension or compression. The nano-particle paint would suffer the same strain as the surface it's painted on and give a clear picture of what's happening underneath, researchers said.

"For an airplane, technicians typically apply conventional strain gauges at specific locations on the wing and subject it to force vibration testing to see how it behaves," engineering Professor Satish Nagarajaiah said in a Rice release Thursday.

"They can only do this on the ground and can only measure part of a wing in specific directions and locations where the strain gauges are wired. But with our non-contact technique, they could aim the laser at any point on the wing and get a strain map along any direction."

The study was published by the American Chemical Society journal Nano Letters.

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Nanotech paint can show stress and strain

PISCATAWAY, N.J., June 21, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --Proceedings of the IEEE, the most highly-cited general-interest journal in electrical engineering and computer science, will host a Centennial Engineering Innovation Forum in honor of its centennial anniversary at the JW Marriott in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 28 and 29. Led by globally recognized engineering experts, the Forum will cover eight emerging technologies that offer clear benefits to improving the quality of life for citizens worldwide.

Under an umbrella-theme of Improving Quality Of Life Through Engineering Innovations, the forum will cover eight topical areas through panel discussions during the two-day forum including:

Subra Suresh, director of the National Science Foundation (NSF), will keynote the Forum with opening remarks by Gordon Day, IEEE President; Dr. Trew and Professor Metin Akay, Founding Chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Houston and Chair of the Centennial Engineering Forum. Other highly-recognized guests will include Susan Blumenthal, former U.S. Surgeon General, Kristina M. Johnson, former Undersecretary for Energy at the Department of Energy, Dave McQueeney, vice president of Software at IBM Research and Yongmin Kim, president of Pohang University of Science and Technology in South Korea.

The complete Forum program with schedule, panelists and topics is available at: http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/proceedings/eif_program.html.

"In planning this celebration, our goal has been to make it equate to the importance of this milestone and to encourage IEEE members and our readers to participate in as many festivities as possible. While we honor our past, clearly our focus during this celebration is, as always, on the technology of the future," said Dr. Robert J. Trew, honorary forum chairman and editor-in-chief of the Proceedings of the IEEE.

For more information on Proceedings of the IEEE and the latest ideas and innovative technologies, visit http://www.ieee.org/proceedings.

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"Proceedings of the IEEE" Hosts Centennial Engineering Innovation Forum in DC to Unveil Advanced Technologies ...

Public release date: 21-Jun-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: David Ruth david@rice.edu 713-348-6327 Rice University

A new type of paint made with carbon nanotubes at Rice University can help detect strain in buildings, bridges and airplanes.

The Rice scientists call their mixture "strain paint" and are hopeful it can help detect deformations in structures like airplane wings. Their study, published online this month by the American Chemical Society journal Nano Letters details a composite coating they invented that could be read by a handheld infrared spectrometer.

This method could tell where a material is showing signs of deformation well before the effects become visible to the naked eye, and without touching the structure. The researchers said this provides a big advantage over conventional strain gauges, which must be physically connected to their read-out devices. In addition, the nanotube-based system could measure strain at any location and along any direction.

Rice chemistry professor Bruce Weisman led the discovery and interpretation of near-infrared fluorescence from semiconducting carbon nanotubes in 2002, and he has since developed and used novel optical instrumentation to explore nanotubes' physical and chemical properties.

Satish Nagarajaiah, a Rice professor of civil and environmental engineering and of mechanical engineering and materials science, and his collaborators led the 2004 development of strain sensing for structural integrity monitoring at the macro level using the electrical properties of carbon nanofilms dense networks/ensembles of nanotubes. Since then he has continued to investigate novel strain sensing methods using various nanomaterials.

But it was a stroke of luck that Weisman and Nagarajaiah attended the same NASA workshop in 2010. There, Weisman gave a talk on nanotube fluorescence. As a flight of fancy, he said, he included an illustration of a hypothetical system that would use lasers to reveal strains in the nano-coated wing of a space shuttle.

"I went up to him afterward and said, 'Bruce, do you know we can actually try to see if this works?'" recalled Nagarajaiah.

Nanotube fluorescence shows large, predictable wavelength shifts when the tubes are deformed by tension or compression. The paint -- and therefore each nanotube, about 50,000 times thinner than a human hair -- would suffer the same strain as the surface it's painted on and give a clear picture of what's happening underneath.

