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Mercaptans or thiols are a special class of organic compounds that contains sulfur functional group, RSH. Various sulfur compounds are highly demanded in the formation of new materials in photonics, optics, pharmaceutical industry, organic chemistry, and nanotechnology.

Figure 1: [Left] Typical plasma crystal with a self-ordered, hexagonal arrangement of dust particles indicated by the bright white spots. [Middle] Made to order square pattern formed in an imposed dust crystalline-like structure. [Right] A typical dusty plasma illuminated by a green laser in the MDPX experiment at Auburn University.
Figure 2: Breakup of the dust grid structure is observed as the background neutral pressure is increased from low to high pressure. Each image is a sum of over 100 individual picture frames to reveal the motion of the dust particle trajectories. With increasing pressure the particles "unlock" from the grid generated crystal and begin to flow, first from lattice site to lattice site, and then forming a swirling pattern at high pressure. The yellow boxes show close-ups of the observed particle pattern at different pressures for the area highlighted in the left figure.

An artist's rendering shows the layers of a new, onion-like nanoparticle whose specially crafted layers enable it to efficiently convert invisible near-infrared light to higher energy blue and UV light.

Vanderbilt graduate student Anna Douglas holding one of the batteries that she has modified by adding millions of quantum dots made from iron pyrite, fool's gold.

The illustration shows a pacemaker lead with a coating of nanoscale zinc oxide pyramids. These pyramids prevent MRSA, an antibiotic-resistant strain of bacteria common in hospitals, from colonizing coated surfaces well.

Imaging of microwave fields is made possible by measuring of spin changes in individual atoms or electrons.

Batteries with clay-based electrolyte/separators were tested at up to 120 degrees Celsius and showed strong performance over 120 charge-discharge cycles, according to scientists at Rice University.

This illustration shows the different effects of the application of nano nutrients on a tomato plant.

Ramesh Raliya, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher, and Pratim Biswas, PhD, the Lucy & Stanley Lopata Professor and chair of the Department of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering, both at the School of Engineering & Applied Science at Washington University in St. Louis, are addressing this issue by using nanoparticles to boost the nutrient content and growth of tomato plants. Taking a clue from their work with solar cells, the team found that by using zinc oxide and titanium dioxide nanoparticles, the tomato plants better absorbed light and minerals, and the fruit had higher antioxidant content.