72 nanotimes News in Brief

E. Morales-Narváez and A. Merkoçi discuss in Advanced Materials the rationale behind the use of graphene oxide (GO) in biosensing applications and review current approaches. The rationale behind the use of GO in optical biosensing applications is discussed by describing different potentially exploitable properties of GO.

Eden Morales-Narváez, Arben Merkoçi: Graphene Oxide: Graphene Oxide as an Optical Biosensing Platform, In: Advanced Materials, Volume 24, Issue 25, Page 3289, July 3, 2012, Pages 3298-3308, DOI:10.1002/adma.201200373: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/adma.201200373

Researcher at University of Michigan (US) and Instituto de Ciencia y Tecnologia de Polimeros (Spain) present in Advanced Materials versatile all-nanocomposite capped microcontainers. The microcontainers are made using layer-by-layer (LBL) assembly and can act as inert packaging with slow/controlled release for virtually any type of encapsulating material based on clay nanocomposites 3D molded by PDMS templates and capped with another LBL film. © Advanced Materials

Christine M. Andres, Inigo Larraza, Teresa Corrales, Nicholas A. Kotov: Nanocomposite Microcontainers, In: Advanced Materials Early View, June 25, 2012, DOI:10.1002/adma.201201378: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/adma.201201378

Researchers at Ruhr-University Bochum (Germany), Stanford University (US), and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (US) demonstrate the novel concept of a “desalination battery”, which operates by performing cycles in reverse on their previously reported mixing entropy battery. The desalination battery is comprised by a Na2-xMn5O10 nanorod positive electrode and Ag/AgCl negative electrode. 

Mauro Pasta, Colin D. Wessells, Yi Cui, and Fabio La Mantia: A Desalination Battery, In: NANO Letters, Vol. 12(2012), Issue 2, February 8, 2012, Pages 839-843, DOI:10.1021/nl203889e: http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/nl203889e

Researchers at Rice’s Richard E. Smalley Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology (US) have come up with a set of facts and figures about carbon nanotubes that appear to collapse during the growth process; they found that these unique configurations have properties of both nanotubes and graphene nanoribbons. The researchers at Rice University found that nanotubes of a large diameter can spontaneously collapse into closed-edge graphene nanoribbons when atoms on the inside wall get close enough to attract each other.

Chenguang Zhang, Ksenia Bets, Seung Soo Lee, Zhengzong Sun, Francesca Mirri, Vicki L. Colvin, Boris I. Yakobson, James M. Tour, and Robert H. Hauge: Closed-Edged Graphene Nanoribbons from Large-Diameter Collapsed Nanotubes, In: ACS Nano ASAP, June 7, 2012, DOI:10.1021/nn301039v:

http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/nn301039v