Surprising Never-Before-Seen Behavior Of Nanoparticles Opens New Chapter In Physics

Cynthia McKanzie – MessageToEagle.com – Scientists say they have never seen anything like this before and the discovery challenges our understanding of matter. In fact, it seems we have just opened a new chapter in physics that in time can led to extraordinary inventions, like for example invisibility cloaks.

Credit: Public Domain

Northwestern University researchers are trying to figure out why extremely small nanoparticles engineered with DNA in colloidal crystals behave just like electrons. This is startling, and scientists have already introduced a new term called “metallicity,” which refers to the mobility of electrons in a metal.

In colloidal crystals, tiny nanoparticles roam similarly to electrons and act as a glue that holds the material together.

This very intriguing discovery forces us to reconsider our current knowledge of matter and it opens the door for new possibilities in materials design.

“It’s going to lead to all sorts of materials that have potentially spectacular properties that have never been observed before. Properties that could lead to a variety of new technologies in the fields of optics, electronics and even catalysis,” Northwestern’s Chad Mirkin, who led the experimental work explained in a press statement.

The team has previously invented the chemistry for engineering colloidal crystals with DNA, which has forged new possibilities for materials design. In these structures, DNA strands act as a sort of smart glue to link together nanoparticles in a lattice pattern.

See also:

New State Of Physical Matter Found: Elements Can Be Solid And Liquid Simultaneously

Quantum Machine Will Study All Possible Futures Simultaneously

New Way For Objects To Levitate And Be Driven Only By Light

More About Physics

“Architecture is everything when designing new materials, and we now have a new way to precisely control particle architectures over large areas,” researchers said earlier this year.

Such optical materials and devices could lead to light bending and cloaking devices, and other objects that still remain in the realm of science fiction.

Now, this discovery is even better because in previous studies, the particles’ diameters were on the tens of nanometers length scale, and now they are much smaller.

This discovery could help scientists to produce invisibility cloaks in the near future. Credit: Warner Bross

The science team has shrunk the particles down to 1.4 nanometers in diameter in computational simulations. This is where the magic happened.

“The bigger particles have hundreds of DNA strands linking them together,” said Olvera de la Cruz from the Northwestern University.

“The small ones only have four to eight linkers. When those links break, the particles roll and migrate through the lattice holding together the crystal of bigger particles.”

“A sea of electrons migrates throughout metals, acting as a glue, holding everything together,” Mirkin explained. “That’s what these nanoparticles become. The tiny particles become the mobile glue that holds everything together.”

In science, it’s really rare to discover a new property, but that’s what happened here.

Written by Cynthia McKanzie – MessageToEagle.com Staff Writer