Feature Channels: Materials Science

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Released: 28-Jul-2021 2:25 PM EDT
Automatically Steering Experiments Toward Scientific Discovery
Brookhaven National Laboratory

Scientists at Brookhaven and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories have been developing an automated experimental setup of data collection, analysis, and decision making.

Released: 27-Jul-2021 3:40 PM EDT
FSU Researchers Discover Pine Sap-Based Plastic, a Potential Change for Future of Sustainable Materials
Florida State University

Over the past 100 years, plastics and polymers have changed the way the world operates, from airplanes and automobiles to computers and cell phones — nearly all of which are composed of fossil fuel-based compounds. A Florida State University research team’s discovery of a new plastic derived from pine sap has the potential to be a gamechanger for new sustainable materials.

Released: 27-Jul-2021 10:30 AM EDT
Michael S. Arnold: Then and Now / 2011 Early Career Award Winner
Department of Energy, Office of Science

Supported by his Early Career Research Program Award, University of Wisconsin – Madison professor Michael S. Arnold found new ways to make graphene nanostructures with smooth edges. This technology will enable next-generation energy and electronics applications.

Released: 26-Jul-2021 3:55 PM EDT
Development of a Novel Technology to Check Body Temperature with Smartphone Camera
National Research Council of Science and Technology

Thermal-imaging sensors that detect and capture images of the heat signatures of human bodies and other objects have recently sprung into use in thermostats to check facial temperatures in a contactless attempt to screen for COVID-19 at several building entrances.

Released: 26-Jul-2021 2:00 PM EDT
Researchers Demonstrate Technique for Recycling Nanowires in Electronics
North Carolina State University

Researchers have demonstrated a low-cost technique for retrieving nanowires from electronic devices that have reached the end of their utility and then using those nanowires in new devices. The work is a step toward more sustainable electronics.

Released: 26-Jul-2021 12:45 PM EDT
Now in 3D: Deep Learning Techniques Help Visualize X-Ray Data in Three Dimensions
Argonne National Laboratory

A team of Argonne scientists has leveraged artificial intelligence to train computers to keep up with the massive amounts of X-ray data taken at the Advanced Photon Source.

Released: 26-Jul-2021 11:55 AM EDT
New Composite Fabrics Show Potential for Medical Use
University of Georgia

University of Georgia researchers have developed a new material with properties ideal for medical products such as masks and bandages. It’s also better for the environment than the materials in current use.

Released: 26-Jul-2021 10:25 AM EDT
Finer Flaws: Exploring the Advantages of Defects in Laser Manufactured Materials
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory

APL researchers set out to better understand the influence of different defects on the mechanical performance of additively manufactured materials. In a recent journal article, they provide data to help understand the effects of defects and enable decision-making.

Released: 26-Jul-2021 8:05 AM EDT
Historical Buildings – Thermally Insulated to Current State
Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology

On July 15, 2021, the Aerogel Architecture Award was presented for the first time at Empa, recognizing successful energy renovations using aerogel insulating materials. The winners were two projects from Germany and one from Switzerland. The renovated listed buildings date from the 17th, 19th and second half of the 20th centuries.

   
Released: 23-Jul-2021 3:10 PM EDT
DOE Announces $73 Million for Research to Advance Quantum Science and Technology
Department of Energy, Office of Science

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $73 million in funding to advance quantum information science (QIS) research to help scientists better understand the physical world and harness nature to benefit people and society.

Released: 22-Jul-2021 4:30 PM EDT
Buzz About Thermoelectrics Heats Up with Promising New Magnesium-Based Materials
Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Researchers at Duke University and Michigan State University used neutrons at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to gain new fundamental insights into two magnesium-based materials. Investigations at the atomic scale revealed the origin and mechanism behind the materials’ ability to convert thermal energy at room temperature into electricity and provides possible new pathways for improving thermoelectric applications such as those in the Perseverance rover and myriad other devices and energy-generation technologies.

Released: 22-Jul-2021 11:55 AM EDT
Crime Scene Tape Set to Revolutionize Microplastics Research
Staffordshire University

An adhesive tape patented by Staffordshire University researchers to recover trace evidence from crimes scenes is being adopted to analyse microplastics more efficiently.

Released: 22-Jul-2021 9:30 AM EDT
New Desiccant Material Performance Crushes Industry-Standard Material by up to 350%.
Molecule USA, Inc.

