Feature Channels: Materials Science

• share
• favorite_border

Penn State's Materials Research Science and Engineering Center has successfully renewed NSF funding for six more years.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers are developing new ways to advance lithium-rich batteries and using new materials for practical use, according to researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory.

• share
• favorite_border

Were you aware that earthquakes are sometimes associated with luminescence, called earthquake lightning? This phenomenon had been documented throughout history, such as between 1965 and 1967, the Matsushiro earthquake swarm caused the surrounding mountain to flicker with light multiple times.

• share
• favorite_border

A new 3D-printing method will make it easier to manufacture and control the shape of soft robots, artificial muscles and wearable devices. By controlling the printing temperature of liquid crystal elastomer, researchers have shown they can control the material’s stiffness and ability to contract.

• share
• favorite_border

The superfluid helium-3 has many notable qualities. With its low mass and small atomic size, it remains in a liquid state – and when it transforms to the superfluid state, flowing without resistance – down to absolute zero, or minus 459.67 degrees Fahrenheit. It is a pure system, without any disorder. And it is full of surprises.

• share
• favorite_border

Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES) revealed today a new brand identity which includes a new logo and website, as well as refreshed mission, vision, and tagline.

• share
• favorite_border

In a new study from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory, researchers are accelerating the hunt for the best possible battery components by employing artificial intelligence.

• share
• favorite_border

Argonne materials scientist Arturo Gutierrez has been recognized by HENAAC, the national organization that honors Hispanic scientists and engineers.

• share
• favorite_border

A collaboration between the University of Cambridge and Argonne has developed a unique method of generating automatic databases to support specific fields of science using AI and high-performance computing.

• share
• favorite_border

New semiconductor materials that use an electron’s spin to store information can make computers and electronic devices faster, more energy efficient and less expensive.

• share
• favorite_border

Pills are being sent into space to test how they cope with the rigours of one of the harshest environments known. The University of Adelaide is studying how exposure to microgravity and space radiation affects the stability of pharmaceutical tablet formulations. Two separate missions will send science payloads into orbit around Earth: the first will test how tablets cope with the environment inside the International Space Station (ISS) U.S. National Laboratory. The second mission scheduled for early 2021, will test how tablets cope outside the ISS.

• share
• favorite_border

Fairy circles are one of nature's greatest enigmas and most visually stunning phenomena.

• share
• favorite_border

David Larbalestier, the chief materials scientist at the Florida State University-headquartered National High Magnetic Field Laboratory and a Krafft Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

• share
• favorite_border

The winning postdoctoral researchers include a neuroscientist improving memory formation and recall, an astrophysicist illuminating dark matter, and a biochemist refining gene-editing technologies

• share
• favorite_border

Philip K. “Phil” Tubesing is the 2020 awardee of Los Alamos National Laboratory’s prestigious Global Security Medal, which recognizes the exceptional achievements of active or recently retired employees who have made significant contributions to the Laboratory’s global security mission.

• share
• favorite_border

Until now, the history of superconducting materials has been a tale of two types: s-wave and d-wave. Now, Cornell researchers – led by Brad Ramshaw, the Dick & Dale Reis Johnson Assistant Professor in the College of Arts and Sciences – have discovered a possible third type: g-wave.

• share
• favorite_border

Physicists from Lancaster University have established why objects moving through superfluid helium-3 lack a speed limit in a continuation of earlier Lancaster research.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory used new techniques to create a composite that increases the electrical current capacity of copper wires, providing a new material that can be scaled for use in ultra-efficient, power-dense electric vehicle traction motors.

• share
• favorite_border

Studies indicate that homemade masks help combat the spread of viruses like COVID-19 when combined with frequent hand-washing and physical distancing.

• share
• favorite_border

Upcoming events highlight critical work being done at Argonne to address the water crisis

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

Michigan Tech researchers have been selected for a $7.2 million DARPA cooperative agreement award to turn military plastic waste into protein powder and lubricants.

• share
• favorite_border

What if, when confronted with a COVID-contaminated countertop, cockpit or control panel, a person could decontaminate the entire surface by zapping it with a handheld ultraviolet light? Technology that UND is testing and helping to develop could make it possible for people to do just that. And if the testing is successful, the U.S. Air Force and the global food-services industry are just two of the industrial behemoths that are likely to be interested. Supported by a $1.5 million grant from the North Dakota Department of Agriculture, SafetySpect Inc. – a California-based company – is bringing its virus-fighting solution to multiple UND labs for experimentation.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at Binghamton University, State Univeristy of New York have used electrospinning to make porous silicone that allows sweat to evaporate.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers thought yttrium hydride would be an ideal moderator for the new Transformational Challenge Reactor, but no one had yet figured out how to produce the large, crack-free pieces needed. An ORNL scientist developed a process and invented a machine to do that.

• share
• favorite_border

By varying the energy and dose of tightly-focused electron beams, researchers have demonstrated the ability to both etch away and deposit high-resolution nanoscale patterns on two-dimensional layers of graphene oxide. The 3D additive/subtractive “sculpting” can be done without changing the chemistry of the electron beam deposition chamber, providing the foundation for building a new generation of nanoscale structures.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers are developing new materials to help improve the performance of lithium-ion batteries.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Nebraska have developed an easier way to generate electrons for nanoscale imaging and sensing, providing a useful new tool for material science, bioimaging and fundamental quantum research.

