In the last couple of years, there has been particularly growing interest worldwide in exploring ways of finding suitable solutions to clean up oil spills and deal with industrial oily wastewater through use of nanomaterials. Key for the success of these materials is a high separation capacity, with resistance to oil fouling, and that are easily recyclable. Oil/water separation is an interfacial challenge, and novel materials designed to possess special wettability have different interaction and affinity for oil and water, thus can realize the separation. Until now, researches in this field all focus on materials with both hydrophobic and oleophilic properties. However, the oil-removing type of materials is easily fouled even blocked up by oils because of their intrinsic oleophilic property. A novel superhydrophilic and underwater superoleophobic hydrogel coated mesh can selectively separate water from oil/water mixtures effectively and without any extra power.

The rapid detection of microRNAs using small-volume samples could therefore help save millions of lives. Such a technique could also pave the way for widespread analysis of the spatial and temporal patterns of gene activity involving microRNAs, which are believed to play a critical role in the development and operation of organisms.

Design optimization could help maximize the power conversion efficiency of thin-film silicon solar cells.

Simple templating technology allows researchers to stamp out materials that mimic the adhesive properties of gecko toes

NEI Corporation announced today that it has completed initial development of a waterborne self-healing coating, Nanomyte MEND-MW.

Tiny particles that measure microRNA levels in tissue samples could help diagnose and monitor many diseases.

Researchers at NIST significantly extended the reach of their novel microfluidic system for analyzing the chemical components of complex samples. The new work shows how the system, meant to analyze real-world, crude mixtures such as dirt or whole blood, can work for negatively charged components as well as it has in the past for positively charged ones.

With a nod to biology, scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have a new approach to the problem of safely storing hydrogen in future fuel-cell-powered cars. Their idea: molecular scale 'veins' of iron permeating grains of magnesium like a network of capillaries.

A University of Arkansas physicist and his colleagues have found that ultra-thin films of superconductors and related materials don't lose their fundamental properties when built under strain when built as atomically thin layers, an important step towards achieving artificially designed room temperature superconductivity. This ability will allow researchers to create new types of materials and properties and enable exotic electronic phases in ultra-thin films.

Researchers at RIKEN have developed a ground-breaking new aqueous reagent which literally turns biological tissue transparent. Experiments using fluorescence microscopy on samples treated with the reagent have produced vivid 3D images of neurons and blood vessels deep inside the mouse brain.

A nanoparticle-infused film brings innovative lighting and display technologies closer to reality.

The ability to control how magnetic vortices gyrate together has potential application in magnetic devices

University of Rochester officials joined U.S. Representative Louise Slaughter yesterday to mark the opening of the Integrated Nanosystems Center (URnano), dedicated to researching and fabricating materials on a microscopic level.

A delicate balance of atomic forces can be exploited to make nanoparticle superclusters that are uniform in size - an attribute that's important for many nanotechnology applications but hard to accomplish, University of Michigan researchers say.

With the new Leica SR GSD from Leica Microsystems, scientists can now achieve resolutions far below the limit of diffraction that have never been attained before in widefield fluorescence microscopy. The system is capable of resolving details as small as 20 nanometers.

CEA-Leti announced today that the 2nd Maskless Lithography IMAGINE Workshop will be held Sept. 6 at the Keio Plaza Hotel in Tokyo.

he theme of the symposium is "Green Tribology" which emphasizes the importance of tribology on energy saving and emission reduction.

The Danish Environmental Protection Agency (DEPA) has initiated the study "Survey on basic knowledge about exposure and potential environmental and health risks for selected nanomaterials". The objective of the study is to provide an overview of the applications of the most commonly used or widespread nanomaterials and to identify areas most likely to have health or environmental problems associated with their use.

Nanosurf, a leading provider of atomic force microscopes (AFM) and scanning tunneling microscopes (STM), and Suzhou Haizisi Nano Technology Co. Ltd., a high-tech company specialized in system solutions for nanodetection, nanofabrication and nanometrology, today announced the founding of a Sino-foreign Joint Venture, Hzs-Nanosurf, which after a preparation period of several months received its Chinese business license in the first half of August, 2011.

Eden Energy Limited through its wholly-owned US, Colorado-based subsidiary, Hythane Company LL, in its specially developed production laboratory in Denver has in 2011 made major breakthroughs in the time and costs associated with the production processes used in the manufacture from natural gas of both hydrogen and super-strong, superlight, and highly conductive nano-carbon products.