Feature Channels: Materials Science

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Scientists have proposed a metasurface for the anomalous scattering of visible light.

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Scientists at the National University of Singapore have demonstrated a new way of controlling electrons by confining them in a device made out of atomically thin materials, and applying external electric and magnetic fields.

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A team of physicists from ITMO University, Ioffe Physical-Technical Institute and Australian National University have researched the phenomenon of phase transition between photonic crystals and metamaterials - two types of periodic structures capable of manipulating light in intricate ways. The study helps to gain an insight into the fundamental properties of periodic structures and opens new possibilities for the design and creation of new electromagnetic materials. The results of the study were published in Nature Communications.

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Magnesium infused with dense silicon carbide nanoparticles could be used for airplanes, cars, mobile electronics and more.

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A study led by Ángel Rubio, the UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country professor and head of the Max Planck Institute in Hamburg, shows that it is possible to predict the effects of photons on materials.

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Cornell graduate student Haining Wang came up with an inventive way of measuring the near-instantaneous electrical current generated using a light detector that he and a team of engineers made using an atomically thin material.

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A new study conducted at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Spallation Neutron Source (SNS), has revealed promising results that could drastically boost the performance of solid-state electrolytes, and could potentially lead to a safer, even more efficient battery. Researchers used neutron diffraction (the VULCAN instrument, SNS beam line 7) to conduct an in-depth study probing the entire structure evolution of doped garnet-type electrolytes during the synthesis process to unravel the mechanism that boosts the lithium-ionic conductivity.

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redictions of physicists of the University of Luxembourg recently lead to the discovery of a material with special electric properties which engages the interest of plastics producing industry.

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A team of scientists from Argonne National Laboratory, Northwestern University and Stony Brook University has, for the first time, created a two-dimensional sheet of boron -- a material known as borophene. It is an unusual material because it shows many metallic properties at the nanoscale even though three-dimensional, or bulk, boron is nonmetallic and semiconducting. No bulk form of elemental boron has this metal-like behavior. Borophene, both metallic and atomically thin, holds promise for possible applications ranging from electronics to photovoltaics.

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Understanding and manipulating plasmons is important for their potential use in photovoltaics, solar cell water splitting, and sunlight-induced fuel production from CO2. Now, for the first time, the interplay between the plasmon mode and the single particle excitation within a small metal cluster has been simulated directly. Researchers with Berkeley Lab used a real-time numerical algorithm to study both the plasmon and hot carrier within the same framework. That is critical for understanding how long a particle stays excited, and whether there is energy backflow from hot carrier to plasmon.

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State-of-the-art atomic force microscopes (AFMs) are designed to capture images of structures as small as a fraction of a nanometer -- a million times smaller than the width of a human hair. In recent years, AFMs have produced desktop-worthy close-ups of atom-sized structures, from single strands of DNA to individual hydrogen bonds between molecules.

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An optical device at nanoscale which allows light to pass in only one direction has been developed at TU Wien (Vienna). It consists of alkali atoms which are coupled to ultrathin glass fibres.

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A team of chemists from ITMO University, in collaboration with research company SOPOT, has developed a novel type of firefighting foam based on inorganic silica nanoparticles. The new foam beats existing analogues in fire extinguishing capacity, thermal and mechanical stability and biocompatibility. The results of the study were published in ACS Advanced Materials & Interfaces.

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A team led by Iowa State's Steve Martin is developing sodium-based batteries to store the gigawatts from wind farms and other energy sources. The project is supported by $3 million from U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy.

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They sound like futuristic weapons, but electron guns are actually workhorse tools for research and industry: They emit streams of electrons for electron microscopes, semiconductor patterning equipment and particle accelerators, to name a few important uses. Now scientists at Stanford University and the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have figured out how to increase these electron flows 13,000-fold by applying a single layer of diamondoids – tiny, perfect diamond cages – to an electron gun’s sharp gold tip.

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Advances in nanolensing would make possible extremely high-resolution imaging or biological sensing.

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When Karl A. Gschneidner Jr. began work on his Ph.D. at Iowa State University and hired on as an Ames Laboratory graduate researcher in metallurgy, Dwight Eisenhower was serving his first term in the White House. Now, more than six decades later, Gschneidner is formally retiring effective Jan. 5, 2016 after a distinguished career that led him to become internationally recognized as Mr. Rare Earth.

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In solar flow batteries, the proposed charging process links harvesting solar energy and storing it as chemical energy via the electrolyte. Scientists built a solar flow battery that uses an eco-friendly, compatible solvent and needs a lower applied voltage to recharge the battery.

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Friction hampers the movement of all mechanical parts, including engines for transportation. Scientists built a system with virtually no friction. The system wraps graphene flakes around nanodiamonds that then roll between a diamond-like carbon-surface and graphene on silica.

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Scientists designed shape-changing composites that used evaporation to power locomotion and generate electricity.

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Iowa State University engineers are developing materials with a variety of medical applications, including delivering suicide genes to cancer cells, providing sustained delivery of vaccines, reducing the wear of hip implants and helping nerves regenerate.

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A new type of particle has been created that can help explain the electron interactions responsible for high-temperature superconductivity.

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Building burglary-resistent doors with thermal insulation is a challenge for manufacturers. Their complex structure provides holes for the flow of air. With scientific simulation methods, Fraunhofer researchers have designed an insulating construction on the computer – without expensive prototypes having to be built.

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Nanoscale octopods that do double duty as catalysts and plasmonic sensors are lighting a path toward more efficient industrial processes, according to a Rice University scientist.

