Feature Channels: Materials Science

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Mark Beno, APS senior chemist, recognized for his decades-long work.

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Materials that can host this exotic liquid-like magnetic state could be harnessed for next-generation energy and computing applications.

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The materials the United States and other countries plan to use to store high-level nuclear waste will likely degrade faster than anyone previously knew because of the way those materials interact, new research shows. The findings, published today in the journal Nature Materials, show that corrosion of nuclear waste storage materials accelerates because of changes in the chemistry of the nuclear waste solution, and because of the way the materials interact with one another.

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Rigoberto “Gobet” Advincula has been named Governor’s Chair of Advanced and Nanostructured Materials at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee.

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Lithium dendrites cause poor performance and even explosions in batteries with flammable liquid electrolytes. How these dendrites grow, even with a solid electrolytes, is still a mystery, but materials engineers at MTU and Oak Ridge study the conditions that enable dendrites and how to stop them.

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A team of researchers from Penn State, Northeastern University, Rice University and Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais in Brazil have developed a technique to quickly and sensitively characterize defects in 2D materials.

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Zoubeida Ounaies, professor and associate head for administration in the Penn State Department of Mechanical Engineering, has been awarded a $1.7 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to conduct fundamental research into a new class of soft responsive materials, in collaboration with the University of Illinois.

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As a scientist at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Liam Collins advances atomic force microscopy techniques to enable researchers to study materials and their properties on a nanometer length scale.

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Iowa State University industrial design students are collaborating with the ISU Police Department to examine the issues police officers face with their uniforms, gear and vehicles – and what designers can do to help solve those problems.

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Xingjie Ni, assistant professor of electrical engineering, has developed a novel method to break the reciprocity of light propagation, which will enable advancements in several scientific fields.

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The UK Center for Applied Energy Research has received a two-year, $1.3 million grant to develop extremely durable belite-based cement — an alternative to ordinary Portland cement — that is low-energy consuming and low-carbon dioxide releasing.

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Recent studies have shown metallic objects have their own magnetic fingerprints based on size, shape and physical composition. In AIP Advances, from AIP Publishing, scientists look to leverage these observations to potentially create a smaller and cheaper system that is just as effective as their larger counterparts.

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Scientists from Cornell University and Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) have successfully demonstrated the world's first capture and reuse of energy in a multi-turn particle accelerator, where electrons are accelerated and decelerated in multiple stages and transported at different energies through a single beamline.

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It represents an entirely new type of ground state for transition metal oxides, and opens new directions for experiments and theoretical studies of how superconductivity arises and how it can be optimized in this system and possibly in other compounds.

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Neutron spectroscopy is an important tool for studying magnetic and thermoelectric properties in materials. But often the resolution, or the ability of the instrument to see fine details, is too coarse to clearly observe features identifying novel phenomena in new advanced materials. To solve this problem, researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, developed a new super-resolution software, called SRINS, that makes it easier for scientists to better understand materials’ dynamical properties using neutron spectroscopy.

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Traditional methods of vacuum suction and previous vacuum suction devices cannot maintain suction on rough surfaces due to vacuum leakage, which leads to suction failure. Researchers Xin Li and Kaige Shi developed a zero-pressure difference method to enhance the development of vacuum suction units. Their method overcame leakage limitations by using a high-speed rotating water ring between the surface and suction cup to maintain the vacuum. They discuss their work in Physics of Fluids.

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Research by Nebraska engineers Peter and Eli Sutter points to a way to overcome the challenges of building multi-layered nanostructures

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Experimental physicists have combined several measurements of quantum materials into one in their ongoing quest to learn more about manipulating and controlling the behavior of them for possible applications. They even coined a term for it-- Magneto-elastoresistance, or MER.

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A highly sensitive wearable gas sensor for environmental and human health monitoring may soon become commercially available, according to researchers at Penn State and Northeastern University.

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In a new study, scientists have developed a new type of semiconductor neutron detector that boosts detection rates by reducing the number of steps involved in neutron capture and transduction.

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Those nice new clothes you got for Christmas or in the new year sales might just last longer, thanks to advice from scientists researching the impact washing machines have on clothes and the environment.

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Two-dimensional semiconductors, particularly those made of a class of material known as transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs), hold exciting potential for a range of current and future technologies, like solar cells, LED lights, and quantum computing. A recently awarded National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) grant will allow a chemical engineer from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to — along with his team — explore novel uses of TMDCs in an optoelectronic device, which uses light to create electricity.

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A team of physicists has mapped how electron energies vary from region to region in a particular quantum state with unprecedented clarity. This understanding reveals an underlying mechanism by which electrons influence one another, termed quantum “hybridization,” that had been invisible in previous experiments.

