Nanotechnology

Illustration to highlight the launch of the Center for Adapting Flaws into Features.

NSF grant kicks off Center for Adapting Flaws into Features

Rice University has won a Phase I National Science Foundation grant to establish the NSF Center for Adapting Flaws into Features to investigate nanoscale chemical phenomena and optimize the structures and electronic properties of materials.

Patterns adorns a static model used to test Rice University’s Hyperspectral Stripe Projector, which combines spectroscopic and 3D imaging. Barcode-like black and white patterns are displayed on the DMD to generate the hyperspectral stripes. (Credit: Kelly Lab/Rice University)

3D camera earns its stripes at Rice

The Hyperspectral Stripe Projector captures spectroscopic and 3D imaging data.

A thin film of 2D halide perovskite crystals that was grown with Rice University's seeded-growth method

Solar energy collectors grown from seeds

Rice University engineers have created microscopic seeds for growing remarkably uniform 2D perovskite crystals that are both stable and highly efficient at harvesting electricity from sunlight.

Materials scientists Jun Lou and Boyu Zhang

Hexagonal boron nitride's remarkable toughness unmasked

It's official: Hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) is the iron man of 2D materials, so resistant to cracking that it defies a century-old theoretical description engineers still use to measure toughness.

Visualization of soft matter tubes

Molecular jiggling has implications for carbon nanotube fibers

New research suggests the jiggling motion of carbon nanotubes suspended in liquid solutions could have implications for the structure, processing and properties of nanotube fibers formed from those solutions.

A preliminary rendering shows a concept for the lobby of the new science and engineering building on the site of the Abercrombie Engineering Laboratory, which will be demolished soon. (Credit: SOM)

Rice names architect for new engineering and science building

With the imminent demolition of Rice University’s Abercrombie Engineering Laboratory, the space will soon be cleared for a new engineering and science building, according to Rice administrators. International architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) has been selected as lead architect for the new building. Houston’s Scientia Architects will consult on laboratory design.

Chemists at Rice University and the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany quantified the release of silver ions from gold-silver nanoparticle alloys. At top, transmission electron microscope images show the change in color as silver (in blue) leaches out of a nanoparticle over several hours, leaving gold atoms behind. The bottom hyperspectral images show how much a nanoparticle of silver and gold shrank over four hours as the silver leaches away. (Credit: Rice University)

Silver ions hurry up, then wait as they disperse

There’s gold in them thar nanoparticles, and there used to be a lot of silver, too. But much of the silver has leached away, and researchers want to know how.

Rubber B

Tires turned into graphene that makes stronger concrete

Rice scientists optimize a process to turn rubber from discarded tires into soluble graphene.

Light B

Teamwork makes light shine ever brighter

If you’re looking for one technique to maximize photon output from plasmons, stop. It takes two to wrangle.

A color map illustrates the inherent colors of 466 types of carbon nanotubes with unique (n,m) designations based their chiral angle and diameter.

Sheets of carbon nanotubes come in a rainbow of colors

Nanomaterials researchers in Finland, the United States and China have created a color atlas for 466 unique varieties of single-walled carbon nanotubes.

Films made of highly aligned nanotubes like those developed at Rice in 2016 will be part of advanced tissue imaging systems. (Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)

Rice physicist shares grant to advance imaging

The lab of physicist Junichiro Kono will share in a $1 million grant from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to improve imaging of proteins, cells and tissues.

Flash graphene made from plastic by a Rice University lab begins as post-consumer plastic received from a recycler. It is then mixed with carbon black and processed into turbostratic graphene via timed pulses of AC and DC electricity. (Credit: Tour Group/Rice University)

Flash graphene rocks strategy for plastic waste

Rice scientists advance their technique to make graphene from waste with a focus on plastic.

Rice University researchers have expanded their theory on converting graphene into 2D diamond, or diamane. They have determined that a pinpoint of pressure can trigger connections between layers of graphene, rearranging the lattice into cubic diamond. (Credit: Illustration by Pavel Sorokin)

Rice finds path to nanodiamond from graphene

Rice University researchers expand their theory on converting graphene into 2D diamond, or diamane.

Rice University will roll up for the second international Nanocar Race with a new vehicle. The one-molecule car has a permanent dipole that makes it easier to control. (Credit: Alexis van Venrooy/Rice University)

Rice rolls out next-gen nanocars

Rice researchers continue to advance the science of single-molecule machines with a new lineup of nanocars, in anticipation of the next international Nanocar Race in 2022.

A pictorial schematic depicts the structure and action of a nanopatterned plasmonic metasurface that modulates polarized light at terahertz frequencies.

A trillion turns of light nets terahertz polarized bytes

Nanophotonics researchers at Rice University, the Polytechnic University of Milan and the Italian Institute of Technology have demonstrated a novel technique for modulating light at terahertz frequencies with plasmonic metasurfaces.