News from the NNI Community - Research Advances Funded by Agencies Participating in the NNI

To clean wastewater from munitions processing and demilitarization, engineers at the University of Delaware are testing a novel technology using iron nanoparticles. Instead of being corroded by oxygen in water, forming rust, the 25-nanometer iron particles are corroded by munitions compounds in wastewater. The nanoparticles donate electrons to munitions compounds and, through electron transfer, the dissolved munitions compounds break down. Iron nanoparticles have already been used to treat groundwater, but this is its first application to munitions wastewater.

To clean wastewater from munitions processing and demilitarization, engineers at the University of Delaware are testing a novel technology using iron nanoparticles. Instead of being corroded by oxygen in water, forming rust, the 25-nanometer iron particles are corroded by munitions compounds in wastewater. The nanoparticles donate electrons to munitions compounds and, through electron transfer, the dissolved munitions compounds break down. Iron nanoparticles have already been used to treat groundwater, but this is its first application to munitions wastewater.

Researchers at Rice University have created an efficient, low-cost device that splits water to produce hydrogen fuel. The device integrates catalytic electrodes made with cobalt phosphide nanorods (about 100 nanometers in diameter) and perovskite solar cells, which are crystals that produce electricity when triggered by sunlight. When the device is dropped into water and placed in sunlight, it produces hydrogen with no further input.

Researchers at Rice University have created an efficient, low-cost device that splits water to produce hydrogen fuel. The device integrates catalytic electrodes made with cobalt phosphide nanorods (about 100 nanometers in diameter) and perovskite solar cells, which are crystals that produce electricity when triggered by sunlight. When the device is dropped into water and placed in sunlight, it produces hydrogen with no further input.

Soft and flexible materials called halide perovskites could make solar cells more efficient at significantly less cost, but they are too unstable to use. A Purdue University-led research team has found a way to make halide perovskites stable enough by inhibiting the ion movement that makes them rapidly degrade, unlocking their use for solar panels and electronic devices. A perovskite is made up of components that an engineer can individually replace at the nanometer scale to tune the material's properties.

Soft and flexible materials called halide perovskites could make solar cells more efficient at significantly less cost, but they are too unstable to use. A Purdue University-led research team has found a way to make halide perovskites stable enough by inhibiting the ion movement that makes them rapidly degrade, unlocking their use for solar panels and electronic devices. A perovskite is made up of components that an engineer can individually replace at the nanometer scale to tune the material's properties.

A team of researchers from the University of California San Diego, Columbia University, Brookhaven National Laboratory, the University of Calgary, and the University of California, Irvine has developed a portable, more environmentally friendly method to produce hydrogen peroxide. The method is based on a chemical reaction in which one molecule of oxygen combines with two electrons and two protons in an acidic electrolyte solution to produce hydrogen peroxide. The key to making this reaction happen is a special catalyst that the team developed that is made up of carbon nanotubes that have been partially oxidized.

A team of researchers from the University of California San Diego, Columbia University, Brookhaven National Laboratory, the University of Calgary, and the University of California, Irvine has developed a portable, more environmentally friendly method to produce hydrogen peroxide. The method is based on a chemical reaction in which one molecule of oxygen combines with two electrons and two protons in an acidic electrolyte solution to produce hydrogen peroxide. The key to making this reaction happen is a special catalyst that the team developed that is made up of carbon nanotubes that have been partially oxidized.

In regenerative medicine, an ideal treatment for patients whose muscles are damaged from lack of oxygen would be to invigorate them with an injection of their own stem cells. In a new study, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have demonstrated that "nanostimulators"—nanoparticles seeded with a molecule the body naturally produces to prompt stem cells to heal wounds—can amp up stem cells' regenerative powers in a targeted limb in mice.

People who are affected by Alzheimer's disease have a specific type of plaque, made of self-assembled molecules called beta-amyloid peptides, that build up in the brain over time. Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory, along with collaborators from the Korean Institute of Science and Technology and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, have developed an approach to prevent plaque formation by engineering a nano-sized device that captures beta-amyloid peptides before they can self-assemble.