Simulations Suggest Graphene Can Stretch to Be a Tunable Ion Filter

28-Nov-2018 - Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have conducted simulations suggesting that graphene, in addition to its many other useful features, can be modified with special pores to act as a tunable filter or strainer for ions (charged atoms) in a liquid. The concept, ...

A new way to measure nearly nothing

Prototype design uses ultracold trapped atoms to measure pressure

23-Oct-2018 - Many semiconductor fabricators and research labs are under increasing pressure from, of all things, vacuum. These facilities need to remove greater amounts of gas molecules and particles from their setups as new technologies and processes demand lower and lower pressures. For example, the vacuum ...

Quick test may speed antibiotic treatment and combat drug resistance

26-Sep-2017 - Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have demonstrated a potential new tactic for rapidly determining whether an antibiotic combats a given infection, thus hastening effective medical treatment and limiting the development of drug-resistant bacteria. Their ...

Good timing: NIST/CU collaboration adds timing capability to living cell sensors

10-Feb-2012 - Individual cells modified to act as sensors using fluorescence are already useful tools in biochemistry, but now they can add good timing to their resumé, thanks in part to expertise from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).With the added capability to track the timing of ...

Nanowire-based sensors offer improved detection of volatile organic compounds

30-Jun-2011 - A team of researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), George Mason University and the University of Maryland has made nano-sized sensors that detect volatile organic compounds—harmful pollutants released from paints, cleaners, pesticides and other products—that ...

The secret behind NIST's new gas detector? Chirp before sniffing

16-May-2011 - Trace gas detection, the ability to detect a scant quantity of a particular molecule — a whiff of formaldehyde or a hint of acetone — in a vast sea of others, underlies many important applications, from medical tests to air pollution detectors to bomb sniffers. Now, a sensor recently developed at ...

Diamonds may be the ultimate MRI probe, say Quantum physicists

25-Sep-2009 - Diamonds, it has long been said, are a girl's best friend. But a research team including a physicist from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has recently found that the gems might turn out to be a patient's best friend as well. The team's work has the long-term goal of ...

Novel temperature calibration improves NIST microhotplate technology

13-Aug-2009 - Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a new calibration technique that will improve the reliability and stability of one of NIST's most versatile technologies, the microhotplate. The novel NIST device is being developed as the foundation for ...

Taking the stress out of magnetic field detection

13-Feb-2009 - Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have discovered that a carefully built magnetic sandwich that interleaves layers of a magnetic alloy with a few nanometers of silver “spacer” has dramatically enhanced sensitivity — a 400-fold improvement in some cases. This ...

Super sensitive gas detector goes down the nanotubes

15-Jan-2009 - When cells are under stress, they blow off steam by releasing minute amounts of nitrogen oxides and other toxic gases. In a recent paper, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) described a new method for creating gas detectors so sensitive that some day they may ...