"There's been a lot of research in making superstructures from spherical nanoparticles, but much less using tetrahedral building blocks," said Ou Chen, an assistant professor of chemistry at Brown and ...

Blobs of water encased in nanoparticles can be carved into precise shapes with a laser, and even turned into a kind of miniature lab device. When water is added to a gel of hydrophobic silicon dioxide ...

The most widely available materials of the Earth's crust include natural silica and silicates, which are primarily crystalline. Because of their excellent biocompatibility, heat resistance, low ...