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Nano-infused paint can detect strain

Soil would hang above the surface, withstand heat - and would stick to astronauts like glue

By Eddie Wrenn

PUBLISHED: 02:51 EST, 20 June 2012 | UPDATED: 05:44 EST, 20 June 2012

A soil scientist has uncovered the mechanics behind some of the weird properties of lunar soil.

When the Apollo 11 astronauts landed on the moon in 1969, they discovered curiosities within the layers of dust, which had laid completely still and undisturbed - except for the occasional meteorite impact - for millennia.

But when it was disturbed, strange behaviour was witnessed: The dust would hang above the surface far longer than the moon's weak gravity could account for, it would cling to clothing and equipment as though it had been glued to the surface.

It could also resist heat - the temperature of the surface when in direct sunlight could be near the boiling point of water, but just a few feet under the surface it would be colder than the freezing point of water.

Marek Zbik studies the nanoparticles found in lunar dust bubbles

The unusual properties have never been properly understood, until soil scientist Dr Marek Zbik, of Queensland University of Technology's Science and Engineering Faculty, travelled to Taiwan to investigate the soil under nano-microscopes - a technology which had not been invented in those heady days of the Space Race.

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Scientist unlocks the quantum secrets of the moon's bizarre soil, which hangs suspended above the surface when touched

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/8fdtv9/nanotechnology_mar) has announced the addition of the "Nanotechnology Market in India 2012" report to their offering.

Nanotechnology refers the applied part of nano science including the engineering to control, manipulate and structure the matter at an unimaginably small scale. Nanotechnology is still in a developing phase in India. With growing awareness and large amount of research and development dedicated towards Nanotechnology, the future seems bright for the same in the country. Possibilities with Nanotechnology applications are unlimited. Modification or alteration at the molecular level of an object can lead not only to superior quality, strength, and mobility but also invention of newer elements which could not be created earlier.

The report begins with Introduction' section covering overview of Nanotechnology which provides basic idea of the technology and brief details regarding the progress or advancement of the technology. The section also contains Nanotechnology value chain.

The Nanotechnology Overview' section elaborates global & domestic market state of Nanotechnology. It is accompanied by a plethora of qualitative and statistical information regarding the state of nanotech in major continents and countries including India, such as funding, specific focus areas and other related information. Also major Indian companies already utilizing Nanotech has been mentioned in the section along with major ongoing Nanotechnology research subjects. A lot of time and money is being invested to understand the basic and synthesized properties of various Nanomaterials for proper utilization in various fields and areas in the industries.

It is followed by Drivers & Challenges' section elaborating the major furtherance & impediments for Nanotechnology sector in India market in India. Both the drivers' and 'challenges' are equally stressed upon to provide clear idea regarding the probable obstacles and rewards in the line of business and help vendors take necessary measures. High costs of Nanomaterials followed by dearth of skilled manpower are the major challenges Nanotechnology sector faces in India. With the large number of investment coming in and academic courses being offered specific to Nanotech, the challenges can be overcome.

Companies Mentioned

- MP3S Nanotechnology

- Nanobio Chemicals India

- Reinste Nano Ventures

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Research and Markets: Government Initiative and High R&D Activities Drive the Nanotechnology Market in India

A student of electronics and telecommunications engineering department, Garima Tulsiani, bagged a gold medal. She was adjudged the best graduate among all the disciplines in this institute

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NIT Silchar convocation

Learn how the Center for High-rate Nanomanufacturing is working to enable access to new innovative manufacturing tools for industry, innovators, entrepreneurs and students.Boston, MA (PRWEB) June 18, 2012 Dr. Ahmed Busnaina, Director of the National Science Foundation Center for High-rate Nanomanufactuurig [CHN], will present a webinar entitled, “The Democratization of Manufacturing”. The ...

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Northeastern University Nanomanufacturing Center Director Ahmed Busnaina to Present Webinar on “The Democratization of ...

Under the Coal Science and Technology (S&T) Grant initiated in 1975, the NLC has been sanctioned Rs. 78.68 lakh

S.P. Kumaresh Babu, associate professor, Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, National Institute of TechnologyTiruchi (NIT-T), has received a grant of Rs. 215.31 lakh from Central Mine Planning and Design Institute Limited, as leader of a collaborative project with Neyveli Lignite Corporation, to prevent erosion of inner walls of steel pipes used in the mines.

