Roy L. Xu, New Mexico State University associate professor of mechanical engineering, discovered a very thin interface bonding material with applications for football helmets to reduce concussions. The material is light and cost-effective to make bulletproof backpacks at a much lower cost than the $300 to $400 range of those currently available.
Dozens of new two-dimensional materials similar to graphene are now available, thanks to research from University of Manchester scientists.
Graphene could lead to greener more fuel efficient cars in the future by converting heat into electricity.
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Working at the Molecular Foundry, Berkeley Lab researchers used their “Campanile” nano-optical probe to make some surprising discoveries about molybdenum disulfide, a member of the “transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) semiconductor family whose optoelectronic properties hold great promise for future nanoelectronic and photonic devices.
The U.S. Department of Energy's Critical Materials Institute, led by Ames Laboratory, has more than doubled its research accomplishments in its second year, bringing the total number of invention disclosures to 34.
Researchers with Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s (ORNL’s) Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) have developed technology to squeeze materials with a million times the pressure of the earth’s atmosphere while studying them with neutrons. When they bombard these materials with neutrons, the materials provide an unprecedented picture of the changing nature of matter under extreme pressure.
A blood clot can potentially trigger heart attacks, strokes and other medical emergencies. Treatment requires finding its exact location, but current techniques can only look at one part of the body at once. Now, researchers are reporting a method, tested in rats, that may someday allow physicians to quickly scan the entire body for a blood clot. The team will describe their approach at the 250th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society.
The use of solar energy in the U.S. is growing, but panels on rooftops are still a rare sight. They cost thousands of dollars, and homeowners don’t recoup costs for years. But scientists may have a solution. At the 250th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, they report the development of a unique, “green” antenna that could potentially double efficiencies of certain solar cells and make them more affordable.
Highly efficient, light-emitting diodes (LEDs) could slash the world’s electricity consumption. They are already sold in stores, but are expensive, and many of them give off “harsh” light. But researchers will report today that they have developed a less expensive, more sustainable white LED with a warm glow. The scientists will discuss their research at the 250th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society.
Finding a technology to shift carbon dioxide (CO2), the most abundant anthropogenic greenhouse gas, from a climate change problem to a valuable commodity has long been a dream. Now, a team of chemists says they have developed a technology to economically convert atmospheric CO2 directly into highly valued carbon nanofibers for industrial and consumer products. They will present the research at the 250th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society.
Sunlight can be brutal. It wears down even the strongest structures, including rooftops and naval ships, and it heats up metal slides and bleachers until they’re too hot to use. To fend off damage and heat, scientists have developed an environmentally friendly paint out of glass that bounces sunlight off metal surfaces — keeping them cool and durable. The researchers present their work at the 250th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society.
A bomb blast or a rough tackle can inflict serious brain damage. Yet at the time of impact, these injuries are often invisible. To detect head trauma immediately, a team of researchers has developed a polymer-based material that changes colors depending on how hard it is hit. The goal is to someday incorporate this material into protective headgear. They will describe their approach at the 250th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society.
Hand-written letters and old photos seem quaint in today’s digital age. But there’s one thing traditional media have over hard drives: longevity. Scientists are turning to nature’s master of information storage to save data. One team demonstrated that synthetic DNA can last 2,000 years, and they’re now working to index the system to make it easier to navigate. They present their work today at the 250th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society.
Cross contamination in commercial processing facilities that prepare spinach and other leafy greens for the market can make people sick. But researchers are reporting a new, easy-to-implement method that could eliminate or reduce such incidences. The scientists will present their work at the 250th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.
Researchers from the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University have developed a manufacturing technique that could double the electricity output of inexpensive solar cells by using a microscopic rake when applying light-harvesting polymers.
The metal components that make up industrial machines are subject to tremendous wear and tear. But a newly patented technology by Distinguished Fellow Ali Erdemir and his team at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory could greatly extend the lifetime of mechanical parts.
Scientists devised a new way of assembling ordered crystals made of nanoparticles. In this process, nanoparticles in the shape of cubes, octahedrons, and spheres coordinate with each other to build structures. The shapes are bound together by complementary DNA molecules on each type of particle.
Used in everything from cell phones to supercomputers, tiny electronic circuits contain transistors that generate performance-compromising heat. Thanks to a team working at the Molecular Foundry, circuit designers can “see” how temperatures change inside the circuits.
The Department of Energy Office of Science’s Nanoscale Science Research Centers jointly organized a workshop to discuss opportunities and challenges as imaging and data sciences merge. Those efforts will likely aid the Materials Genome Initiative.
A new technology that aids in the recycling, recovery and extraction of rare earth minerals has been licensed to U.S. Rare Earths, Inc.
The chemical reactions that make methanol from carbon dioxide rely on a catalyst to speed up the conversion, and Argonne scientists identified a new material that could fill this role. With its unique structure, this catalyst can capture and convert carbon dioxide in a way that ultimately saves energy.
Crackpot idea or recipe for success? This is a question entrepreneurs often face. Is it worth converting the production process to a new, ecologically better material? Empa has developed an analysis method that enables companies to simulate possible scenarios – and therefore avoid bad investments. Here’s an example: Nanofibers made of carrot waste from the production of carrot juice, which can be used to reinforce synthetic parts.
A new scientific instrument at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory promises to capture some of nature’s speediest processes. It uses a method known as ultrafast electron diffraction (UED) and can reveal motions of electrons and atomic nuclei within molecules that take place in less than a tenth of a trillionth of a second – information that will benefit groundbreaking research in materials science, chemistry and biology.
This little black box could change how we study one of the world's biggest water quality issues. Our Michigan Tech team joined up with the Nitrate Elimination Company to create this this new nitrate test kit.
