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Honda Acheives Breakthrough in Nanomaterials, It's Like VTEC for Quantum Electronics

Honda's American Research Institute, a separate division from the Japanese automaker, but one that would not have existed without the success of the vehicle manufacturer, has announced a breakthrough in the field of nanotechnology. If our understanding is correct, this is the equivalent of VTEC for quantum electronics.
Honda Research Institute Synthesizes Nanomaterials in Breakthrough for Quantum Electronics 37 photos
Photo: Honda Research
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As Honda's Research Institute explains, they have developed a technology that allows scientists to synthesize atomically thin “nanoribbons.” The latter are ribbon-shaped materials that are so thin that their thickness is measured on an atomic scale. In other words, the latest invention from Honda's Research Institute requires advanced microscopes to be seen.

With the new tech, scientists can now control the width of those two-dimensional materials that are made of a single or double layer of atoms. These ultra-narrow materials that result from the innovative technology developed by the Honda Research Institute are so small that their width is measured at a sub-10 nanometer scale.

For easier comprehension, human hair is about 80,000 to 100,000 nanometers wide. The materials that Honda's Research Institute has managed to obtain are 10 nanometers wide. As theoretical scales go, this is between molecules and atoms, but the tech we are referring to is closer to atoms in size than it is to molecules.

Once scientists can control the width of the synthesized nanomaterials that are made at an atomic scale, as Honda Research Institute has done, these can be employed in various fields. As Honda explains, using nickel nanoparticles led to the ability to control the width of molybdenum disulfide, a two-dimensional material.

Thanks to the new method, the resulting material will offer superior quantum electron transport at temperatures that are 15 times higher than those that are achieved using conventional methods. The Honda Research Institute claims that the new tech paves the way for more energy-efficient quantum devices.

The Honda Research Institute was founded back in 2003 in Silicon Valley, California, and its goal is to solve complex problems with direct applications to Honda's current and future technology roadmap. We cannot wait to learn what Honda will do with the new technology, but it is clear that we will not be able to see it.
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Editor's note: For illustration purposes, the photo gallery shows the Honda e:N Concept vehicles. They are not otherwise linked to the new technology developed by the company that founded the Honda Research Institute USA.

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About the author: Sebastian Toma
Sebastian Toma profile photo

Sebastian's love for cars began at a young age. Little did he know that a career would emerge from this passion (and that it would not, sadly, involve being a professional racecar driver). In over fourteen years, he got behind the wheel of several hundred vehicles and in the offices of the most important car publications in his homeland.
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