Feature Channels: Materials Science

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Like a giraffe stretching for leaves on a tall tree, making carbon nanotubes reach for food as they grow may lead to a long-sought breakthrough.

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Researchers at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME) have discovered a new material, MnBi6Te10, which can be used to create quantum highways along which electrons can move. These electron thoroughfares are potentially useful in connecting the internal components of powerful, energy-efficient quantum computers.

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AIP and the National Society of Black Physicists have awarded Trevor Rhone the 2022 Joseph A. Johnson III Award for Excellence and Cacey Bester an Honorable Mention. Now in its third year, the award recognizes early-career scientists who demonstrate scientific ingenuity and powerful mentorship and service – the core values of NSBP founder Joseph A. Johnson. The award and honorable mention will be presented at the National Society of Black Physicists 2022 Conference on Nov. 9 in Charlottesville, Virginia.

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A research group lead by Prof. LIU Enke from the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has established a physical model of Berry-curvature-dominated linear positive magnetoresistance (LPMR), providing experimental evidence for this mechanism.

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Although much of the discourse on reducing vehicle emissions centres on electric vehicles (EV), their sales remain low - with EV vehicles accounting for a mere 1% of car purchases in Japan in 2021.

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Researchers from the Department of Energy’s Critical Materials Institute (CMI) and Ames National Laboratory have improved the properties of a rare-earth-free permanent magnet material and demonstrated the process can be upscaled for manufacturing.

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If you have ever watched water freeze to ice, you have witnessed what physicists call a "phase transition." Osaka Metropolitan University scientists have discovered an unprecedented phase transition during which crystals achieve amorphous characteristics while retaining their crystalline properties.

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Over the past years, the Hong Kong Institute for Advanced Study (HKIAS) has made several strategic investments in its future.

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Together with EPFL and ETH Zurich colleagues, an Empa team is developing next-generation VR gloves that will make virtual worlds tangible. The glove is to be tailored to each user and capable of being produced largely automatically – using a 3D printing process.

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Direct visualization of metal atoms during shear deformation has broad applications from battery design to vehicle lightweighting.

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Whether in drinking water, food or even in the air: plastic is a global problem - and the full extent of this pollution may go beyond of what we know yet. Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), together with partners from the Netherlands and Australia, have reviewed conventional assumptions for the transport of plastic in rivers.

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How can we remove carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, from fossil-fuel power plant exhaust before it ever reaches the atmosphere?

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Demand is growing for technologies to cool buildings. Now, researchers report in ACS Energy Letters that they have used advanced computing technology and artificial intelligence to design a transparent window coating that could lower the temperature inside buildings, without expending energy.

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Quantum dots are clusters of some 1,000 atoms which act as one large ‘super-atom’. It is possible to accurately design the electronic properties of these dots just by changing their size.

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A new computational effort between Argonne and 3M promises to reduce energy consumption without sacrificing material quality in the production of nonwoven plastics, commonly used in surgical masks.

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KIMM has successfully developed “K-smart valve”, that is capable of quickly detecting and isolating ruptured pipes on its own and recovering key functions in a pipeline system when a leakage occurs due to unexpected pipe breakage at an industrial site.

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Cancer immunotherapies, such as immune checkpoint inhibition therapy, have been attracting attention in recent years as new methods for treating cancer.

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The Hybrid Observatory for Earth-like Exoplanets proposes pairing the newest and largest ground-based telescopes with a starshade orbiting Earth to obstruct the light from a host star to identify and characterize an exoplanet. AIP, with NASA and SPS, is organizing a competition for undergraduate students in the physical sciences to design such a starshade.

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Mentoring interns creates opportunities to inspire the future, diverse workforce with pathways into STEM careers.

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As you walk in a crowded shopping mall, it is easier to maintain social distancing when passing through a large atrium than when you are on an escalator.

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Until recently, it was widely believed among physicists that it was impossible to compress light below the so-called diffraction limit (see fact box), except when using metal nanoparticles, which unfortunately also absorb light.

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Extreme miniaturization of infrared (IR) detectors is critical for their integration into next-generation consumer electronics, wearables and ultra-small satellites. Thus far, however, IR detectors have relied on bulky (and expensive) materials and technologies.

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Scientists including an Oregon State University materials researcher have developed a better tool to measure light, contributing to a field known as optical spectrometry in a way that could improve everything from smartphone cameras to environmental monitoring.

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Researchers have created a model that can calculate the energetics involved when one organism stabs another with its fangs, thorns, spines or other puncturing parts.

