May 21, 2026 Study finds gold atoms on common surfaces rearrange into protective patterns, suppressing oxygen reactions by a billion to a trillion times. (Nanowerk News) Gold has been prized for thousands of years for its enduring shine, but Tulane University researchers have discovered that gold’s resistance to tarnishing depends...
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The first-time direct observation of exotic charge-neutral quasiparticles in twisted tungsten diselenide
May 19, 2026 Goldstone modes were directly observed for the first time in twisted tungsten diselenide, revealing charge-neutral excitations in quantum materials. (Nanowerk News) Researchers at UC Santa Barbara have for the first time observed Goldstone modes — elusive, charge-neutral quasiparticles — in a twisted tungsten diselenide superlattice. Using an...
MXene shells turn liquid metal into stretchable printed electronics
May 20, 2026 Researchers wrapped liquid metal droplets in MXene nanosheets, producing a stretchable printed conductor that activates at 2.5% strain. (Nanowerk News) Researchers at Donghua University have wrapped droplets of gallium-based liquid metal in MXene, a family of two-dimensional titanium carbide sheets, producing a printable conductor for stretchable printed...
Graphene quantum dots show promise in targeting Parkinson’s-related protein clumping
May 20, 2026 Engineered carbon-based nanomaterials can interfere with the aggregation of misfolded proteins linked to neurodegenerative diseases, offering a new direction for future therapeutic exploration. (Nanowerk News) The buildup of a protein called 𝛂-synuclein (ASN) into toxic clumps is a hallmark of synucleinopathies, a group of neurodegenerative diseases that...
Pushing low-cost resin printers toward ultrahigh-speed 3D printing
May 20, 2026 Lower release forces let LCD resin printers move faster, bringing low-cost systems closer to ultrahigh-speed 3D printing. (Nanowerk Spotlight) Low-cost resin 3D printers have a frustrating bottleneck. Their screens can project an entire layer at once, their resins can harden in seconds, and their pixels can define...
Electric fields give optical tweezers a sharper grip for nanowire calligraphy
May 20, 2026 By aligning nanowires upright with an AC field before optical trapping, a hybrid method halves the laser power needed and boosts both trap success and speed. (Nanowerk News) Optical tweezers use focused laser beams to trap and move tiny particles, but they struggle with high-aspect-ratio nanowires. The...
Sub-100 femtosecond all-optical modulation beyond electron-phonon limits
May 20, 2026 A silver silicon nanodisk antenna performs all-optical modulation in 37 femtoseconds, bypassing the electron-phonon bottleneck that limits plasmonic devices. (Nanowerk News) Researchers at Xiamen University and Hangzhou Dianzi University have measured all-optical modulation times of 37 femtoseconds in a plasmonic device, breaking a speed limit set by...
Gold antennas thinned to the atomic scale intensify light in 2D materials
May 20, 2026 Sub-5-nm gold antennas match the scale of 2D semiconductors, concentrating light where atomically thin materials can convert and detect it. (Nanowerk Spotlight) Atomically thin materials pose a simple optical problem: they can do useful things with light, but light barely has any material to interact with. A...
Researchers measure giant light-conversion effect in chiral carbon nanotubes
May 20, 2026 Study confirms decadeslong prediction, may advance electronic and photonic technologies. (Nanowerk News) Researchers at Rice University have created large, highly ordered films of chiral carbon nanotubes (CNTs), hollow cylinders of carbon atoms with either a left- or a right-handed twist. Measurements showed the crystalline films can convert...
Controlling chemical reactions more efficiently and sustainably
May 20, 2026 New synthesis method enables targeted modifications to hard-to-reach sites on molecules. (Nanowerk News) A team at the University of Vienna, led by chemist Nuno Maulide, has developed a groundbreaking method for controlling chemical reactions in a more targeted and efficient manner. At the heart of this is...