Heavy metals coming from industrial waste, such as mercury, lead, cadmium, nickel, and zinc are some of the most dreaded pollutants in water, and EU laws strictly limit their concentration in the water we drink.

When a group of researchers at the Ecole Polytechnique (EP) in Palaiseau , near Paris, created a new nanomaterial-based sensor for monitoring heavy metals in drinking water, they had to address a ...

The phenomenon of soiled and stained facades is probably as old as the cities themselves. Industrial pollution then has increased these problems.

Prof. Steve Tennison, MAST Carbon’s director, has recently decided to establish a spin out company to commercialize biomedical carbons to the market.

The new label-free detection kit  has been developed by the Spanish BIOD (Bio-Optical Detection) company, recently established.

UK based MAST Carbon has received such service and its new biomedical carbons will soon reach the market through the EU-funded the ProNano project.

These are key insights from two EC funded initiatives, ProNano and Nanocom , which are joining their forces to tackle the issue of barriers to the commercialisation of European nanotechnologies .

Silicon, the conventional semiconductor used to build up electronics, is processed at very high temperature – over one thousand Celsius degrees - and it is difficult to recycle.

Researchers typically define nanotechnology research outputs as ‘platform’ technologies with a diverse range of applications.

The problems encountered by the traditional European colour industry go from lack of innovation and weak market competitiveness to toxicity, environmental hazards and health risks for those working in it.

Rebuilding bones out of wood, or cartilage out of algae and chitosan is the most spectacular aspect of this particular bioinspiration field.

The staggering similarities found with the bone brought the group of researchers working on the TEM-PLANT project to become the first one to use wood to develop organized and complex structures for tissue substitution and engineering.

Within the European Research Project Fiblys, they have therefore redesigned their microscope to a fully functional nano-laboratory.

In the European funded project FIBLYS (or FIB anaLYSis) three industry and four research partners from Czech Republic, France, Germany and Switzerland have created a multi-nano tool named FIBLYS .

The European Dreams Project team is currently developing a new generation of retinal prostheses that haven’t been tested on humans yet.

Engineers of the European research project NaPanil have modified the glass surfaces on the micrometric and nanometric scale in order to control the path of the light.A unique innovation that could soon become part of our daily lives.

Photovoltaic cells have been known for a long time. In semiconductors such as silicon crystals sunlight creates an electric current, which can directly be fed into the power grid.

Researchers have modified surface structures by making nanometer scale patterns, with the help from a technology called nanoimprinting. Nanoimprinting is a high through-put and low cost method that produces these patterns through the use of a stamp.

These molecules have a curious relationship with water. One part of the molecule is hydrophilic, so it attracts water molecules. The other part is hydrophobic, so it pushes them away.

Organisms, such as algae and barnacles, sticking to the lower structure of ships are increasing the required propulsive power. It is estimated that ships’ fuel consumption could be reduced by up to forty percent by removing those organisms.