In what some industry insiders are calling "the most exciting news in the HVAC world in decades," Molecule USA, Inc. announced today that their new desiccant material, Regeneration Optimized Sorbent, (a.k.a. ROS) outperformed silica rotors by up to 350% in benchmark testing.

Released: 22-Jul-2021 8:55 AM EDT
2 in 1 Face Mask Against Dust and Virus – Chula Health Innovation in the New Normal
Chulalongkorn University

Chula’s Faculty of Engineering joins hands with PTT to develop a 2 in1 face mask, an innovation that protects against PM2.5 dust particles and COVID-19 virus that can be reused more than 15 times, helps reduce waste, is pollution-free, and will be available for sale soon.

Released: 20-Jul-2021 5:05 PM EDT
Capturing Electrons in Space
University of Innsbruck

Interstellar clouds are the birthplaces of new stars, but they also play an important role in the origins of life in the Universe through regions of dust and gas in which chemical compounds form.

Released: 20-Jul-2021 4:05 PM EDT
Microbially Produced Fibers: Stronger Than Steel, Tougher Than Kevlar
Washington University in St. Louis

A new fiber, made by genetically engineered bacteria in the lab of Fuzhong Zhang, is stronger than steel and tougher than Kevlar.

Released: 15-Jul-2021 6:10 PM EDT
Emergent Magnetic Monopoles Isolated Using Quantum-Annealing Computer
Los Alamos National Laboratory

Using a D-Wave quantum-annealing computer as a testbed, scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory have shown that it is possible to isolate so-called emergent magnetic monopoles, a class of quasiparticles, creating a new approach to developing “materials by design.”

12-Jul-2021 4:00 PM EDT
Scientists Take First Snapshots of Ultrafast Switching in a Quantum Electronic Device
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

Scientist demonstrated a new way of observing atoms as they move in a tiny quantum electronic switch as it operates. Along the way, they discovered a new material state that could pave the way for faster, more energy-efficient computing.

Released: 15-Jul-2021 12:05 PM EDT
FSU Researchers Develop New Model of Flow Properties for Class of Polymers
Florida State University

Florida State University researchers are helping to write the “cookbook” describing the properties of vitrimers, a promising material that combines the benefits of different types of polymers.

Released: 15-Jul-2021 4:05 AM EDT
Filled Energy Saving Bar
Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology

Insulation webs are essential in aluminum window profiles and facades for good thermal insulation. Empa researchers and their partners have been working for some time on a novel "sandwich" product with an environmentally friendly filling: recycled material from PET bottles. Now the market launch is approaching – with good prospects of success.

13-Jul-2021 5:05 PM EDT
Watching Subsurface Defects as They Move
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

A Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientist and collaborators have demonstrated the first ever “defect microscope” that can track how populations of defects deep inside macroscopic materials move collectively.

Released: 14-Jul-2021 1:50 PM EDT
Harnessing AI To Search for New Materials With Exotic Properties
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI)

With the support of a prestigious $542,813 National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) grant, physicist Trevor David Rhone is turning to artificial intelligence to help determine which combination of elements might form new materials with interesting properties for advancing both scientific understanding and technological applications, such as data storage, spintronics, and quantum computing.

Released: 14-Jul-2021 11:25 AM EDT
The Hidden Culprit Killing Lithium-metal Batteries From the Inside
Sandia National Laboratories

The first nanoscale images ever taken inside intact, lithium-metal coin batteries (also called button cells or watch batteries) challenge prevailing theories and could help make future high-performance batteries, such as for electric vehicles, safer, more powerful and longer lasting.

Released: 14-Jul-2021 11:20 AM EDT
Small Molecule Plays Outsize Role in Controlling Nanoparticle
Cornell University

A breakthrough imaging technique has enabled Cornell University researchers to gain new insights into how tiny ligands bind to the surface of nanoparticles and change a particle’s shape.

9-Jul-2021 5:15 PM EDT
Calling all couch potatoes: this finger wrap can let you power electronics while you sleep
University of California San Diego

A new wearable device turns the touch of a finger into a source of power for small electronics and sensors. Engineers at the University of California San Diego developed a thin, flexible strip that can be worn on a fingertip and generate small amounts of electricity when a person’s finger sweats or presses on it. What’s special about this sweat-fueled device is that it generates power even while the wearer is asleep or sitting still.

