Many insects are equipped with a natural defense mechanism against harmful pathogens: Their wings are covered with nanoscale spikes – 1,000 times thinner than a human hair – that kill bacteria and fungi cells. UCI’s 2019 winner of the University of California Grad Slam competition is mimicking these antimicrobial surfaces in the lab for potential […]
Scientists at UCI and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have shown that synthetic nanopores can possess the same ion-transporting and differentiation capabilities as living tissue. They detail their discovery in a study published today in Science Advances. “Biological systems use ion selectivity to chemically store and exchange energy, making it available for use when needed,” said […]
Scientists at UCI’s Irvine Materials Research Institute have made a breakthrough in directly imaging a platinum precursor compound and its dynamic transformation into nanocrystals. The observation was made in real space and time in IMRI’s state-of-the-art transmission electron microscope facility. The research team’s results were published today in Science Advances. Knowing the dynamics and kinetics of materials […]
Jing Xia, UCI associate professor of physics & astronomy, has been awarded the 2017 Macronix Prize by the International Organization of Chinese Physicists and Astronomers. Also called the Outstanding Young Researcher Award, the honor is given to early-career faculty researchers of Chinese ethnicity who are working outside Asia. “I am very pleased to have been […]
A team of researchers including Allon Hochbaum, UCI assistant professor of chemical engineering & materials science, has made a breakthrough recently in creating synthetic materials that behave like living tissue. In a paper published in Nature Chemistry, the scientists discuss the development of nanomaterials that transform in response to chemical signals. Applying amino acids to […]
UCI engineers find that innovative material facilitates effective on-chip cooling
UCI researchers have devised a new method of dynamically forming a platinum shell on a metallic alloy nanoparticle core, a development that may lead to better materials for oxygen reduction reactions in fuel cells that power some cars and electronic devices. In a first, engineers were able to observe the process directly, in real time, […]
UCI’s Regina Ragan, associate professor of chemical engineering & materials science, has been named a Fulbright U.S. Scholar and will collaborate with researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany through the Fulbright Flex program. Ragan’s work involves developing new processes in advanced manufacturing of nanoscale devices. She is creating technology that employs optical sensing to detect metabolites that […]
UCI chemists create battery technology with off-the-charts charging capacity