Under the Coal Science and Technology (S&T) Grant initiated in 1975 to shore up production methods in sync with rising energy demands, the NLC has been sanctioned Rs. 78.68 lakh. The researches being carried out with the Coal S & T grants have been facilitating modernisation of mining methods to improve productivity and safety, and ensuring conservation and optimum utilisation of coal resources in the country with minimum damage to the environment.

Mr. Kumaresh Babu's four-year project is titled: Enhancing life of de-watering pipes in coal/lignite mines by prevention of erosion-corrosion with nano-crystalline surface engineering treatments. In NLC, the ERW (Electric Resistance Weld) carbon steel pipes used for hydro transport of slurry water from inside area of mines undergo considerable inner erosion due to fast moving solids in the slurry. The rate of erosion and corrosion depend on particle size, hardness, angle of impingement, velocity, pH of water, concentration of various ions, and dissolved oxygen.

The project would analyse basic causes for erosion corrosion of pipelines, mechanism of erosion-corrosion and to develop suitable nano crystalline surface engineering treatments to reduce erosion-corrosion.

The research areas of interest for Mr. Kumaresh Babu, who has 17 years of experience in industry and teaching, constitute metal casting, corrosion and surface engineering, and composite materials.

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NIT-T professor gets over Rs. 2.15 crore to stall erosion in pipes

Innovative ESD Solution Gains Momentum in High-Growth Consumer Markets

San Jose, CA (Marketwire) - Shocking Technologies, Inc., the developer of the Voltage Switchable Dielectric (VSD) material, a breakthrough patented polymer nano-composite for protecting electronic products from electrostatic discharge (ESD), today announced it has raised $10.5 million. The lead investor is Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ: LFUS), which had also participated in a prior strategic investment round last year. To date, Shocking Technologies has raised over $60 million in investment capital, and will use the latest funding to drive and meet global demand for its innovative VSD solution.

Shocking Technologies' XStatic material is a polymer nano-composite that functions substantially as an insulator (dielectric) during normal circuit operation and becomes substantially conductive when the voltage increases beyond a predefined threshold. The XStatic material reverts back to behaving substantially as an insulator after the voltage drops back below the threshold to normal operating levels. The net result is that when the XStatic material is incorporated in a PCB or package substrate, damaging ESD voltages and currents can be routed to ground or to other predetermined locations so that elements, circuits, components and devices can be effectively protected against ESD events. The XStatic material comes with the accompanying software analysis tools.

"We continue to be very pleased with the results OEMs and PCB manufacturers are seeing with this product," said Gordon Hunter, Chief Executive Officer of Littelfuse. "We believe that the XStatic material is a potentially disruptive technology that provides some very interesting opportunities for the future of circuit protection and addressing the ESD challenge most electronics companies face."

"The company has made great strides in making our ESD solution a predictable and reliable way to offer better ESD protection faster and cheaper, making it ideal for a broad range of consumer applications and sub systems. Through the combination of the unique properties of our VSD material and our robust suite of design and analysis tools, customers are seeing the benefits we can bring from both the standpoint of reduced time-to-market and bill-of-materials," said Lex Kosowsky, President and CEO of Shocking Technologies. "We are pleased with the confidence Littelfuse, as an industry leader in this area, continues to have in us and we value their ongoing input into the strategy of the company."

About Shocking Technologies Founded in 2006, Shocking Technologies offers an innovative solution to protecting electronic products in the handheld, cell phone, LCD display, memory and other markets from the harmful effects of electrostatic discharge (ESD). Its patented Voltage Switchable Dielectric (VSD) polymer nano-composite material, XStatic, can be applied to PCB and package substrates, and coupled with Shocking's advanced design and simulation technologies provides the industry's only embedded solution capable of up to 100% protection against ESD. The ease of implementation and comprehensive coverage of the XStatic solution also lowers development time and costs and reduces product design size by eliminating less effective components traditionally used to protect devices against ESD effects. The company has more than 180 patents and applications worldwide and has licensed numerous additional licensed patents and applications. Shocking Technologies is a privately held company with investments from ARCH Venture Partners, ATA Ventures, Skylake Incuvest, Vista Ventures, Balch Hill Capital, Littelfuse, Inc., and a limited number of private investors. For more information, go to http://www.shockingtechnologies.com

