An international team of scientists, led by Czech physicists, has successfully developed a unique magnetic nanographene for the first time. They combined two concepts of magnetism and were the first to detect their magnetic signal using advanced scanning electron microscopy and quantum mechanical calculations. Graphene nanoparticles have the potential to be used for information storage and processing in quantum computing.
Scientists from the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, and Palacký University Olomouc, have once again successfully uncovered the mysteries of the world of molecules and atoms. They have experimentally confirmed the correctness of a decades-old theory that assumed a non-uniform distribution of electron density in aromatic molecules. This phenomenon significantly affects the physicochemical properties of molecules and their interactions. This research expands the possibilities for designing new nanomaterials and is the theme of a paper that has just been published in Nature Communications.
There are pieces of news that are hard to believe. This applies also to the one about the decease of Vláďa Cháb, who was known for his immeasurable vitality and sporting spirit. Unfortunately, his great scientific and sporting heart stopped on the night of March 5, 2023, at the age of 76. When I heard about a month ago that he was not in good health, I did not pay much attention to the news. I believed that there was no illness or obstacle that Vláďa’s spirit could not handle. Unfortunately, I was wrong.
Scientists from the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences in collaboration with their Korean colleagues successfully demonstrated an experiment to create and destroy solitons with non-integer charge. They achieved this by using electrical pulses from the tip of a scanning microscope. The new procedure is an important step in the development of quantum computers based on solitons. The result was published in the Nature Nanotechnology journal.
Until now, observing subatomic structures was beyond the resolution capabilities of direct imaging methods, and this seemed unlikely to change. Czech scientists, however, have presented a method with which they became the first in the world to observe an inhomogeneous electron charge distribution around a halogen atom, thus confirming the existence of a phenomenon that had been theoretically predicted but never directly observed.
An international independent committee has awarded the Rudolf Lukeš Prize for 2020 to Pavel Jelínek for his research of chemical properties of molecular structures on solid surfaces. It was the scanning microscopy techniques being developed with the potential to find application in organic chemistry that captured attention of the assessors.
Czech scientists in collaboration with their colleagues from Spain introduced a new type of polymers which have been unavailable by means of traditional methods applied so far. This polymer type could play an important part in the design of new components for nanoelectronics, such as new displays.
A joint work by Czech, Spanish and Swiss scientists published by Nature Nanotechnology this week, introduces a new approach to the development of non-metallic conductors which could be used in solar energy, optical technologies or nanoelectronics.
This may open new doors for developing novel optical sensors, photoluminescent materials, catalysts, and pharmaceuticals.
Hydration of ions on surfaces is of great importance, for example, in corrosion, electrochemistry, or transport of ions in living organisms.
A collaboration of scientists has made significant progress in imagining water molecules. This work opens the way for studying the internal structure and dynamics of ice or water on the surface of solids.
A new microscopic method concerning the probe with the flexible terminal atom/molecule enables for the first time direct observation of the chemical structure of individual molecules.