Released: 12-Jul-2021 10:35 AM EDT
New electronic paper displays brilliant colours
Chalmers University of Technology

Imagine sitting out in the sun, reading a digital screen as thin as paper, but seeing the same image quality as if you were indoors.

Released: 12-Jul-2021 10:25 AM EDT
Leveraging DNA to Create Advanced, Usable Materials with Jason Kahn
Brookhaven National Laboratory

Jason Kahn, a staff scientist at the Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN), is conducting research in DNA-based assembly and building a one-of-a-kind automated platform to explore self-assembly processes.

Released: 8-Jul-2021 2:50 PM EDT
A Detailed Study of Nickelate’s Magnetism Finds a Strong Kinship with Cuprate Superconductors
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

Are new nickelate superconductors close kin to the original high-temperature superconductors, the cuprates? The first study of their magnetic properties says the answer is yes. Scientists from SLAC, Stanford and Diamond Light Source found important similarities but also subtle differences between the two.

Released: 7-Jul-2021 4:55 PM EDT
Tiny but Mighty Precipitates Toughen a Structural Alloy
Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, have found a way to simultaneously increase the strength and ductility of an alloy by introducing tiny precipitates into its matrix and tuning their size and spacing.

Released: 6-Jul-2021 1:05 PM EDT
Story tips: Powered by Nature, Get on the Bus, Accelerating Methane, Helping JET Soar, Charged Up Planning and Building a Better Thermostat
Oak Ridge National Laboratory

ORNL story tips: Powered by nature, get on the bus, accelerating methane, helping JET soar, charged up planning and building a better thermostat

1-Jul-2021 5:05 PM EDT
Self-Powered Implantable Device Stimulates Fast Bone Healing, Then Disappears Without a Trace
University of Wisconsin–Madison

Researchers know that electricity can help speed up bone healing, but “zapping” fractures has never really caught on, since it requires surgically implanting and removing electrodes powered by an external source. Xudong Wang’s latest invention may make electrostimulation a much more convenient option to speed up bone healing.

Released: 1-Jul-2021 2:55 PM EDT
Rethinking Plastics
University of Delaware

In a new issue of Science, devoted to the plastics problem, University of Delaware researchers LaShanda Korley and Thomas Epps, III, join collaborators in calling for new approaches to plastics design, production and use, with the goal of keeping plastics out of landfills and waterways, reusing the valuable resources they represent indefinitely in a “circular” plastics economy.

Released: 1-Jul-2021 8:05 AM EDT
Composing New Energy Systems
Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology

Modern, decentralized energy systems are a highly complex matter. Planning them in an optimal and cost-efficient way is a major challenge for energy planners. Sympheny, an Empa spin-off, offers a software that helps planners to find the most suitable energy concept for a building, neighborhood or even an entire city, and thus to meet their sustainability and energy efficiency goals.

Released: 30-Jun-2021 10:25 AM EDT
The Future of Smart Outdoor Dining Is Being Built With Upcycled Water Bottles
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI)

A new project called Friendship Cabins, designed by researchers at the Center for Architecture Science and Ecology (CASE) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, offer restaurants in NYC safer dining experiences for their customers and servers while built with environmentally friendly bottles.

   
Released: 30-Jun-2021 10:10 AM EDT
Spaghetti, Windowsill, and LEGO: On-the-Fly Composites Modeling
Michigan Technological University

Just as modeling is a close estimate of real-world processes, so too are verbal explanations of such nuanced arithmetic. Trisha Sain from Michigan Tech explores multiscale physics by thinking about the Lego bricks in her living room, the windows of skyscrapers and cooking a feast.

Released: 29-Jun-2021 2:10 PM EDT
Longer-Lived Lithium-Metal Battery Marks Step Forward for Electric Vehicles
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Researchers have increased the lifetime of a promising electric vehicle battery to a record level.

Released: 29-Jun-2021 1:05 PM EDT
UB's Paras Prasad Receives Prestigious IEEE Award
University at Buffalo

Paras Prasad, executive director of the Institute for Lasers, Photonics and Biophotonics at the University at Buffalo, is the recipient of the 2021 IEEE Photonics Society William Streifer Scientific Achievement Award.

