10-04 :: April 2010

nanotimes

News in Brief

oxygen flowing through the hollow in the middle. This is the sort of component we want to be able to make in one go. However, it means that the pro- perties of the ceramic materials must be changed through the component from the outside to the inside, so it is, as it were, built up of three layers, each with its own function,” says Nini Pryds from the Fuel Cells and Solid State Chemistry Division at Risø DTU, who is responsible for the project.

The actual outcome of the project will be simple and inexpensive components for using in three pro- mising energy technologies: magnetic refrigeration, oxygen membranes and electromechanical flue gas purification.

http://www.risoe.dtu.dk

The European Commission has launched three calls

for proposals for Marie Curie Fellowships, for

researchers interested in working in foreign research

labs. Deadline: August 17, 2010.

h t t p : / / c o r d i s . e u r o p a . e u / f p 7 / d c / i n d e x . cfm?fuseaction=UserSite.FP7CallsPage&rs

A new soluble fibers developed by Israeli Prof.

Meital Zilberman of the Tel Aviv University (TAU)

Department of Biomedical Engineering, can be used to deliver infection-fighting antibiotics that dissol- ve when the job is done, and as coatings for biode- gradable stents which dissolve after a pre-program- med period of time: “They combine strength with the desired elements necessary for drug delivery,” says Zilberman, so they can also “be used as the basis of biodegradable drug-eluting stents.”

69

She notes that her biodegradable drug-eluting fibers can also be applied in cancer treatments, particu- larly for cancers in hard to reach and sensitive areas such as in the brain, or in small children.

“When you take a tumor out of the brain, you can‘t ‘clean‘ the surrounding brain tissue – attempts to do so may lead to additional tissue damage. But if you left our biodegradable drug-loaded fiber in the brain, it could do the work, then disappear when it‘s no longer needed,” she says.

http://israel21c.org/201003087759/health/coatings-for-life

Researchers from the TU Munich, Germany, show that at the nanoscale, the discreteness and stocha- sticity of an electron transfer event causes fluctua- tions of the electrode potential that render all ele- mentary electrochemical reactions to be faster on a nanoelectrode than predicted by the macroscopic (Butler-Volmer) electrochemical kinetics.

Vladimir García-Morales and Katharina Krischer: Fluctu- ation enhanced electrochemical reaction rates at the na- noscale, In: PNAS, Vol. 107(2010), March 9, 2010, Pages 4528-4532, DOI:10.1073/pnas.0909240107: http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0909240107