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Water-splitting cells absorb sunlight and produce fuel. Creating such cells means pairing a material to absorb sunlight and generate electrons with the one that uses those electrons to produce fuel. Scientists introduced a novel way to study the flow of electrons where the materials meet.

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Researchers at Linköping University's Laboratory of Organic Electronics, Sweden, have developed power paper -- a new material with an outstanding ability to store energy. The material consists of nanocellulose and a conductive polymer. The results have been published in Advanced Science.

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Researchers at North Carolina State University say they have developed a technique for creating a substance they are calling Q-carbon, which represents a third phase, or distinct form, of carbon alongside graphite and diamond.

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Article about a proposed plasma-based method for treating nuclear waste.

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A mineral discovered by retired University of Utah medical technologist Joe Marty recently received the inaugural Mineral of the Year award for 2014 by the International Mineral Association.

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The Critical Materials Institute, a U.S. Department of Energy Innovation, is looking to strengthen its network of industrial, commercial, educational and government partners through a newly revamped and lower-cost affiliate membership program.

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The National Science Foundation has awarded $1.2 million to three research groups at Indiana University to advance research on self-assembling molecules and computer-aided design software required to create the next generation of solar cells, circuits, sensors and other technology.

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The U.S. Department of Energy’s Critical Materials Institute and Iowa State University are offering a unique educational opportunity to get an in-depth overview of the rare-earth metals in a senior and graduate level course offered online spring semester 2016.

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A team of researchers from the University of Maryland (UMD) and the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) have devised a groundbreaking “Water-in-Salt” aqueous Lithium ion battery technology that could provide power, efficiency and longevity comparable to today's Lithium-ion batteries, but without the fire risk, poisonous chemicals and environmental hazards of current Lithium batteries.

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In 2014, there were about 36.9 million people living with HIV and about 2 million were infected. The virus, which causes AIDS, is commonly spread through sexual activity, and although antiretroviral therapy has turned the once-universally fatal condition into a chronic one, 1.2 million people died as a result of AIDS-related diseases last year.

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The American Association for the Advancement of Science has named Thomas Zacharia and Mariappan Parans Paranthaman of Oak Ridge National Laboratory as new AAAS fellows. The two are honored for their achievements in science administration and materials chemistry, respectively.

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Recently, the first full-scale experiments on recycled concrete structures were made and one of the tests was rather ambitious: the structures were subjected to horizontal forces until they collapsed in order to evaluate their seismic capacity.

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Research on reinforced Engineered Cementitious Composites shows that they can improve infrastructure sustainability by reducing the amount of repair and maintenance needed during the service life.

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Scientists from Brookhaven National Laboratory and Ludwig Maximilian University have proposed a solution to the subatomic stoppage of electron flow due to defects in materials: a novel way to create a more robust electron wave by binding together the electron's direction of movement and its spin.

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A novel magnetic semiconductor material that is an alloy of cobalt, iron, chromium and aluminum in which part of the aluminum was replaced with silicon may help reduce the power needed to store data in the computer memory. Researchers from the South Dakota State University Physics Materials and Nano-Science Lab are collaborating with the nano-magnetic group at the Nebraska Center for Materials and Nanoscience at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

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Assistant Professor of Physics Hanwei Gao and Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering Biwu Ma are using a class of materials called organometal halide perovskites to build a highly functioning LED. They lay out their findings in the journal Advanced Materials.

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A new type of symmetry operation developed by Penn State researchers has the potential to quicken the search for new advanced materials that range from tougher steels to new types of electronic, magnetic, and thermal materials.

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Since the first laser was invented in 1960, they’ve always given off heat — either as a useful tool, a byproduct or a fictional way to vanquish intergalactic enemies. University of Washington researchers are the first to solve a decades-old puzzle — figuring out how to make a laser refrigerate water and other liquids under real-world conditions.

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Researchers used a powerful, custom-built X-ray microscope at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory to directly observe the magnetic version of a soliton, a type of wave that can travel without resistance. Scientists are exploring whether such magnetic waves can be used to carry and store information in a new, more efficient form of computer memory that requires less energy and generates less heat.

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Scientists at Queen’s University Belfast have made a major breakthrough by making a porous liquid – with the potential for a massive range of new technologies including ‘carbon capture’.

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ORNL device potentially huge help for studying chemical interactions, disease, drugs.

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A team led by scientists at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory combined powerful magnetic pulses with some of the brightest X-rays on the planet to discover a surprising 3-D arrangement of a material’s electrons that appears closely linked to a mysterious phenomenon known as high-temperature superconductivity.

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When bridges, dam walls and other structures made of concrete are streaked with dark cracks after a few decades, the culprit is AAR: the alkali-aggregate reaction. Also called the “concrete disease” or even “concrete cancer”, it is a chemical reaction between substances contained in the material and moisture seeping in from outside. AAR damages concrete structures all over the world and makes complex renovations or reconstructions necessary. Researchers from the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) and Empa have now solved the structure of the material produced in the course of AAR at atomic Level.

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Researchers at Tokyo Institute of Technology successfully fabricate a metamaterial using a lotus leaf as a template.

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Scientists from Stanford University and the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have shown they can make flexible, transparent electrical conductors with record-high performance for use in solar cells, displays and other devices by spreading polymers on a clear surface with a tiny blade, like a knife spreading butter on toast.

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An international team of researchers, led by Penn State, has developed ultrasensitive gas sensors based on the infusion of boron atoms into the tightly bound matrix of carbon atoms known as graphene.