Near Zero Friction From Nanoscale Lubricants
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.
Evaporation-Powered Motor and Light
Scientists designed shape-changing composites that used evaporation to power locomotion and generate electricity.
X-ray Induced Quasiparticles: New Window on Unconventional Superconductivity
A new type of particle has been created that can help explain the electron interactions responsible for high-temperature superconductivity.
Shape Shifters: Demonstrating Tunable Phase Shifting
Scientists devised a new approach that balances attractions between particles and promises to become a useful tool to create designer materials that can repair damage.
Solar Water Splitting: Putting an Extra "Eye" on Surface Reactions that Store Sunlight as Fuel
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.
What CAN It Be?
Scientists revealed that cerium ammonium nitrate (CAN) changes into a complex structure when it is dissolved. The discovery raises pertinent questions about cerium's behavior in chemical industries and gives insights into possible new opportunities for its use.
The Majorana Demonstrator: First Module of Germanium Detectors Comes Online
In 2014, the Majorana Demonstrator (MJD) started its search for neutrinoless double beta decay. Observation of this decay would have profound implications for our understanding of physics, including providing hints as to how the Big Bang produced more matter than it did antimatter.
A Large-Area Detector for Fundamental Neutron Science
How long do neutrons live? The answer could change how we think everything from the cosmos to coffee cups. Yet, scientists don't agree on the neutron longevity. The disagreement is fanned by the limitations of today's instruments. Now, a highly efficient detector is helping to resolve the puzzle.
Laser Detection of Actinides and Other Elements
Dramatic increases in ionization efficiencies for uranium, thorium, and palladium, which were made possible with RILIS, enable new studies relevant to nuclear fuels cycles, neutrino detection, and isotope production.
New Artificial Cells Mimic Nature's Tiny Reactors
Pools of fatty molecules self-assemble around treated water droplets to create a cell-like bioreactor that could offer substantial advantages for carrying out complex synthesis processes.
Cooperative Carbon Capture by a Novel Material that Mimics a Plant Enzyme
Scientists discovered a material that exhibits an unprecedented mechanism for carbon dioxide capture-and-release with only small shifts in temperature. The material's structure closely resembles an enzyme found in plants that captures carbon dioxide for conversion into nutrients.
Two-Color X-Rays Give Scientists 3-D View of the Unknown
Scientists can now get a high-resolution view of a sample or the details of the first steps in ultra-fast processes, thanks to researchers at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory's Linac Coherent Light Source.
The World's Thinnest Proton Channel
Scientists correlated atomic-scale defects in graphene with a "bucket brigade" style mechanism that lets protons travel through the graphene. Demonstrating such a mechanism and the prospect for gating it could enable directing proton pathways for improved fuel cells and other uses.
Super Water-Repellant Coatings Can Now Take the Pressure
Extremely water-repellant surfaces were fabricated that can withstand pressures that are 10 times greater than the average pressure a surface would experience resting in a room. The surfaces resist the infiltration of liquid into the nanoscale pockets, staying drier than similar coatings.
Skimming Uranium from the Sea
Researchers developed a new, protein-based system that can mine certain types of uranium from sea water with exceedingly high affinity and selectivity.
Up and Down Quarks Favored Over Strange Ones
A suppression of strange quark production relative to up and down quark production had previously been noted; for the first time, the result has been verified when a single pair is produced.
Discovered: Tiny Drops of "Perfect" Fluid that Existed in the Early Universe
Surprisingly, smaller particles colliding with large nuclei appear to produce tiny droplets of quark-gluon plasma. Recent results show that the tiny droplets behave like a liquid not the expected gas. The results support the case that these small particles produce tiny drops of the primordial soup.
Combustion's Mysterious "QOOH" Radicals Exposed
Good news for those interested in accurately modeling combustion engines, scientists can now discriminate between previously unidentified radicals found in the early stages of the combustion process from similar compounds.
Light Speed Ahead!
Light waves trapped on a metal's surface travel farther than expected. While the distance might seem quite small, it is far enough to possibly be useful in ultra-fast electronic circuits.
Scientists Track Ultrafast Formation of Catalyst with X-Ray Laser
Scientists have - for the first time - precisely tracked the surprisingly rapid process by which light rearranges the outermost electrons of a metal compound and turns it into a catalyst. These details could help scientists predict and control the quick, early steps in reactions vital to renewable fuels.
Keeping the Ions Close: A New Activity
Building better batteries means understanding the chemistry of acids and bases. Now, scientists found that when a strong acid is mixed with water, the negatively and positively charged parts create an unexpected structure.
Capturing and Converting Carbon Dioxide in a Single Step
Turning carbon dioxide from certain power plants into a more valuable chemical would reduce emissions while creating a revenue return. Scientists at the University of Pittsburgh derived a metal-free catalyst that does the trick without the need for expensive, extreme conditions.
One in a Million: Analyzing Metabolites in a Single Cell
With detection limits down to the zeptomolar range (about 600 molecules in a sample), a new technology can analyze the metabolic composition of individual microbial cells, as well as detect the presence of extremely low levels of environmental contaminants.
The Importance of Hydration
In all organisms, water's pH has a profound effect. Because the interaction of carbon dioxide and water explains the natural acidity of water and all accompanying reactions, it is considered a vital reaction by scientists. Researchers recently made a discovery about how dissolved dioxide bonds.
Nanoscale Building Blocks and DNA "Glue" Help Shape 3D Architectures
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.