- 3406 - NANOTECHNOLOGY - using a DNA synthesizer? Researchers have created a nano-antenna to monitor the motions of proteins. The device is a new method to monitor the structural change of proteins over time and may go a long way to helping scientists better understand natural and human-designed nano-technologies.
--------------- 3406 - NANOTECHNOLOGY - using a DNA synthesizer?
- A start-up company make this nanoantenna available to most researchers and the pharmaceutical industry. An antenna that works like a two-way radio
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- Over 40 years ago, researchers invented the first DNA synthesizer to create molecules that encode genetic information. In recent years, chemists have realized that DNA can also be employed to build a variety of nanostructures and nanomachines.
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- The 'Lego-like' properties of DNA, with building blocks that are typically 20,000 times smaller than a human hair, have created a DNA-based fluorescent nanoantenna, that can help characterize the function of proteins.
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- Like a two-way radio that can both receive and transmit radio waves, the fluorescent nanoantenna receives light in one color, or wavelength, and depending on the protein movement it senses, then transmits light back in another color, which we can detect.
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- One of the main innovations of these nanoantennae is that the receiver part of the antenna is also employed to sense the molecular surface of the protein studied via molecular interaction.
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- One of the main advantages of using DNA to engineer these nanoantennas is that DNA chemistry is relatively simple and programmable. The DNA-based nanoantennas can be synthesized with different lengths and flexibilities to optimize their function. One can easily attach a fluorescent molecule to the DNA, and then attach this fluorescent nanoantenna to a biological nanomachine, such as an enzyme.
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- By carefully tuning the nanoantenna design, reseachers created five nanometer-long antenna that produces a distinct signal when the protein is performing its biological function.
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- In addition to helping us understand how natural nanomachines function or malfunction, consequently leading to disease, this new method can also help chemists identify promising new drugs as well as guide nanoengineers to develop improved nanomachines.
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- One main advance enabled by these nanoantennas is also their ease-of-use. Perhaps what we are most excited by is the realization that many labs around the world, equipped with a conventional spectro-fluorometer, could readily employ these nanoantennas to study their favorite protein, such as to identify new drugs or to develop new nanotechnologies.
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- An innovative nano- device is used for harvesting solar energy. Capturing visible and infrared radiation using nanodevices is an essential aspect of collecting solar energy: solar cells and solar panels are common devices that utilize nanoantennas, which link electromagnetic radiation to specific optical fields.
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- The nano-device antenna can be useful in many areas where high thermoelectric efficiency is needed from energy harvesting to applications across the aerospace industry.
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- A nano- antenna can be used for efficient thermoelectric energy harvesting. They have demonstrated thermoelectric voltage three times larger than a classical antenna. This type of antenna can be useful in many fields from harvesting of energy from waste heat, in sensing and solar thermal energy harvesting.
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- The nanoantennas are bimetallic, using nickel and platinum, and are fabricated using e-beam lithography. The nanoantenna design was optimized using simulations to determine the distance between the elements.
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- In comparing their thermoelectric voltage to the classic dipole nanoantenna, these were 1.3 times more efficient. The characterization was done using a solar simulator analyzing the I-V curves. The results indicate that nanoantenna arrays would be good candidates for the harvesting of waste heat energy.
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- A new advanced energy harvesting system is capable of generating electricity by simply being attached to clothes, windows, and outer walls of a building. This new device is based on a temperature difference between the hot and cold sides.
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- The temperature difference can be increased as high as 20.9 °C, which is much higher than the typical temperature differences of 1.5 to 4.1 °C of wearable thermoelectric generators driven by body heat. Wearable solar thermoelectric generator is a promising way to further improve the efficiency by raising the temperature difference.
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- Energy harvesting is a diverse field encompassing many technologies, which involve a process that captures small amounts of energy that would otherwise be lost as heat, light, sound, vibration, or movement. A thermoelectric generator refers to a device that converts waste heat energy, such as solar energy, geothermal energy, and body heat into additional electrical power.
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- There has been a great increase in the study of wearable thermoelectric generators using the temperature difference between the body heat and surrounding environment. However, one of the main drawbacks of wearable techniques driven by body heat was that such temperature difference is only 1 to 4 degrees and this has hindered further commercialization.
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- The research team solved this low temperature difference faced by conventional wearables by introducing a local solar absorber on a PI substrate. The solar absorber is a five-period Ti/MgF2 superlattice, in which the structure and thickness of each layer was designed for optimal absorption of sunlight. This has increased the temperature difference as high as 20.9 °C, which is the highest value of all wearables reported to date.
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- A wearable solar thermoelectric generator was designed by integrating flexible BiTe-based TE legs and sub-micron thick solar absorbers on a polymide (PI) substrate.
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- The TE legs were prepared by dispenser printing with an ink consisting of mechanically alloyed BiTe-based powders and an Sb2Te3-based sintering additive dispersed in glycerol. They report that a comprising 10 pairs of p-n legs has an open-circuit voltage of 55.15 mV and an output power of 4.44 μW when exposed to sunlight.
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- Our new wearable is expected to be useful in various applications, such as in self-powered wearable electronic devices. It will also serve as a catalyst to further improve the future wearable electronic technology market.
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- Your cell phone will work as long as you are moving. A poor technology for couch potatoes.
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January11, 2022 NANOTECHNOLOGY - using a DNA synthesizer? 3406
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