Nanoscience and nanotechnology

Long-sought phenomenon finally detected

Weyl points, first predicted in 1929, observed for the first time.

July 16, 2015

Paula Hammond named head of Department of Chemical Engineering

An MIT faculty member since 1995, Hammond succeeds Klavs Jensen as ChemE department head.

July 13, 2015

Why do puddles stop spreading?

Simple everyday phenomenon was unexplained by physics — until now.

July 9, 2015

Yarn made of niobium nanowires, seen here in a scanning electron microscope image (background), can be used to make very efficient supercapacitors, MIT researchers have found. Adding a coating of a conductive polymer to the yarn (shown in pink, inset) further increases the capacitor’s charge capacity. Positive and negative ions in the material are depicted as blue and red spheres.

Tiny wires could provide a big energy boost

Yarns of niobium nanowire can make supercapacitors to provide a surge of energy when it’s needed

July 7, 2015

In this illustration, the Quantum Dot (QD) spectrometer device is printing QD filters — a key fabrication step. Other spectrometer approaches have complicated systems in order to create the optical structures needed. Here in the QD spectrometer approach, the optical structure — QD filters — are generated by printing liquid droplets. This approach is unique and advantageous in terms of flexib...

Chemists design a quantum-dot spectrometer

New instrument is small enough to function within a smartphone, enabling portable light analysis.

July 1, 2015

Ketchup slides out of a bottle that's been coated with LiquiGlide.

LiquiGlide slides into consumer space

Startup brings nonstick coating to consumer goods packaging in major licensing deal.

June 30, 2015

In this illustration, phagemid plasmids infect a targeted bacteria.

Researchers develop a new means of killing harmful bacteria

Engineered particles are capable of producing toxins that are deadly to targeted bacteria.

June 25, 2015

Seeking rare cells

Christopher Love uses microscale technology to isolate rare cells, yielding insight into human disease.

June 17, 2015

Engineering students tour of the MIT.nano construction site.

Learning from MIT.nano

An MIT class goes on a field trip — to the center of campus.

June 10, 2015

A scanning electron micrograph of the new microfiber emitters, showing the arrays of rectangular columns etched into their sides.

Unlocking nanofibers’ potential

Prototype boosts production of versatile fibers fourfold, while cutting energy consumption by 92 percent.

June 4, 2015

A new technique tunes friction between two surfaces, to the point where friction can vanish. MIT researchers developed a frictional interface at the atomic level. The blue corrugated surface represents an optical lattice; the red balls represent ions; the springs between them represent Coulomb forces between ions. By tuning the spacing of the ion crystal surface above to mismatch the bottom corrug...

Vanishing friction

In tuning friction to the point where it disappears, technique could boost development of nanomachines.

June 4, 2015

A new tool measures the distance between phonon collisions

Tabletop setup provides more nuanced picture of heat production in microelectronics.

June 1, 2015

An uncoated copper condenser tube (top left) is shown next to a similar tube coated with graphene (top right). When exposed to water vapor at 100 degrees Celsius, the uncoated tube produces an inefficient water film (bottom left), while the coated shows the more desirable dropwise condensation (bottom right).

Thin coating on condensers could make power plants more efficient

Graphene layer one atom thick could quadruple rate of condensation heat transfer in generating plants.

May 29, 2015

Seeking deeper understanding of how the brain works

Edward Boyden develops techniques to study the brain, and how it operates, in finer detail.

May 21, 2015

Copper substrate is shown in the process of being coated with graphene. At left, the process begins by treating the copper surface, and, at right, the graphene layer is beginning to form. Upper images are taken using visible light microscopy, and lower images using a scanning electron microscope.

How to make continuous rolls of graphene

New manufacturing process could take exotic material out of the lab and into commercial products.