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Tuesday, 19 February 2019

Prof. Pablo Ordejon receives the Narcís Monturiol Award 2018

The award recognises the contributions of the Director of ICN2 to the advancement of Science and Technology in Catalonia. In the ceremony held today at the Palau de la Generalitat, the Narcis Monturiol awards were handed by the President of the Generalitat de Catalunya to nineteen renowned scientists and one institution. This 23rd edition coincides with the 200th anniversary of the birth of this influential engineer born in Figueres.

Friday, 08 February 2019

Sound and light trapped by disorder

Researchers from the Institut Català de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia (ICN2) and the Centre de Nanosciences et Nanotechnologies – C2N (CNRS / Université Paris-Sud) have proposed a new and counterintuitive approach using disordered structures to trap light (photons) and sound (phonons) at the same place. By using a specific pair of semiconductor materials (gallium-arsenide and aluminium-arsenide) stacked randomly, something that relaxes substantially the fabrication requirements, they show that not only the light and sound can be trapped at the nanoscale, but also their interaction is enhanced. The results have been published in Physical Review Letters.

Tuesday, 05 February 2019

The INTERSECT Project will accelerate the deployment process of innovative materials and devices

The H2020 European Project Interoperable Material-to-Device simulation box for disruptive electronics (INTERSECT) will drive the uptake of materials modelling software in industry, bridging the gap between academic innovation and industrial novel production. Prof. Pablo Ordejón, Director of the ICN2 and Group Leader of the ICN2 Theory and Simulation Group, is one of the project partners attending the kick-off meeting held in Modena on 4-5 February.

Friday, 01 February 2019

MICROB-PREDICT - €15 million EU funded microbiome research project kicks off

22 European institutions join forces to tackle end-stage liver disease and liver failure with personalised microbiome-based treatment strategies. ICN2 is a relevant technological partner of the project taking care of the development of cutting edge nanobiosensors coupled with smartphones for the disease diagnostic.

Tuesday, 29 January 2019

The NEREID project has produced the “NanoElectronics Roadmap for Europe”

The roadmap highlights medium to long term recommendations for strengthening the European competitiveness in this domain, opening the doors to many new markets. ICREA Prof. Dr Clivia Sotomayor-Torres, Group Leader of the ICN2 Phononic and Photonic Nanostructures Group, acted as contributing author of the document and coordinated the chapter “Beyond CMOS”, which reflects contributions by other ICN2 researchers.

Friday, 18 January 2019

Graphene-based brain implants hit the headlines

The year 2019 started with a work in Nature Materials describing how researchers in Barcelona have developed a graphene-based implant able to record electrical activity in the brain at extremely low frequencies and over large areas. This work led by the ICN2 and the IMB-CNM, CSIC was also participated by IDIBAPS, CIBER-BBN and ICFO.

Wednesday, 02 January 2019

Graphene-based implant overcomes technical limitation to record brain activity at extremely low frequencies

Researchers in Barcelona have developed a graphene-based implant able to record electrical activity in the brain at extremely low frequencies and over large areas, unlocking the wealth of information found below 0.1 Hz. The prototype was developed at the Barcelona Microelectronics Institute (IMB-CNM, CSIC) and the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2, a BIST and CSIC centre), and was adapted for brain recordings in collaboration with the August Pi i Sunyer Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBAPS). Published in Nature Materials, the groundbreaking technology promises to enhance our understanding of the brain and pave the way for the next generation of brain-computer interfaces.

Thursday, 27 December 2018

NanoEduca awarded the 2018 Premi Nacional de Comunicació Científica

The NanoEduca program, promoted by UB, the ICN2, UAB and the CESIRE of the Department of Education the Generalitat de Catalunya, comprises three complementary lines of action: Nanokit (pedagogical suitcases available for free), teacher training, and an annual poster and video competition.

Friday, 21 December 2018

An interferometric point-of-care device for fast and sensitive bacteria quantification

ICN2 researchers published in ACS Sensors an affordable method for bacteria detection useful for hospital on-site testing and as a clinical point-of-care (PoC) device. Real patient samples were analysed in a hospital setting using a simple one-step process with sample-to-data turnaround time of 40 min. The work was developed within the H2020 European project RAIS.

Friday, 14 December 2018

Holey graphene membrane voted Molecule of the Year by C&EN journal

Readers of the journal of the American Chemical Society have voted this graphene membrane with pores controlled at the atomic scale as the best molecule of 2018. The material was presented in Science in a joint article by researchers from the ICN2, CiQUS and DIPC.

Wednesday, 28 November 2018

Exploring new spintronics device functionalities in graphene heterostructures

Graphene Flagship researchers including from the ICN2 have shown in a paper published in Science Advances how heterostructures built from graphene and topological insulators have strong, proximity induced spin-orbit coupling which can form the basis of novel information processing technologies.

Monday, 26 November 2018

New device could monitor anticoagulant treatments to deliver personalised therapies

Researchers from CSIC, ICN2 and CIBER-BBN have designed a biosensor device based on gold nanostructures that precisely detects the presence of anticoagulant drug from a small blood sample. Treatments with anticoagulants such as Sintrom® (acenocoumarol) face the difficulty of adjusting the drug doses. This device will allow patients to self-regulate the dose.

Friday, 02 November 2018

C&EN highlights ICN2 strategy to give MOFs bigger pores

Work by the ICN2 Supramolecular NanoChemistry and Materials Group to widen the pores in metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) has been featured in the American Chemical Society's Chemical & Engineering News magazine.