Volume 11 Issue 6, June 2016

As artists and manufacturers explore the use of spray-on carbon nanotube coatings, Andrew D. Maynard explores the state of the science around nanotube safety.

Gold-doped graphene combined with a bilayer gold mesh and polymeric microneedles forms a wearable sweat-based patch for real-time monitoring of glucose levels and controlled drug delivery.

Spontaneous formation of defects in the walls of leaky tumour blood vessels may explain the increased accumulation of large nanoparticles in certain tumours.

Experiments show that the radiative heat transfer between two closely spaced parallel surfaces can be two to three orders of magnitude higher than Planck's law for the far field would predict.

This article reviews emergent nanoscale phenomena related to nanoscale contacts, which can have a great impact on the results of nanoelectronic experiments.

Near field-based enhancements in radiative heat conductance that exceed far-field limits by orders of magnitude are demonstrated by manipulating the gap size between plane-parallel dielectric and metallic plates with nanometre precision.

A microelectromechanical system is used to bring two parallel beams to sub-100 nm separation and measure the radiative heat transfer between them under a high thermal gradient.

Graphene layers can be placed on top of each other with accurate twisting angles and show a remarkably high circular dichroism.

Plasmonic nanobubbles can guide the detection and precise removal of residual tumours known to cause lethal cancer recurrence and metastases, offering a surgical tool that can potentially improve cancer survival.

The enhanced extravasation of nanoparticles from tumour blood vessels into the tumour interstitial space has been found to be due to dynamic vents that form transient openings and closings at leaky blood vessels, offering new insights on drug permeability and distribution patterns in tumours.

Placing a single solid-state spin in an optical nanocavity results in a switch that operates at the fundamental quantum limit, where the spin modulates the polarization of a photon and a single photon flips the spin state.

Thermally assisted magnetic scanning probe lithography is used to reversibly pattern magnetic anisotropy landscapes in a continuous exchange-bias system, where propagating spin waves are excited.

The frequency stability of a high-quality silicon nanoresonator is shown to be several orders of magnitude higher than the limit imposed by thermal noise.

Random two-dimensional arrays of carbon nanotubes, which are self-assembled via ion-exchange chemistry, can be used to create cryptographic keys by determining the connection yield and switching type of the nanotube devices.

Gold-doped graphene combined with a serpentine-shaped bilayer of gold mesh and polymeric microneedles form a wearable patch for sweat-based diabetes monitoring and feedback therapy.

Cooperation can help transform small ideas into a complete workable system, says Hyunjae Lee.