Home > News > Blingtronics: Diamonds are a geek's best friend
April 28th, 2010
Blingtronics: Diamonds are a geek's best friend
Abstract:
It's like walking into a bank vault. Pass codes secure the doors. The walls and floor are made of reinforced concrete up to 2 metres thick - all built on solid sandstone. The ventilation ducts have automatic shut-offs. Not even cellphone signals can sneak in.
All this might seem fitting given that the place houses diamonds by the hundred. Yet this is no vault. It's a lab in the Centre for Nanoscience and Quantum Information at the University of Bristol, UK, and the diamonds stored here are each no bigger than a speck of dust. Diamonds this size might not interest a bank robber, but they are turning out to be a physicist's best friend.
And it's not just diamonds. Gold and silver, too, are acquiring new allure in the lab. These materials' superlative hardness, lustre and resistance to corrosion have been prized for centuries, but reduce this stuff to the nanoscale and other characteristics emerge; valuable properties which promise to transform the way we build electrical gadgets of every kind. Welcome to the shiny new world of "blingtronics".
Unravelling the remarkable riches of this nano-world takes an exceptionally steady hand - which is why the Bristol lab is so solidly built. Here physicist Neil Fox spends his day manipulating delicate films of diamond as thin as a human hair. The experiments are so sensitive that even the faintest vibration could spell failure.
Fox aims to turn these diamond films into a new kind of solar cell, one that generates electricity by absorbing heat rather than visible-light wavelengths.
Source:
newscientist.com
Bookmark:
| Related News Press |
News and information
Enhancing power factor of p- and n-type single-walled carbon nanotubes April 25th, 2025
Tumor microenvironment dynamics: the regulatory influence of long non-coding RNAs April 25th, 2025
Ultrafast plasmon-enhanced magnetic bit switching at the nanoscale April 25th, 2025
Academic/Education
Rice University launches Rice Synthetic Biology Institute to improve lives January 12th, 2024
Multi-institution, $4.6 million NSF grant to fund nanotechnology training September 9th, 2022
Materials/Metamaterials/Magnetoresistance
Enhancing power factor of p- and n-type single-walled carbon nanotubes April 25th, 2025
Chainmail-like material could be the future of armor: First 2D mechanically interlocked polymer exhibits exceptional flexibility and strength January 17th, 2025
Enhancing transverse thermoelectric conversion performance in magnetic materials with tilted structural design: A new approach to developing practical thermoelectric technologies December 13th, 2024
Announcements
Enhancing power factor of p- and n-type single-walled carbon nanotubes April 25th, 2025
Tumor microenvironment dynamics: the regulatory influence of long non-coding RNAs April 25th, 2025
Ultrafast plasmon-enhanced magnetic bit switching at the nanoscale April 25th, 2025
Energy
KAIST researchers introduce new and improved, next-generation perovskite solar cell November 8th, 2024
Unveiling the power of hot carriers in plasmonic nanostructures August 16th, 2024
Groundbreaking precision in single-molecule optoelectronics August 16th, 2024
Solar/Photovoltaic
KAIST researchers introduce new and improved, next-generation perovskite solar cell November 8th, 2024
Groundbreaking precision in single-molecule optoelectronics August 16th, 2024
Development of zinc oxide nanopagoda array photoelectrode: photoelectrochemical water-splitting hydrogen production January 12th, 2024
Shedding light on unique conduction mechanisms in a new type of perovskite oxide November 17th, 2023
 |
||
 |
||
| The latest news from around the world, FREE | ||
 |
||
|
|
||
| Premium Products | ||
 |
||
|
Only the news you want to read!
Learn More |
||
 |
||
|
Full-service, expert consulting
Learn More |
||
|
|
||