Top Science Results

A joint collaboration between the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), the Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona (ICMAB) and The University of Manchester has succeeded in mapping the electrical properties of organic biosensor/electrolyte interfaces at the nanoscale by measuring local electric forces. Electronic biosensorsbased on organic materials could make soon a reality the dream of low-cost, disposable, flexible and biocompatible electronic devices for the interaction with biological systems.

Research on room temperature superconducting materials has been one of the biggest challenges of condensed matter physics in the last century. Let's see how we started and where are we now, after the recent results obtained by researchers at the University at Rochester and published in Nature. 

The first article of the joint project between ICMAB and MIT in the framework of the collaborative project MIT-SPAIN "la Caixa" Foundation SEED FUND is now published in Physical Review Materials. The project is focused on the investigation of new materials for photovoltaic applications. Ignasi Fina is the ICMAB researcher involved in the study. 

A study published in the journal Energy and Environmental Science has combined experimental and theoretical approaches to study the passivation layers formed on calcium metal electrodes and their influence on the reversible operation of calcium-based batteries. The work is led by researchers from the ICMAB-CSIC, who have collaborated with the ALBA Synchrotron (MIRAS beamline) as well as with other international laboratories and universities. 

The treatment and cure of all kinds of cancer is still one of the key issues science has to face. On the occasion of the World Cancer Research Day, we want to highlight the ways in which ICMAB Researchers are currently working to improve the diagnosis and treatment of this illness.

A route to control the conductivity in the functional oxide Er(Mn,Ti)O₃ through the use of Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) could allow for an improvement of conductivity that is not detrimental to other materials’ properties like magnetism or multiferroicity, as demonstrated in a new Nature Materials article that counts with the collaboration of ICMAB Researcher Konstantin Shapovalov from the Electronic Structure of Materials (LEEM) Group.

ICMAB and ICREA researcher, Alejandro Goñi, from the NANOPTO group, is author of an article in the News & Views section in Nature Materials, in which he was asked to review one publication from Laura Herz and co-workers from the University of Oxford, published in Nature Materials about hybrid halide pervoskites and some of their fascinating properties. 

The journal Materials Horizons (RSC) includes in its last "Emerging Investigator Series" collection, an interview to ICMAB researcher Ignasi Fina, for his recent publication "Local manipulation of metamagnetism by strain nanopatterning". 

The Materials Horizons journal, from the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) ,features in its FRONT COVER the recently published article "Local manipulation of metamagnetism by strain nanopatterning" by Ignasi Fina et al. 

The International Union for Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) has defined new recommendations for the nomenclature of boranes and other related species, a field in constant change, in order to include the great diversity of new specialized composites that have appeared since the last time a standard was instituted.

The CSIC Annual Report 2019 showcases the current state of the 120 research centers that are part of the council. The 2019 edition of this publication shares some of the top research done through the year, including some of the work being done at ICMAB.

A recent publication in Nature Nanotechnology in which Massimiliano Stengel, ICREA scientist, and Konstantin Shapovalov, postdoctoral researcher at ICMAB, participated, show how Piezoresponse Force Microscopy (PFM) is an effective tool to visualize and characterize moiré patterns in a wide range of twisted bilayer systems including twisted bilayer graphene. The publication is a collaboration between researchers from Columbia University in USA, the National Institute for Materials Science in Japan, Nanjing University in China, Stony Brook University in USA, the Flatiron Institute in USA and the Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona.

A new publication in Scientific Reports by researchers of the Superconducting Materials and Large Scale Nanostructures (SUMAN) group at the ICMAB, the ALBA Synchrotron, the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) and CERN, has studied the surface resistance and vortex properties of seven superconducting coated conductors at microwave frequencies, high magnetic fields and low temperatures (mimicking the expected conditions of the Future Circular Collider at CERN) to study how they respond.

