18th January 2018
The research paper reveals the potential to further expand the extensive family of nanostructured materials. Images: From Science 358, 514 (2017). Reprinted with permission from AAAS.

Non–Close-Packed Nanoparticle Arrays: Porous Materials with Novel Crystal Structures Assembled from Nanoparticles

Self-assembly of inorganic nanoparticles has been used to prepare hundreds of different colloidal crystals, but almost invariably with the restriction that the particles must be densely packed. Here, we show that non–close-packed nanoparticle... (Read more)
5th July 2017
Switchable liquid crystal contact lens with graphene electrodes fabricated by the Leeds team. Copyright: Leeds University

From Novel Soft Materials to Switchable Contact Lenses

The use of liquid crystals is well established in displays used in smart phones and large area TVs. A new effect has been found in bent core liquid crystal compounds that form an... (Read more)
2nd July 2017
Finite element simulations show that a combination of convection and thermodiffusion enriches formamide in the pore (contour plot). The graph illustrates the accumulation normalized to the reservoir concentration ω_0 over time for different ω_0. The accumulation saturates around a formamide concentration of 85 wt%. The time necessary to reach the plateau τ_plateau depends on the reservoir concentration ω_0 (inset). Copyright: Forschungszentrum Jülich

Origin of Life: Accumulation of Formamide in Hydrothermal Pores to Form Prebiotic Nucleobases

One of the central questions of humankind is: which chemical and physical conditions are necessary to make life possible? In this “origin-of-life” context, formamide plays an important role, because it has been demonstrated... (Read more)