Nanotubes

Researchers have grown “forests” of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) longer than ever before. Using a new method, the team grew bunches of nanotubes up to 14 cm (5.5 in) long, which should help make it easier to scale up production of this versatile material.

French company Nawa technologies says it's already in production on a new electrode material that can radically boost the performance of existing and future battery types, delivering 3x the energy density, 10x the power, and vastly faster charging.

Graphene may be versatile, but it’s not all that good at dispersing in water. Now, researchers at Umeå University have found a relatively simple way to do it – use graphene oxide instead, which can then be used as a kind of graphene paint.

Atherosclerotic plaque-deposits on the inner walls of arteries are a frequent cause of heart attacks and strokes. A newly-developed nanoparticle could help minimize those deposits, as it prompts the body's own cells to "eat" them.

Ordinarily, when composite items are being manufactured, huge ovens and autoclaves have to be utilized. The production process could soon be much simpler, cheaper and more energy-efficient, however, thanks to the use of carbon nanotube films.

Ordinarily, when biological samples are being tested to see which (if any) viruses are present, it can take up to several days to get results. An inexpensive new tool, however, is claimed to capture and identify viruses within minutes.

Whether they're in airplane wings, bridges or other critical structures, cracks can cause catastrophic failure before they're large enough to be noticed by the human eye. A strain-sensing "skin" applied to such objects could help, though, by lighting up when exposed to laser light.

Imagine if there were comfortable and inexpensive wearable fabrics that were capable of detecting a wide range of pressure and motion. Well, scientists at the University of Delaware have created just such a technology, and it could have some interesting applications.

Carbon atoms can form graphene sheets and buckyballs. Scientists have theorized that a third variation should exist with negative curvature, known as schwarzite. An international team has now found a way to create these structures, which may have unusual electrical, magnetic and optical properties.

​While there are already portable keyboards that can be rolled up, we know how it is … sometimes you just want to crumple the thing up and jam it in your pocket. Well, new technology developed by South Korean scientists will allow you to do just that – plus the keyboards should be cheap, too.

​While there are already systems that estimate tire wear, electrical engineers have developed a sensor that actually measures it in real time. The relatively simple device can reportedly track millimeter-scale changes in tread depth with 99 percent accuracy.

In the quest for a better lithium battery, one thing stands between scientists and a genuine breakthrough: dendrites. But if a new technology lives up to its potential, it could solve this problem and enable lithium-metal batteries that can hold three times the energy of lithium-ion ones.