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Showing posts from June, 2016

An Exciting New Alternative for Smart Packaging

  An Exciting New Alternative for Smart Packaging Packaging industry is about to change most of its products with more advanced and integrated new designs. New package designs are considered to be smart and offer longer shelf lives for their containment from foods to industrial products. Packages will contain a simple cirquit and a digital screen which will give a continuously updated product status about freshness, any gas detection as a result of spoilage and so on. Packages will be impermeable to any gas or substance which causes possible spoilage/corrosion/breakage on products. Recent studies on advanced/smart packaging materials brought a new alternative for smart packaging systems. A recently discovered nanomaterial, namely graphene, seems to change all the quality assesments related with package industry very soon. Graphene is an extraordinary material which is a 2 dimensional (only 1 atom thick ~ 0,34 nm) nanomaterial consists of carbon atoms arranged as hexagons (looks

Harvesting Solar Power with Nanomaterials

Solar power is the most abundant renewable energy source for human beings. Sun provides the earth with energy that is 10,000 times more than the energy needed for human applications. The main issue is the ability to harvest this energy, and the ability to adjust this huge amount of available energy into a sustainable long term energy source. Solar energy can be converted into electrical energy by photovoltaic (PV) technology. PV is the conversion of light into electrical current in which PV solar cells are used. In our previous blog, namely  Nanotechnology and Energy,  we mentioned how nanomaterials show favorable applications in solar energy harvesting. Here we investigate which nanomaterials can be used and what are the properties that make these nanomaterials highly applicable in solar technology. In PV solar cells, electricity is produced in three steps; firstly, light is absorbed by the material used, after that charge separation takes its place in the cells layer, and finall

Meet the World’s Fastest Transistor with GRAPHENE!

Graphene is known as the wonder material for today's technology thanks to its very small size (only one atom thick and considered 2 dimensional), electron mobility and heat transfer properties (is known as having the highest electrical and thermal conductivity), transparency (~%98) and mechanical performance (200 times stronger than steel). It has not many applications in the industry so far because mass production of the material is not yet achieved and its price is still high. Mass production and low prices for graphene will be achieved soon, so a lot of researchers worldwide has already been studying on the applications of this important material since its discovery (including researcers of important corporations like IBM, Samsung, GE etc.). IBM corporation is doing some of the leading works for the applications of graphene and they recently created and demonstrated a high speed transistor with this wonder material. It has the highest cut-off frequency achieved so far for a

Graphene is a marvellous material and shows potential as novel anti-cancer therapeutic strategy

Graphene is a marvellous material and shows potential as novel anti-cancer therapeutic strategy ! Cancer starts when cells in our bodies start to reproduce out of control, forming new, abnormal cells. These abnormal cells form lumps, known as tumours. Cancer cells are able to invade other parts of the body, where they settle and grow to form new tumours known as secondary deposits - the original site is known as the primary tumour. The cells spread by getting into the blood or lymph vessels and travelling around the body. Cancer harms the body in a number of ways. The size of the tumour can interfere with nearby organs or ducts that carry important chemicals. For example, a tumour on the pancreas can grow to block the bile duct, leading to the patient developing obstructive jaundice. A brain tumour can push on important parts of the brain, causing blackouts, fits and other serious health problems. There may also be more widespread problems such as loss of appetite and increased en

Nanotechnology and Energy

                  Nanotechnology and Energy Energy is the blood stream in our modern lives. We consume huge amount of energy, yet most of this energy comes from fossil fuels. Humans have been using fossil fuels as the main source of energy for centuries. This heavy dependence on fossil fuels left us with enormous environmental and consumption issues. These issues need to be solved by finding new methods of producing, transporting and consuming energy. The achievement of secure and long-term energy supply is the biggest challenge in the 21 st  century. Another challenges include efficient transportation and usage of the produced energy. These challenges can be overcomed by new technologies which can introduce promising solutions. Nanotechnology represents the key which opens the door into anticipative solutions for energy problems. Nanotechnology brings new nanomaterials with extraordinary properties. These properties if applied into energy applications may change the way of energy

The effect of graphene on architecture

Mesoporous 3D architectures of silicon dioxide nanoparticles(SiO2), nickel silicate(NiO3Si), and cobalt silicate(CoO3Si) are for the first time prepared by using reed leafs as a sustainable silica source. Due to the 3D mesoporous architecture, nickel and cobalt silicate allow efficient charge transfer and mass transport, while at the same time buffering the volume changes during ion lithiation/delithiation processes. Especially, the nickel silicate electrode with the mesoporous 3D architecture shows a high specific capacitance, a good rate capability, and cycling stability for electrochemical capacitors. Graphene Nanoplatelet has been used as an electrode and channel material in electronic devices because of its superior physical properties. Recently, electronic devices have changed from a planar to a complicated three-dimensional (3D) geometry to overcome the limitations of planar devices. The evolution of electronic devices requires that graphene be adaptable to a 3D substrate. He