Released: 29-Jun-2021 10:15 AM EDT
New 2D Alloy Combines Five Metals, Breaks Down CO2
Washington University in St. Louis

A new, two-dimensional material from the lab of Rohan Mishra is the first such material to be synthesized and purposefully used.

Released: 29-Jun-2021 7:15 AM EDT
This Crystal Impurity Is Sheer Perfection
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Scientists at Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley have developed a nanoparticle composite that grows into 3D crystals. The new 3D-grown material could speed up production and eliminate errors in the mass manufacturing of nanoscale photonics for smart buildings or actuators for robotics.

Released: 28-Jun-2021 9:30 AM EDT
Uncovering Hidden Local States in a Quantum Material
Brookhaven National Laboratory

States of local broken symmetry at high temperature—observed in several materials, including one with a metal-insulator transition, an iron-based superconductor, and an insulating mineral part of the Earth's upper mantle—may enable the technologically relevant properties arising at much-lower temperature.

Released: 25-Jun-2021 10:40 AM EDT
Argonne researchers use AI to optimize a popular material coating technique in real time
Argonne National Laboratory

Argonne researchers have demonstrated that AI approaches can be used to transform a vital layering technique for semiconductors.

Released: 25-Jun-2021 7:05 AM EDT
Putting Functional Proteins in Their Place
Brookhaven National Laboratory

Using DNA, scientists organized bioactive proteins in desired 2-D and 3-D ordered arrays—promising for structural biology, biomedicine, and more.

Released: 24-Jun-2021 2:15 PM EDT
Setting Gold and Platinum Standards Where Few Have Gone Before
Sandia National Laboratories

Like two superheroes finally joining forces, Sandia National Laboratories’ Z machine — generator of the world’s most powerful electrical pulses — and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility — the planet’s most energetic laser source — in a series of 10 experiments have detailed the responses of gold and platinum at pressures so extreme that their atomic structures momentarily distorted like images in a fun-house mirror.

Released: 24-Jun-2021 10:10 AM EDT
Researchers World-Wide Find Great Value in ReaxFF Reactive Force Field
Penn State Materials Research Institute

More than 1,600 researchers in six of the world’s seven continents have requested parameters for a ReaxFF reactive force field developed by a Penn State researcher and used as a valuable research tool in fields as varied as biomaterials, polymers, batteries and 3D printing.

Released: 24-Jun-2021 9:25 AM EDT
Materials Researcher Honored with ACerS's 2021 Orton Lectureship
Penn State Materials Research Institute

The American Ceramics Society (ACerS) has selected Clive Randall, director of the Materials Research Institute and distinguished professor of materials science and engineering, to give the 2021 Edward Orton, Jr. Memorial Lecture at the 2021 ACerS’s Annual Meeting.

Released: 23-Jun-2021 5:10 PM EDT
Microspheres Quiver When Shocked
Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science

A challenging frontier in science and engineering is controlling matter outside of thermodynamic equilibrium to build material systems with capabilities that rival those of living organisms. Research on active colloids aims to create micro- and nanoscale “particles” that swim through viscous fluids like primitive microorganisms. When these self-propelled particles come together, they can organize and move like schools of fish to perform robotic functions, such as navigating complex environments and delivering “cargo” to targeted locations.

Released: 23-Jun-2021 9:30 AM EDT
Magneto-Thermal Imaging Brings Synchrotron Capabilities to the Lab
Cornell University

Coming soon to a lab tabletop near you: a method of magneto-thermal imaging that offers nanoscale and picosecond resolution previously available only in synchrotron facilities.

Released: 23-Jun-2021 5:05 AM EDT
Scientists Obtain Magnetic Nanopowder for 6G Technology
Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT)

Material scientists have developed a fast method for producing epsilon iron oxide and demonstrated its promise for next-generation communications devices. Its outstanding magnetic properties make it one of the most coveted materials, such as for the upcoming 6G generation of communication devices and for durable magnetic recording. The work was published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry C, a journal of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Released: 22-Jun-2021 5:55 PM EDT
How to Make Lithium-ion Batteries Invincible
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Berkeley Lab scientists have made significant progress in developing battery cathodes using a new class of materials that provide batteries with the same if not higher energy density than conventional lithium-ion batteries but can be made of inexpensive and abundant metals. Known as DRX, which stands for disordered rocksalts with excess lithium, this novel family of materials was invented less than 10 years ago and allows cathodes to be made without nickel or cobalt.



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