Rare earth elements are metals used in technologies from wind turbines and magnetic resonance imaging agents to industrial catalysts and high-definition televisions. Most are lanthanides, elements ...

A newly discovered nanocluster has a geometry that ''has not been observed in chemistry heretofore,'' the researchers say. The discovery of carbon nanostructures like two-dimensional graphene and ...

In a discovery shaped by more than a decade of steady, incremental effort rather than a dramatic breakthrough, scientists demonstrated that great ideas flourish when paired with patience. (Nanowerk ...

A new approach reveals unexpected ways oxygen can bind to rare metals. Iron plays a central role in how the body uses oxygen. In hemoglobin, it binds dioxygen, a pair of oxygen atoms, allowing blood ...

Tuning light at the nanoscale: Photographed under 365-nm UV light, these vials display the distinctive luminescence of lanthanide-doped nanocrystals. The shifting palette from blue and green to red ...

X-rays are electromagnetic waves with short wavelengths and strong penetrability in physical matter, including live organisms. Scintillators capable of converting X-rays into the ultraviolet (UV), ...

The lanthanide elements’ 4f electron orbitals are notoriously shy and retiring, and they were long thought to be unwilling partners in chemical bonding. Now chemists have brought out a surprising ...

Study: Triplets electrically turn on insulating lanthanide-doped nanoparticles. Image Credit: Vershinin89/Shutterstock.com In a recent Nature article, researchers ...

A team of scientists was recently able to observe how promethium forms chemical bonds when placed in an aqueous solution. Proving a hypothesis can be exciting, but witnessing something that has never ...