Feature Channels: Materials Science

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Medical diagnostic and security scanners with higher sensitivity could result from University of Adelaide research into detecting T-rays (terahertz waves).

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By using gelatin-based microparticles to deliver growth factors, researchers are creating three-dimensional structures from stem cells and reducing the use of growth factors needed to promote differentiation.

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Some materials dissolve too quickly, before cardiac arteries can fully heal, and some hang around forever. Zinc, however, may be just right.

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University of Adelaide researchers have developed a new nanomaterial that could help reduce carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power stations.

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Using tiny gold particles and the kind of plastic found in soda bottles, scientists have created a sensor that could be integrated into artificial skin that can sense humidity, temperature and touch. Scientists hope some day to attach the e-skin to prostheses.

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A durable, multilayered thin film is a possible replacement for expensive indium-based electrodes in devices such as liquid crystal displays and solar cells.

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"Thermoelectric materials," used in wine refrigerators and spacecraft, promise to help deliver greener energy in the future.

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Nearly 30 female materials scientists and engineers tell their stories in "United in Our Differences: Changing the Face of MSE," an extensive feature package in the July 2013 issue of JOM.

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Dr. Carmen Scholz of The University of Alabama in Huntsville has been working on the customized synthesis of biocompatible polymers that can coat sensors that are then implanted into the body to cloak them from the immune system.

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Sandia National Laboratories researchers want airports, border checkpoints and others to detect homemade explosives made with hydrogen peroxide without nabbing people whose toothpaste happens to contain peroxide.

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Bubbles in a champagne glass may add a festive fizz, but microscopic bubbles that form in metallic glass can signal serious trouble. That’s why researchers used computer simulations to study how these bubbles form and expand.

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Columbia Engineering researchers demonstrate that graphene, even if stitched together from many small crystalline grains, is almost as strong as graphene in its perfect crystalline form. This resolves a contradiction between theoretical simulations, which predicted grain boundaries can be strong, and earlier experiments, which indicated they were much weaker than the perfect lattice.

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Whether damaged by injury, disease or age, your body can’t create new bone, but maybe science can. Researchers at North Dakota State University, Fargo, are making strides in tissue engineering, designing scaffolds that may lead to ways to regenerate bone. Published in the Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part A, the research of Dr. Kalpana Katti, Dr. Dinesh Katti and graduate student Avinash Ambre includes a novel method that uses nanosized clays to make scaffolds to mineralize bone minerals such as hydroxyapatite.

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Paper is known for its ability to absorb liquids. But by modifying the underlying network of cellulose fibers, etching off surface “fluff” and applying a thin chemical coating, researchers have created a new type of paper that repels a wide variety of liquids.

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A fried breakfast food popular in Spain provided the inspiration for the development of doughnut-shaped droplets that may provide scientists with a new approach for studying fundamental issues in physics, mathematics and materials.

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Engineering researchers at the University of Arkansas treated thin films of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) – a popular polymer used as a dry lubricant for machine components – with silica nanoparticles and found that the filler material significantly reduced wear of the polymer while maintaining a low level of friction.

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When it comes to cleaning up the next massive crude oil spill, one of the best and most eco-friendly solutions for the job may be low-grade cotton from West Texas.

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DNA “linker” strands coax nano-sized rods to line up in way unlike any other spontaneous arrangement of rod-shaped objects. The arrangement—with the rods forming “rungs” on ladder-like ribbons could result in the fabrication of new nanostructured materials with desired properties.

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Some materials dissolve too quickly, before cardiac arteries can fully heal, and some hang around forever. Zinc, however, may be just right.

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NYU physicists have uncovered how energy is released and dispersed in magnetic materials in a process akin to the spread of forest fires, a finding that has the potential to deepen our understanding of self-sustained chemical reactions.

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Researchers are helping develop a new generation of photovoltaic cells that produce more power and cost less to manufacture than what’s available today.

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Testing theories of glass transition using 20 million year old fossil amber. Results challenge classic theories.

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University of Utah metallurgists used an old microwave oven to produce a nanocrystal semiconductor rapidly using cheap, abundant and less toxic metals than other semiconductors. They hope it will be used for more efficient photovoltaic solar cells and LED lights, biological sensors and systems to convert waste heat to electricity.

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In a process one researcher compares to squeezing an elephant through a pinhole, researchers at Missouri University of Science and Technology have designed a way to engineer atoms capable of funneling light through ultra-small channels.

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Using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy to examine crystals from the bodies of small marine organisms called sea squirts, scientists have solved the mystery of the crystal structure of the mineral called vaterite.

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With the help of a solitary sea squirt, scientists have resolved the longstanding puzzle of the crystal structure of vaterite, an enigmatic geologic mineral and biomineral.

