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Man and two women in a lab readying a sample of cellulose

By Maria R. Lucas

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Cellulose nanocrystals — bio-based nanomaterials derived from natural resources such as plant cellulose — are valuable for their use in water treatment, packaging, tissue engineering, electronics, antibacterial coatings and much more. Though the materials provide a sustainable alternative to non-bio-based materials, transporting them in liquid taxes industrial infrastructures and leads to environmental impacts.

Read more about Researchers uncover mechanisms to easily dry, redisperse cellulose nanocrystals

Researchers start with simple rod-shaped nanoparticles (top left) composed of a single material, copper sulfide. In purposely unoptimized experiments (top), the researchers produced and characterized hundreds of nanoparticles which combine many different materials in various arrangements. They then used new guidelines derived from the first set of experiments to rationally produce one of the nanoparticles in high yield (bottom). Credit: Dani Zemba and the Schaak Laboratory, Penn State. All Rights Reserved.

By Sam Sholtis

Nanoparticles are complex materials smaller than 100 nanometers, or about the size of a virus, but they have a large range of potential applications, from medicine to energy to electronics. Now, hundreds of new nanoparticles with previously unknown features have been produced using an innovative experimental approach.

Read more about Unconventional experiments produce new nanoscale particles with big potential

Illustration of a probe gliding on a graphene surface

By Jamie Oberdick

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Sometimes friction is good, such the friction between a road and a car’s tires to prevent the vehicle from skidding. But sometimes friction is bad – if you did not put oil in that very same car, there would be so much friction in the bearings of the engine the car could not operate.