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(GIST OF SCIENCE REPORTER) Nanotechnology

[January-2022]

Efforts of scientists from TAU’s Raymond and Beverly Sackler schools of Physics and Astronomy and Chemistry have resulted in the designing of the world’s tiniest technology, with a thickness of just two atoms.
This innovation may fundamentally improve electronic gadgets in terms of speed, thickness, and energy utilisation.
The technology proposes a way for storing data in the thinnest unit known to science, in one of the most inert and stable materials in nature.
The innovation works by utilising quantum-mechanical electron tunnelling, which through the atomically thin layer might enhance the data reading process.

A team of researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst has made an electronic microsystem that can wisely react to data inputs with practically no outside energy input, similar to a self-sustaining living organic entity.
The microsystem is developed from electronics that can cycle ultralow electronic signals and incorporates a new device that can produce power “out of thin air” from the surrounding environment.
The main components of the self-sustained microsystem are protein nanowires —a ‘green’ electronic material that is sustainably created from microorganisms without generating ‘e-waste’.

Researchers at Brown University have reported a finding in Nature Communications according to which little channels between graphene sheets can be adjusted such that makes them ideal for water filtration.
At the point when sheets of two-dimensional nanomaterials like graphene are stacked on top of one another, little holes or gaps between them have potential applications. Keeping this in view, scientists have figured out how to arrange those gaps to make nanochannels, such that makes them more valuable for filtering water and different fluids of nanoscale toxins.

In view of the dire need for antibiotic substitutes and nanotechnological solutions for bacterial antibiotic resistance, IISER (Indian Institute of Science Education and Research), Bhopal, has come up with a process of producing silver nanomaterials that can be used as antimicrobial agents.
A report published in the journal of the American Chemical Society – ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, describes the use of a small amino acid, L-tyrosine (Tyr) in the preparation of Silver Nanomaterials (AgNMs) having antimicrobial properties against Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Candida albicans, Escherichia coli, and Bacillus cereus cell lines.
The silver nanomaterials comprise a dual system including smaller and larger silver nanoclusters. Smaller nanoclusters are responsible exclusively for photophysical characteristics while larger ones are responsible exclusively for antimicrobial properties. The study paves the way for further exploring the Tyr in the preparation of nanomaterials.