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New discovery of ferroelectric behavior at nearly the atomic limit could help enhance semiconductor technology.

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The substitution of petrochemical materials with those obtained from renewable raw materials is an important step towards increasing sustainability. In just two years of intensive and open collaboration between Empa and the Datwyler Schweiz AG as part of an Innosuisse project, a process was successfully developed that brought together the worlds of cellulose and rubbers.

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Scientists from the Ural Federal University and the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences are determining the optimal conditions for 3D printing of permanent magnets from hard magnetic compounds based on rare-earth metals.

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Scientists are pioneering approaches in the branch of artificial intelligence known as machine learning to design and train computer software programs that guide the development of new manufacturing processes.

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Printing objects from plastic precisely, quickly, and inexpensively is the goal of many 3D printing processes. However, speed and high resolution remain a technological challenge. A research team from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Heidelberg University, and the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) has come a long way toward achieving this goal. It developed a laser printing process that can print micrometer-sized parts in the blink of an eye. The international team published the work in Nature Photonics. (DOI: 10.1038/s41566-022-01081-0)

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Inspired by living things from trees to shellfish, researchers at The University of Texas at Austin set out to create a plastic much like many life forms that are hard and rigid in some places and soft and stretchy in others­.

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Often referred to as smart materials, temperature-responsive or thermoresponsive polymers are gaining attention for their ability to respond to external temperature changes, allowing for an extensive range of applications.

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A new deep-learning framework developed at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory is speeding up the process of inspecting additively manufactured metal parts using X-ray computed tomography, or CT, while increasing the accuracy of the results. The reduced costs for time, labor, maintenance and energy are expected to accelerate expansion of additive manufacturing, or 3D printing.

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Scientists working on a solution for plastic waste have developed a two-step chemical and biological process to break down and upcycle mixed plastics into valuable bioproducts.

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Flinders University materials researchers and pioneering German biomaterials developer one • fıve are using seaweed extracts to develop next-generation biopolymer coating materials that could solve packaging waste dilemmas for the fast-food industry.

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A series of buzzing, bee-like “loop-currents” could explain a recently discovered, never-before-seen phenomenon in a type of quantum material.

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Damage to industrial parts is expensive, results in delays, and may be unsafe to plant workers. But now, scientists from Japan have simulated fracture initiated in materials that share a particular physical characteristic and are widely used across domestic, industrial and scientific applications. Their work showed surprising results that may help prevent damage to industrial parts.

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In a pair of recently published papers, two independent research teams successfully used a powerful X-ray beam technique at the APS to uncover new insights about the dynamics of materials such as toothpaste and hair gel.

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Spiders hold the market for the strongest silks but are too aggressive and territorial to be farmed.

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Story tips from Oak Ridge National Laboratory including reducing molten salt’s corrosive effect, VERIFI-ing and tracking carbon’s big footprint, moss genome study identifies two new species and ultrasound for battery health.

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Achieving scalability in quantum processors, sensors, and networks requires novel devices that are easily manipulated between two quantum states. A team led by Berkeley Lab researchers has developed a method, using a solid-state “twisted” crystalline layered material, which gives rise to tiny light-emitting points that can be switched on and off with the simple application of an external voltage. The research could lead to a new way to make quantum bits, or qubits, which encode information in quantum computers.

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Scientists at Argonne National Laboratory have recently demonstrated an automated process for identifying and exploring promising new materials by combining machine learning (ML) and high performance computing.

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Bristol-led team uses nanomaterials made from seaweed to create a strong battery separator, paving the way for greener and more efficient energy storage.

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Argonne’s Shirley Meng recognized with technology research and innovation award from the U.S. Clean Energy Education & Empowerment (C3E) Initiative. She will be honored at the 11th annual U.S. C3E Women in Clean Energy Symposium & Awards in Washington, D.C.

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KIST succeeded in the real-time observation of the expansion and deterioration of the anode material within batteries due to the movement of lithium ions.

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Ribe was an important trading town in the Viking Age. At the beginning of the 8th century, a trading place was established on the north side of the river Ribe, to which traders and craftsmen flocked from far and wide to manufacture and sell goods such as brooches, suit buckles, combs and coloured glass beads.

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Eminent scholars from academia to industry gathered at the HK Tech Forum on Advanced Matter and Materials, hosted by the Hong Kong Institute for Advanced Study (HKIAS) at City University of Hong Kong (CityU) from 19 to 20 September, to share their findings and explore approaches in the development of advanced materials.