Nanogaps functionalized with small diamond-like particles, diamondoids, have been shown to effectively distinguish between different DNA nucleotides. Here, we focus on the detection of mutations and epigenetic markers using such devices. Based on quantum mechanical simulations within the density functional theory approach coupled with the non-equilibrium Green’s function scheme, we provide deep...

Composite materials consisting of polymers and nanoparticles can provide additional functionality to existing formulations. Diamondoids, single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWNT), and gold nanospheres were physically incorporated into the negative photoresist SU-8 to investigate their effects on residual stresses and introduce piezoresistivity. The mixtures were spin cast onto silicon or aluminumcoat...

We recently developed the electron force field (eFF) method for practical nonadiabatic electron dynamics simulations of materials under extreme conditions and showed that it gave an excellent description of the shock thermodynamics of hydrogen from molecules to atoms to plasma, as well as the electron dynamics of the Auger decay in diamondoids following core electron ionization. Here we apply e...

Hopanes and steranes found in Archean rocks have been presented as key evidence supporting the early rise of oxygenic photosynthesis and eukaryotes, but the syngeneity of these hydrocarbon biomarkers is controversial. To resolve this debate, we performed a multilaboratory study of new cores from the Pilbara Craton, Australia, that were drilled and sampled using unprecedented hydrocarbon-clean p...

The quantum nature of phenomena dominating the behaviour of nanostructures raises new challenges when trying to predict and understand the physical behaviour of these systems. Addressing this challenge is imperative in view of the continuous reduction of device sizes, which is rapidly approaching the atomic level. Since even the most advanced experimental observations are subject to being funda...

Shales of very low metamorphic grade from the 2.78 to 2.45 billion-year-old (Ga) Mount Bruce Supergroup, Pilbara Craton, Western Australia, were analyzed for solvent extractable hydrocarbons. Samples were collected from ten drill cores and two mines in a sampling area centered in the Hamersley Basin near Wittenoom and ranging 200 km to the southeast, 100 km to the southwest and 70 km to the nor...

The medical field is a vastly expanding one and with the discovery of nanoparticles (carbon nanotubes, diamondoids, fullerenes, gold and silver nanoparticles, quantum dots, etc.), there lies a vast field of unsolved medical diagnoses to be reassessed. Upon reassessment of the current medical problems, it is important to know what happens to a particle once it is free in the body. This review ex...