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A new DNA-programmable nanofabrication platform organizes inorganic or biological nanocomponents in the same prescribed ways.

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A team of chemists at McMaster University has discovered an innovative way to break down and dissolve the rubber used in automobile tires, a process which could lead to new recycling methods that have so far proven to be expensive, difficult and largely inefficient.

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Martin Thuo and his research group have found a way to use heat to predictably and precisely change the surface structure of a particle of liquid metal. It's like a chameleon changing skin color in response to its environment. And so Thuo and his team are calling the technology "chameleon metals."

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The Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation announces the establishment of a new program for Machine Learning in the Chemical Sciences and Engineering. The goal of this program is to further the understanding and applications of machine learning throughout the chemical sciences.

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Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago launched a new testbed for quantum communication experiments from Argonne last week.

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Lovers of gold watches and heavy jewellery will be thrilled. The objects of their desire may someday become much lighter, but without losing any of their glitter. Especially with watches, a small amount of weight can make all the difference.

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Chemists have found a new use for the waste product of nuclear power - transforming an unused stockpile into a versatile compound which could be used to create valuable commodity chemicals as well as new energy sources.

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The nucleic acids of DNA encode genetic information, while the amino acids of proteins contain the code to turn that information into structures and functions. Together, they provide the two fundamental codes underlying all of life.

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A new method could enable researchers to build more efficient, longer lasting perovskite solar cells and LEDs. By growing thin perovskite films on different substrates, UC San Diego engineers invented a way of fabricating perovskite single crystals with precisely deformed, or strained, structures.

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Biomanufacturing – harnessing biological processes in cells and microbes to design and manufacture products – is revolutionizing how we make everything from futuristic consumer goods to sustainable fuels to breakthrough medicines. Every biomanufactured product can be traced back to discoveries in the lab, but translating that science into a real-world product can be tricky. Berkeley Lab helps move great ideas, like outdoor gear made from algae oil, from conception to commercialization.

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If copper was found in the core of Saturn it would have the same crystalline structure as the copper pipes found in many homes, according to new research from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and Johns Hopkins University. In a paper published today by Physical Review Letters, the research team reveals that copper maintains its crystalline structure at pressures ranging from one atmosphere (room pressure) to more than 30 million atmospheres.

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Researchers from the National University of Singapore have synthesised the world’s first one-atom-thick amorphous material. This breakthrough allows for direct imaging to reveal how atoms are arranged in amorphous materials, and could be of commercial value for batteries, semiconductors, membranes and many more applications.

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Researchers have developed a prototype system for efficient and safe production of hydrogen using only solar energy. The innovative system contains a tandem cell solar device that enables more efficient utilization of the light spectrum.

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From the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, January 2020

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A new study offers a nanoscopic view of complex oxides, which have great potential for advanced microelectronics.

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Researchers have developed new nanoscale technology to image and measure more of the stresses and strains on materials under high pressures.

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A growing number of Chinese scientists working in the United States and other parts of the world are returning to their homeland, enhancing China’s research productivity.

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Scientists have created a new class of material that uses sunlight to absorb and fix carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

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Scientists at Tokyo Institute of Technology(Tokyo Tech) explore a new material combination that sets the stage for magnetic random access memories, which rely on spin--an intrinsic property of electrons-- and could outperform current storage devices.

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During the past years, artificial intelligence (AI) -- the capability of a machine to mimic human behavior -- has become a key player in high-techs like drug development projects.

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The new films combine exceptionally strong light absorption with good charge transport — two qualities that make them ideal for applications such as photovoltaics and light-emitting diodes (LEDs).

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Computer storage devices often use magnetic materials printed on very thin films. In this study, researchers rotated cobalt-iron alloy thin films relative to an applied magnetic field. Unexpectedly, depending on the rotation angle, a sizeable change - up to 400% - was seen in how well the material holds on to energy.

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This edition of Science Snapshots highlights the discovery of an investigational cancer drug that targets tumors caused by mutations in the KRAS gene, the development of a new library of artificial proteins that could accelerate the design of new materials, and new insight into the natural toughening mechanism behind adult tooth enamel.

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Profiles of winners of PPPL's 2019 Kaul Foundation Prize recipients.

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A nationwide alliance of national labs, universities, and industry launched today to advance the frontiers of quantum computing systems designed to solve urgent scientific challenges and maintain U.S. leadership in next-generation information technology. The Quantum Information Edge strategic alliance is led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and Sandia National Laboratories.

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Brookhaven and its collaborators developed a laser-free device for probing fast atomic-scale processes in energy and bio materials.

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Where two unusual materials meet, scientists have seen promising behaviors for energy storage, medicine, and more. An international team of users and Foundry staff wrote a set of design rules that they then used to direct the self-assembly of the crystals and the cages into new types sheet-like structures.