Low-gradient magnetic separation (LGMS) is a complex phenomena with a behaviour so contradictory with classic magnetophoresis models that it was considered to be almost paradoxical. An Editor’s Choice feature article at the Langmuir journal, co-authored by ICMAB Researcher Jordi Faraudo, proposes a unified theoretical framework to understand and control this helpful separation technique.

Scientists have managed to draw at high resolution and speed, local patterns in organic semiconductor films used in optoelectronic and photonic applications. The new method enables the patterning of material characteristics and concomitant final properties, including molecular conformation, orientation, crystallinity and composition. The technique, published with open access in Nature Communications, has also been patented and industrial partners are sought for further co-development.

Metamaterials have revolutionized the field of photonics because of their exotic optical properties absent in natural materials. Made from the arrangement of subwavelength units, the properties of metamaterials do not derive from their chemical composition but rather from their physical structure. Therefore, properly designing the geometry, size and media involved in a metamaterial, it is possible to engineer the overall electromagnetic response beyond the conventional behaviors. 

The SIESTA methodology and program, first described in 2002, is a simulation paradigm that has allowed for extensive and precise theoretical research in the properties of materials based on first principle electronic-structure methods. Almost two decades later, a new publication details the improvements made to the paradigm and how this new tools can be applied.

ICMAB Researcher Riccardo Rurali, from the Materials Simulation and Theory (MST) group, has found two of his theoretical predictions to be confirmed through experimental approaches, regarding the use of hexagonal SiGe alloys for optoelectronic applications and the use of domain walls as switches for phononic devices.

Researchers from the Nanomol group at the Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC), the CIBER-BBN network and the ICTS Nanbiosis U6, and members of the TECNIO technology transfer network ACCIÓ-Generalitat de Catalunya, together with the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT, USA) and the University of Parma (UNIPR, Italy) have developed a new nanomaterial for bioimaging. The results of the study are the result of the TECNIOspring PLUS project co-financed by ACCIÓ and the European Commission.

The Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS) features in its FRONT COVER the recently published article "Too Persistent to Give Up: Aromaticity in Boron Clusters Survives Radical Structural Changes" by Francesc Teixidor et al. Do you think the balls look like Christmas balls or like billiard balls?

A research recently published on Nature Materials, carried out jointly by the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2), the Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona (ICMAB), Nanchang University (China) and Chongqing University (China), has demonstrated that light can increase by orders of magnitude the electricity produced by bending (flexoelectricity) in semiconductors. This phenomenon, called photoflexoelectricity, allows a single device to harvest energy from multiple environmental sources.

Although the concept of aromaticity in chemistry is something that chemists have in their minds very clearly, they find it very difficult to define. Moreover, among chemists, there are two currents with two distinct points of view: the experimental chemists and the theoretical chemists. What happens when we look at the aromaticity of 3D boron clusters?

With cancer as the second leading cause of death worldwide, investigation on its treatment stays relevant. New mononuclear ruthenium–carboranyl complexes bearing bipyridyl derivatives are being developed for bimodal therapy applications, unifying BNCT (boron neutron capture therapy) and chemotherapy on a single smaller dose and giving a more effective response thanks to a synergistic effect. These complexes are being characterized and tested against melanoma and glioblastoma, and showing successful results so far.

Organic electronic devices with an X-ray sensitivity competitive with the inorganic devices in the market are developed at the Nanomol group at the ICMAB, by Marta Mas-Torrent et al. and published today, May 1, 2020, in Nature Communications.

The article "Efficient blue light emitting materials based on m-carborane-anthracene dyads. Structure, photophysics and bioimaging studies" published in 2019 in Biomaterials Science, by Núñez et al. has been featured recently in UAB Divulga. You can find the text in English, Catalan and Spanish. 

Se ha publicado en Nature Materials un trabajo de Mariano Campoy del ICMAB-CSIC y Jenny Nelson del Imperial College en el que se concluye que los polímeros con estructura molecular sin curvatura son mejores para la obtención de paneles solares más efectivos. Los materiales resultantes consiguen pasar del  4%  o el 5% de eficiencia al 8,5%