#nanoparticles

Scientists put a tiny lump of metal in two places at once in record-breaking quantum experiment

Scientists just proved that tiny metal “lumps” can exist in multiple places at once, pushing quantum weirdness to a whole new scale.

Physicists have demonstrated that even tiny chunks of metal can behave according to the strange rules of quantum mechanics, existing in states that spread across multiple locations at once. In a new study published in Nature, researchers from the University of Vienna and the University of Duisburg-Essen showed that metallic nanoparticles made of thousands of sodium atoms still display quantum behavior despite being far larger and heavier than particles typically used in such experiments. The achievement represents one of the strongest tests yet of quantum mechanics on scales approaching the macroscopic world.

Inspired by Viruses

This study describes the development of virus-inspired lipopeptide-based nanoparticles to deliver nucleic acids to cartilage to counter progressive cartilage breakdown in osteoarthritis

Read the published research article here

Image from work by Yu Fu, Yulan Huang and Yunjiao Wang, and colleagues

Medical Research Institute, College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Southwest University, Chongqing, PR China

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution – NonCommercial – NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

Published in Nature Communications, October 2025

What Makes Nanotechnology so Valuable for Industrial Innovation?

A practical answer is this: nanotechnology allows engineers and researchers to work with materials at a scale where performance changes are not just smaller versions of bulk behavior.

At the nanoscale, surface area, particle interaction, optical response, conductivity, and reactivity can shift in ways that help companies design stronger, lighter, more efficient, and more functional products.

That is why nanoproducts are now relevant far beyond academic laboratories. They are being evaluated and used in electronics, energy systems, chemical processing, coatings, composites, healthcare research, agriculture, and advanced manufacturing.

For B2B buyers, the discussion is less about novelty and more about measurable performance.

Where Nanomaterials Create Value

Area

How It Creates Value

Electronics Sensors, conductive films, displays, semiconductor support materials, flexible circuits

Energy Battery materials, supercapacitors, solar cells, fuel cells, conductive additives

Chemicals Catalysts, process additives, high-reactivity powders, functional fillers

Materials Science Composites, protective coatings, polymers, ceramics, reinforcement additives

Medicine and Biotech Imaging research, diagnostics, drug delivery research, biosensing platforms

Agriculture and Environment Controlled release research, nanosensors, photocatalytic, and filtration materials

Why MKnano is Positioned For This Market

MKnano, a division of M K Impex Corp., was established in 2007 and is based in Mississauga, Canada. The company serves global markets across 35+ countries and supports industrial buyers, researchers, and technical procurement teams with a wide nanotechnology product portfolio.

Its product categories include Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs), graphene, fullerenes, buckyballs, nanoparticles, nanopowders, quantum dots, nanowires, nanorods, nano additives, nano fillers, magnetic nanoparticles, nanolubricants, and dispersions.

This breadth is important because B2B nanotechnology projects rarely depend on a single material only. Engineers often compare purity, particle size, surface chemistry, dispersion needs, and end-use requirements before choosing the right nanomaterial.

Common household products containing nanoparticles—grains of engineered material so miniscule they are invisible to the eye—could be contributing to a new form of indoor air pollution, according to a Rutgers University study. In research published in the journal Science of the Total Environment, a team of Rutgers researchers found that people walking through a space where a consumer product containing nanoparticles had been recently sprayed stirred residual specks off carpet fibers and floor surfaces, projecting them some three to five feet in the air. A child playing on the floor nearby would be more greatly affected than the adult, experiments showed.