NanoTechnology: Materials, Processes & Devices

Understanding symmetry breaking is at the heart of developmental biology, from the origins of polarity, cellular differentiations, and how the leopard got its spots, as well as crucial to the future engineering of complex cellular ensembles. Alan Turing proposed a simple mathematical model that explains how the reaction-diffusion mechanism can cause an initially uniform concentration in an ensemble of cells to spontaneously become non-uniform and form patterns (Turing patterns). To date, no true synthetic Turing patterns have been created using gene networks, so our goal is to design...

Early stage cancer diagnosis may mean the difference between a successful or an ineffective treatment. Therefore, development of methods that allow the detection of premature signatures of cancer are necessary. Mature microRNAs are short non-coding RNAs strands (~18-21 nt) involved in gene regulation of eukaryotic cells. In cancer cells some miRNAs appear over or under expressed, and serve as a markers to signal the presence of these malignancies. MicroRNAs, however, are present in very low concentrations, thus sensitive and multiplexed methods that detect specific miRNAs are needed...

This work presents the first demonstration of atomic layer deposition (ALD) ruthenium oxide (RuO2) and its conformal coating onto vertically aligned carbon nanotube (CNT) forests as supercapacitor electrodes. Specific accomplishments include: (1) successful demonstration of ALD RuO2 deposition, (2) uniform coating of RuO2 on a vertically aligned CNT forest, and (3) an ultra-high specific capacitance of 100 mF/cm2 from prototype electrodes with a scan rate of 100 mV/s. Advantages of the ALD method include precise control of the RuO2 layer thickness and composition without the use of...

Geckos have a remarkable ability to stick to and climb almost any type of surface using micro- and nanoscale foot- hairs, which allow conformal contact against any counter-surface and thus, maximize the interfacial interaction. With the goal of mimicking the high adhesion and friction capability of geckos, we have fabricated ordered polymeric nano-fiber arrays of various soft and hard polymers, including low-density polyethylene and cyclic olefin polymers. In order to provide a useful reference for optimum high performance conditions, the effects of fiber geometry (diameter and...