Researchers from North Carolina State University show that magnetic nanoparticles encased in oily liquid shells can bind together in water, much like sand particles mixed with the right amount of water can form sandcastles.
A study conducted by researchers at Brookhaven and Oak Ridge national laboratories describes how an iron-telluride material related to a family of high-temperature superconductors develops superconductivity with no long-range electronic or magnetic order. In fact, the material displays a liquid-like magnetic state consisting of two coexisting and competing disordered magnetic phases. The results challenge a number of widely accepted paradigms into how unconventional superconductors work.
Researchers at Tsinghua University in Beijing have recently used a technique called zero-kinetic energy photoelectron spectroscopy to obtain a list in unprecedented detail of the quantum energy levels of the cyanoacetylene cation, a linear, five-atom molecule that exhibits nuclear and electronic coupling effects and is found in interstellar clouds and in the atmosphere of Saturn's largest moon Titan.
A team of New York University scientists has developed a technique that prompts microparticles to form ordered structures in a variety of materials. The advance offers a method to potentially improve the makeup and color of optical materials used in computer screens along with other consumer products.
As the demand grows for ever smaller, smarter electronics, so does the demand for understanding materials’ behavior at ever smaller scales. Physicists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory are building a unique optical magnetometer to probe magnetism at the nano- and mesoscale.
The findings in the journal Science have implications for questions regarding how animals and plants grow minerals into shapes that have no relation to their original crystal symmetry, and why some contaminants are difficult to remove from stream sediments.
Researchers from Berkeley Lab and Columbia University have created the world’s highest-performance single-molecule diode. Development of a functional single-molecule diode is a major pursuit of the electronics industry.
Researchers at MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and Massachusetts General Hospital have created a polymer gel that could allow for the development of long-acting devices that reside in the stomach, including orally delivered capsules that can release drugs over a number of days, weeks, or potentially months following a single administration.
Coating the inside of glass microtubes with a polymer hydrogel material dramatically alters the way capillary forces draw water into the tiny structures, researchers have found. The discovery could provide a new way to control microfluidic systems, including popular lab-on-a-chip devices.
The development of affordable and efficient ceramic fuel cells that could be used to power homes is the culmination of five years worth of work by Colorado School of Mines researchers.
Research at Argonne indicates that you don't need a magnetic material to create spin current from insulators—with important implications for the field of spintronics and the development of high-speed, low-power electronics that use electron spin rather than charge to carry information.
In a study published in the July 24 issue of the journal Science, scientists describe how they constructed elastic conducting fibers by wrapping lighter-than-air, electrically conductive sheets of tiny carbon nanotubes to form a jelly-roll-like sheath around a long rubber core.
Argonne National Laboratory scientists used the Mira supercomputer to identify and improve a new mechanism for eliminating friction, which fed into the development of a hybrid material that exhibited superlubricity at the macroscale for the first time.
Graphene has been studied intensively for its unique properties, and now researchers have developed a microelectronics-compatible method to grow it and have synthesized wafer-scale, high-quality graphene on silicon substrates. The method is based on an ion implantation technique, a process in which ions are accelerated under an electrical field and smashed into a semiconductor. In Applied Physics Letters, the researchers describe their work, which takes graphene a step closer to commercial applications in silicon microelectronics.
BPA’s popularity soared after the 1950s, but evidence suggests that even low doses might be harmful to human and environmental health. Many manufacturers are now phasing out BPA, but it doesn't break down easily, making safe disposal difficult. Now, researchers have developed a hybrid photocatalyst that can break down BPA using visible light. Their findings could eventually be used to treat water supplies and to more safely dispose of BPA and materials like it.
An examination of 100 discarded dental implants under a scanning electron microscope found that more than 60 percent of them had cracks and other flaws that made them prone to fracturing. More than 3 million people in the U.S. alone have dental implants.
A research team out of Michigan Tech has found a way to solve one of the biggest challenges of making metamaterials. Their optical work is a big step towards creating a "perfect lens".
“SINGLE” is a new imaging technique that provides the first atomic-scale 3D structures of individual nanoparticles in solution. This is an important step for improving the design of colloidal nanoparticles for catalysis and energy research applications.
An Argonne/University of Tennessee research team reconstructed the crystal structure of BAP, a protein involved in the process by which marine archaea release carbon, to determine how it functioned, as well as its larger role in carbon cycling in marine sediments.
When a sound wave hits an obstacle and is scattered, the signal may be lost or degraded. But what if you could guide the signal around that obstacle, as if the interfering barrier didn't even exist? Recently, researchers at Nanjing University in China created a material from polyethylene membranes that does exactly that.
Groundbreaking work at two Department of Energy national laboratories has confirmed plutonium’s magnetism, which scientists have long theorized but have never been able to experimentally observe.
When electrons move in a phosphorus transistor, they do so only in two dimensions, according to a study published in Nature Communications . The finding suggests that black phosphorus could help engineers surmount one of the big challenges for future electronics: designing energy-efficient transistors.
Researchers have used an X-ray laser to record, in detail never possible before, the microscopic motion and effects of shock waves rippling across diamond. The technique, developed at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, allows scientists to precisely explore the complex physics driving massive star explosions, which are critical for understanding fusion energy, and to improve scientific models used to study these phenomena.
When aluminum atoms bunch up, porous materials called zeolites lose their ability to convert oil to gasoline. An international team of scientists created the first 3-D atomic map of a zeolite in order to find out how to improve catalysts used to produce fuel, biofuel and other chemicals.
A new recycling method developed by scientists at the Critical Materials Institute, a U.S. Department of Energy Innovation Hub led by the Ames Laboratory, recovers valuable rare-earth magnetic material from manufacturing waste.
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