• share
• favorite_border

Wearable and implantable devices are currently used for a variety of functions, including health tracking and monitoring. However, supplying energy usually requires cumbersome batteries and downtime due to recharging. Now, an international team of researchers suggests that advances in materials and electronic design may be able to convert biomechanical energy into electric energy, paving the way for devices that can be worn and implanted but do not require constant recharging.

• share
• favorite_border

The search is on to discover new states of matter, and possibly new ways of encoding, manipulating, and transporting information. One goal is to harness materials' quantum properties for communications that go beyond what's possible with conventional electronics. Topological insulators--materials that act mostly as insulators but carry electric current across their surface--provide some tantalizing possibilities. Scientists at Brookhaven Lab describe one such material that should be right just right for making qubits. But this material doesn't obey the rules.

• share
• favorite_border

As part of an international collaboration, scientists at Argonne National Laboratory have made a pivotal discovery that could extend the lifetime of fuel cells that power electric vehicles by eliminating the dissolution of platinum catalysts.

• share
• favorite_border

The National Science Foundation has awarded a $1 million Research Advanced by Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering (RAISE) grant to a multidisciplinary team of researchers at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California San Diego, the University of Minnesota, Carnegie Mellon University, and Cornell University to create the X-ray Imaging of Microstructures Gateway (XIMG), a science gateway designed to make it possible for global material sciences researchers to study the behavior of new and existing materials using X-ray diffraction.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers develop the new "transient vibrational sum-frequency generation microscope," giving them a thorough view of molecular systems—not just single traits of molecules.

• share
• favorite_border

Leaders from DOE and Argonne cut the ribbon on a new era of manufacturing — science and technology that will accelerate commercialization of complex materials and chemicals critically important to U.S. competitiveness.

• share
• favorite_border

Around 100,000 years ago, the climate worsened abruptly and the environment of Central-Eastern Europe shifted from forested to open steppe/taiga habitat, promoting the dispersal of wooly mammoth, wooly rhino and other cold adapted species from the Arctic.

• share
• favorite_border

Cracks and chemical reactions on a battery particle’s surface can sap its ability to store and release energy. Scientists probed a single charged particle the size of a red blood cell to see how interior and surface damage influence each other.

• share
• favorite_border

Rod Borup, of Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Materials Synthesis and Integrated Devices group, has been named a 2020 Electrochemical Society (ECS) Fellow. The distinction recognizes advanced individual technological contributions in electrochemical and solid-state science and technology and service to the society.

• share
• favorite_border

The Materials Research Society (MRS) is pleased to announce the Vice President/President Elect and new Board Members for 2021, elected by the Society's global membership of over 14,000.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at Argonne National Laboratory are revisiting the roles of the polarity and conductivity of sulfur-host materials in long-life lithium-sulfur batteries in order to increase life cycle and energy efficiency.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory used quantum optics to advance state-of-the-art microscopy and illuminate a path to detecting material properties with greater sensitivity than is possible with traditional tools.

• share
• favorite_border

Leather is used as a durable and flexible material in many aspects of everyday life including furniture and clothing. Leather substitutes derived from fungi are considered to be an ethical and environmentally friendly alternative to traditional bovine leather. An international team led by material chemists Alexander Bismarck and Mitchell Jones from the University of Vienna demonstrate the considerable potential of these renewable sustainable fabrics derived from fungi in their latest review article in "Nature Sustainability".

• share
• favorite_border

An international team used PNNL microscopy to answer questions about how uranium dioxide—used in nuclear power plants—might behave in long-term storage.

• share
• favorite_border

Imagine a reusable face mask that protects wearers and those around them from SARS-CoV-2, is comfortable enough to wear all day, and stays in place without frequent adjustment. Based on decades of experience with filtration and textile materials, Georgia Institute of Technology researchers have designed a new mask intended to do just that — and are providing the plans so individuals and manufacturers can make it.

• share
• favorite_border

The FDA just revoked their EUA for intubation boxes - plastic shields that supposedly protect health care workers from becoming infected with SARS-CoV-2 - due to concerns over aerosol leaks. This study describes a better box, with negative pressure and filtration, that contains airborne virus.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists at UC San Diego have discovered a new anode material that enables lithium-ion batteries to be safely recharged within minutes for thousands of cycles.

• share
• favorite_border

Innovators from Purdue University hope their new technology can help transform paper sheets from a notebook into a music player interface and make food packaging interactive.

• share
• favorite_border

Glass windows typically offer some amount of sound proofing, sometimes unintentionally. In general, ventilation is required to achieve large sound transmission. But some applications -- like gas explosion studies -- require a transparent partition that allows for acoustic propagation without the presence of airflow. In those cases, ventilation is not allowed. In Applied Physics Letters, researchers discuss a layered glass material they developed that allows for efficient sound transmission with no air ventilation.

• share
• favorite_border

ORNL Story Tips: Cool smart walls, magnetism twist, fuel cost savings and polymers’ impact

• share
• favorite_border

Florida State University researchers have developed a new material that could be used to make flexible X-ray detectors that are less harmful to the environment and cost less than existing technologies.

• share
• favorite_border

Theory suggests that quantum critical points may be analogous to black holes as places where all sorts of strange phenomena can exist in a quantum material. Now scientists say that they have found strong evidence that QCPs and their associated fluctuations exist in a cuprate superconductor.