About Littelfuse Founded in 1927, Littelfuse, Inc., the worldwide leader in circuit protection, offers the industry's broadest and deepest portfolio of circuit protection products and solutions. Littelfuse devices protect products in virtually every market that uses electrical energy, from consumer electronics to automobiles to industrial equipment. In addition to its Chicago, Illinois world headquarters, Littelfuse has more than 30 sales, distribution, manufacturing and engineering facilities in the Americas, Europe and Asia. Technologies offered by Littelfuse include Fuses; Gas Discharge Tubes (GDTs); Positive Temperature Coefficient Devices (PTCs);Protection Relays; PulseGuard ESD Suppressors; SIDACtor Devices; TVS Diode Arrays (SPA Family of Products); Switching Thyristors; TVS Diodes and Varistors. The company also offers a comprehensive line of highly reliable Electromechanical and Electronic Switch and Control Devices for commercial and specialty vehicles, as well as underground Power Distribution Centers for safe control and distribution of electricity in mining operations. For more information, please visit Littelfuse's Web site at littelfuse.com.

Voltage Switchable Dielectric, XStatic, and the Shocking Technologies name and logo are trademarks of Shocking Technologies, Inc. All other trademarks referred to are property of their respective owners.

SOURCE: Shocking Technologies, Inc.

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Shocking Technologies Raises Additional $10.5M From Circuit Protection Leader Littelfuse

Doug Lung / 06.14.2012 1:32PM

Nano-Technologies Extended to Coax

Nano-coaxial cable could be used as an energy storage device.

With all the research on nanotechnology, perhaps we shouldn't be surprised that one of the latest technologies to involve is coaxial cables on a nano-scale. The main interest in the nano-coaxial cable is as an energy storage device due to the very high capacitance between the inner and outer conductor.

The study found that the capacitance of the nanocable is at least 10 times greater than would be predicted with classical electrostatics. The capacitance of the new nanocable is up to 143 microfarads per centimeter-squared.

For energy storage, Lou envisioned a large scale energy storage device consisting of millions of tiny nanocables side by side in large areas.

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Nano-Technologies Extended to Coax

Sydney, June 13 (IANS) A stunning discovery of nanoparticles inside bubbles of glass in lunar soil could solve the mystery of why the Moon's surface topsoil has many unusual properties, according to a scientist.

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Nanoparticles can solve mystery of Moon's topsoil

Public release date: 12-Jun-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Niki Widdowson n.widdowson@qut.edu.au 61-731-382-999 Queensland University of Technology

A stunning discovery by QUT soil scientist Marek Zbik of nano particles inside bubbles of glass in lunar soil could solve the mystery of why the moon's surface topsoil has many unusual properties.

Dr Zbik, from Queensland University of Technology's Science and Engineering Faculty, said scientists had long observed the strange behaviour of lunar soil but had not taken much notice of the nano and submicron particles found in the soil and their source was unknown.

Dr Zbik took the lunar soil samples to Taiwan where he could study the glass bubbles without breaking them using a new technique for studying nano materials called synchrotron-based nano tomography to look at the particles. Nano tomography is a transmission X-ray microscope which enables 3D images of nano particles to be made.

"We were really surprised at what we found," Dr Zbik said.

"Instead of gas or vapour inside the bubbles, which we would expect to find in such bubbles on Earth, the lunar glass bubbles were filled with a highly porous network of alien-looking glassy particles that span the bubbles' interior.

"It appears that the nano particles are formed inside bubbles of molten rocks when meteorites hit the lunar surface. Then they are released when the glass bubbles are pulverised by the consequent bombardment of meteorites on the moon's surface.

"This continuous pulverising of rocks on the lunar surface and constant mixing develop a type of soil which is unknown on Earth."

Dr Zbik said nano particles behaved according to the laws of quantum physics which were completely different from so called 'normal' physics' laws. Because of this, materials containing nano particles behave strangely according to our current understanding.

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Nanoparticles found in moon glass bubbles explain weird lunar soil behavior