The smallest pixels yet created—a million times smaller than those in smartphones, made by trapping particles of light under tiny rocks of gold—could be used for new types of large-scale flexible displays, big enough to cover entire buildings.
Researchers from Rice University in Houston and Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz in Germany have uncovered a major piece of the photosynthesis puzzle.
Previous research may have showed that metal nanoparticles have properties useful for various biomedical applications, there are still many mysteries remain regarding how these tiny materials form.
Researchers have created a new "oil and vinegar" approach to forming nanoparticle structures. In this conceptual model, green and blue elements repel one another. Not only does this create a boundary layer where particles tend to congregate, researchers can attach molecules to individual nanoparticles to make them more or less repulsed by an individual layer.