Author Archives: Jorn van Dooren

High mercury levels in soil near coal-fired power plants

We have known for some time that coal-fired power plants emit heavy metals into the air, among which is mercury. Most of these highly toxic particles end up in waterways, through which they sometimes spread as far as to other … Continue reading →

Graphene and water: another perfect mix

We’ve said it before and we will say it again: graphene is here to stay. This time researchers of the Monash University Department of Materials Engineering seem to have lived up to one of graphene’s long due promises: an extremely … Continue reading →

DNA: the building block of a new class of nanomaterials

For years, nanotechnologists have been captivated by the potential of quantum dots – semiconducting particles that can absorb and emit light efficiently and at custom-chosen wavelengths. Their true potential however, has been difficult to grasp because of the lack of … Continue reading →

A new hope for hydrogen energy: nanoparticle driven and solar powered

Hydrogen would be an excellent clean energy source, were it not for the fact that it costs a tremendous amount of energy to produce and is thus quite expensive. Researchers have been looking for ways to cheaply and sustainably produce … Continue reading →

Using gold nanoparticles to recover old fingerprints

Fingerprinting is one of the essential techniques of modern-day forensic science. Be that as it may, only a fraction of fingerprints can actually be detected using traditional powdering and cyanoacrylate fuming. But now, using gold nanoparticles, even year-old evidence can … Continue reading →

New graphene production methods open new scale-up possibilities

2004 was the birth year of the new material called graphene. Graphene can be created in various methods in the lab, but the scale-up has remained a challenge for scientists. Additionally, graphene remains suspended in solution, which further limits its … Continue reading →