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A team of researchers led by Artem R. Oganov, a professor of theoretical crystallography in the Department of Geosciences, has made a startling prediction that challenges existing chemical models and current understanding of planetary interiors — magnesium oxide, a major material in the formation of planets, can exist in several different compositions. The team’s findings, “Novel stable compounds in the Mg-O system under high pressure,” are published in the online edition of Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics. The existence of these compounds — which are radically different from traditionally known or expected materials — could have important implications.

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Chemists at The Ohio State University have developed a method for making a material that conducts electrons ten times faster than silicon.

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Jumping silicon atoms are the stars of an atomic scale ballet featured in a new Nature Communications study from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

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Top leaders in chemistry — a $760 billion annual enterprise in the United States and $3.5 trillion worldwide — are gathering here today to consider a formula for ensuring the future success of the scientists whose work touches 96 percent of all the world’s manufactured goods.

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Genes from the family of bacteria that produce vinegar, Kombucha tea and nata de coco have become stars in a project — which scientists today said has reached an advanced stage — that would turn algae into solar-powered factories for producing the “wonder material” nanocellulose. Their report on advances in getting those genes to produce fully functional nanocellulose was part of the 245th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world’s largest scientific society, being held here this week.

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In a classic case of turning an enemy into a friend, scientists have engineered a protein from flesh-eating bacteria to act as a molecular “superglue” that promises to become a disease fighter. And their latest results, which make the technology more versatile, were the topic of a report here today at the 245th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.

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Small, with power-packed potential. A patent-pending technology to produce nanospheres developed by a research team at North Dakota State University, Fargo, could enable advances across multiple industries, including electronics, manufacturing, and biomedical sectors.

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Semiconducting polymers are an unruly bunch, but University of Michigan engineers have developed a new method for getting them in line that could pave the way for cheaper, greener, "paint-on" plastic electronics.

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Nature’s designs are giving researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health ideas for new technologies that could help wounds heal, make injections less painful and provide new materials for a variety of purposes.

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An alloy that may improve high-temperature electronics in oil, gas and geothermal wells fills a unique niche.

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University of Chicago physicists study "jamming" and the structural properties of shapes.

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Fungi, with the exception of shitake and certain other mushrooms, tend to be something we associate with moldy bread or dank-smelling mildew. But they really deserve more respect, say Union College researchers, Steve Horton and Ron Bucinell. Fungi have fantastic capabilities and can be grown, under certain circumstances, in almost any shape and be totally biodegradable. And, if this weren’t enough, they might have the potential to replace plastics one day. The secret is in the mycelia.

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Novel discovery paves the way to improve waste degradation and laser-assisted etching of materials.

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Scientist Joshua Pearce became a 3D printing fanatic when he found he could save thousands by making his own lab equipment. Now he's looking at even bigger savings through using old milk jugs as raw material.

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MIT and Brookhaven Lab physicists measured fleeting electron waves to uncover the elusive mechanism behind high-temperature superconductivity.

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A multi-university team of researchers has artificially engineered a unique multilayer material that could lead to breakthroughs in both superconductivity research and in real-world applications.

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University of Virginia physicist Lou Bloomfield has developed a new type of silicone rubber that may have widespread applications, including shoes, prosthetics, sporting goods and toys.

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Researchers have demonstrated the use of a technique known as small angle neutron scattering (SANS) to study the effects of ions moving into nanoscale pores. The study is believed to be the first application of the SANS technique for studying ion surface adsorption in-situ.

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Sometimes the best discoveries come by accident. A team of researchers at Washington University in St. Louis, headed by Srikanth Singamaneni, PhD, assistant professor of mechanical engineering & materials science, unexpectedly found the mechanism by which tiny single molecules spontaneously grow into centimeter-long microtubes by leaving a dish for a different experiment in the refrigerator.

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A new study provides details of the structure and tissue properties of the unique adhesion system used by remora fish to attach themselves to sharks and other marine animals. The information could lead to a new engineered reversible adhesive.

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Chuanbing Tang at the University of South Carolina is developing new plastics that are “green” from the cradle to the grave. Given that the new polymers he’s working on often come from pine trees, firs and other conifers, he’s giving the word “evergreen” added resonance.

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University of Utah engineers demonstrated it is feasible to build the first organic materials that conduct electricity on their edges, but act as an insulator inside. These materials, called organic topological insulators, could shuttle information at the speed of light in quantum computers and other high-speed electronic devices.

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Experimentalists have recently confirmed that SmB6 is the first true 3D topological insulator—as originally predicted by JQI/CMTC☨ theorists in 2010.

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Tufts University School of Engineering researchers have developed a new technique, called bioskiving. The fabrication process creates collagen structures from thin sheets of decellularized tendon stacked with alternating fiber directions that maintain much of collagen's natural strength.