By sandwiching a biological molecule between sheets of graphene, researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have obtained atomic-level images of the molecule in its natural watery environment.
Prof. François Barthelat and his team from McGill's Department of Mechanical Engineering have successfully taken inspiration from the mechanics of natural structures like seashells in order to significantly increase the toughness of glass.
Researchers at New York University have developed a method for creating and directing fast moving waves in magnetic fields that have the potential to enhance communication and information processing in computer chips and other consumer products.
Nearly 30 years after the discovery of high-temperature superconductivity, many questions remain, but an Oak Ridge National Laboratory team is providing insight that could lead to better superconductors.
The sponges of the future will do more than clean house. Delivering drugs and trapping gases are all potential applications. That's what chemist Jason Benedict had in mind when he led the design of a new, porous material whose pores change shape in response to ultraviolet light.
A new injectable material designed to deliver drug therapies and sensor technology to targeted areas within the human body is being developed by a Texas A&M University biomedical engineer who says the system can lock its payload in place and control how it is released.
Physicists have engineered novel magnetic and electronic phases in the ultra-thin films of magnetic material, opening the door for researchers to design new classes of material.
"Supercapacitors" take the energy-storing abilities of capacitors (which store electrical charge that can be quickly dumped to power devices) a step further, storing a far greater charge in a much smaller package. In AIP Advances, researchers describe the possibility of fabricating a new class of high heat-tolerant electronics that would employ supercapacitors made from a material called calcium-copper-titanate, or CCTO, which the researchers have identified for the first time as a practical energy-storage material.
Researchers have developed a technique for creating nanoparticles that carry two different cancer-killing drugs into the body and deliver those drugs to separate parts of the cancer cell where they will be most effective.
A team of scientists from the National University of Singapore (NUS) has successfully developed a method to chemically exfoliate molybdenum disulfide crystals into high quality monolayer flakes, with higher yield and larger flake size than current methods.
By controlling the temperature of silica rods as they grow, researchers at the DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory could be setting the stage for advances in anti-reflective solar cells, computer monitors, TV screens, eye glasses and more.
New research at the University of Arkansas shows that behavior can be predicted and understood in thin films made of materials called relaxors, which can be used in electronic devices.
Penn State researchers have proved the feasibility of a new type of transistor that could make possible fast and low-power computing devices for energy constrained applications.
Researchers led by UNL materials engineers develop a process to incorporate graphene oxide nano fibers as a template to guide the formation and orientation of continuous carbon nanofibers.
Sandia National Laboratories researchers have devised a novel way to realize electrical conductivity in metal-organic framework (MOF) materials, a development that could have profound implications for the future of electronics, sensors, energy conversion and energy storage.
To technology insiders, graphene is a certified big deal. The one-atom thick carbon-based material elicits rhapsodic descriptions as the strongest, thinnest material known. It also is light, flexible, and able to conduct electricity as well as copper. Graphene-based electronics promise advances such as faster internet speeds, cheaper solar cells, novel sensors, space suits spun from graphene yarn, and more. Now a research team at NIST may help bring graphene’s promise closer to reality.
The ever-increasing market for portable electronic devices has resulted in an equally heavy demand for rechargeable batteries, Lithium-ion (Li-ion) being among the most popular. Scientists and engineers are seeking ways to improve the power density, durability and overall performance of Lithium-ion batteries, and in a recent paper in the journal APL Materials, Japanese researchers from a public-private team report an advance in Li-ion battery technology that they describe as a major breakthrough.
Unexpected behavior in ferroelectric materials explored by researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory supports a new approach to information storage and processing.
Researchers across the globe are racing to find ways to improve the cooling of hot surfaces -- for technologies ranging from small electronics to nuclear power plants. Zeroing in on the physics at play underlying surface phenomena, MIT and Boston University researchers made a significant breakthrough. Although somewhat counterintuitive, they discovered that by creating sparsely packed textures on surfaces rather than densely packed ones, they were able to hold droplets in place and enable cooling.
Engineers and cardiology experts have teamed up to develop a fingernail-sized biosensor that could alert doctors when serious brain injury occurs during heart surgery.
A pair of microbes on the ocean floor “eats” methane in a unique way, and a new study provides insights into their surprising nutritional requirements. Learning how these methane-munching organisms make a living in these extreme environments could provide clues about how the deep-sea environment might change in a warming world.
Conventional processes for producing AIN layers run at temperatures as high as 1150 degrees Celsius, and offer limited control over the thickness of the layers. Now a new technique, described in the AIP Publishing journal Applied Physics Letters, offers a way to produce high-quality AlN layers with atomic-scale thickness and at half the temperature of other methods.
We use aluminum to make planes lightweight, store sodas in recyclable containers, keep the walls of our homes energy efficient and ensure that the Thanksgiving turkey is cooked to perfection. Now, thanks to a group of Japanese researchers, there may soon be a new application for the versatile metal: hydrogen storage for fuel cells.
Columbia Engineering researchers have developed a new approach to designing novel nanostructured materials through an inverse design framework using genetic algorithms. The study, published in PNAS’s October 28 Early Online edition, is the first to demonstrate the application of this methodology to the design of self-assembled nanostructures, and could help speed up the materials discovery process. It also shows the potential of machine learning and “big data” approaches.
Gas and oil deposits in shale have no place to hide from an Oak Ridge National Laboratory technique that provides an inside look at pores and reveals structural information potentially vital to the nation’s energy needs.
New tool, presented at the AVS Meeting in Long Beach, Calif., is uncovering the fundamentals of how cells respond to surfaces and could potentially improve the effectiveness of biomedical implants.
Research presented at the AVS Meeting in Long Beach, Calif. shows scientists’ first steps into the unexplored territory of interfacial materials that could someday yield smaller, faster, more energy-efficient devices.
Solar cells that produce electricity 24/7. Cell phones with built-in power cells that recharge in seconds and work for weeks between charges: These are just two of the possibilities raised by a novel supercapacitor design invented by material scientists at Vanderbilt University.
Photovoltaic devices offer a green -- and potentially unlimited -- alternative to fossil fuel use. So why haven’t solar technologies been more widely adopted? Quite simply, "they’re too expensive," says Ji-Seon Kim, a scientist at Imperial College London, who, along with her colleagues, has come up with a technology that might help bring the prices down. They describe their new approach to making cheaper, more efficient solar panels in The Journal of Chemical Physics.
Scientists create surfaces with differently shaped nanoscale textures that may yield improved materials for applications in transportation, energy, and diagnostics.
Scientists have developed a general approach for combining different types of nanoparticles to produce large-scale composite materials. The technique opens many opportunities for mixing and matching particles with different magnetic, optical, or chemical properties to form new, multifunctional materials or materials with enhanced performance for a wide range of potential applications.
Scientists introduce a general theoretical approach that describes all known forms of high-temperature superconductivity and their "intertwined" phases.
Researchers have developed a new kind of “x-ray vision”—a way to peer inside real-world devices such as batteries and catalysts to map the internal nanostructures and properties of the various components, and even monitor how properties evolve as the devices operate.
More than dentures or bridges, implants mimic the look and feel of natural teeth. Still, they are costly, and a small percentage either fall out or must be removed. Tolou Shokuhfar wants to lower that failure rate to zero.
Drexel University researchers are continuing to expand the capabilities and functionalities of a family of two-dimensional materials they discovered that are as thin as a single atom, but have the potential to store massive amounts of energy. Their latest achievement has pushed the materials storage capacities to new levels while also allowing for their use in flexible devices.
Engineering researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a new drape made from graphene—the thinnest material known to science—which can enhance the water-resistant properties of materials with rough surfaces. These “nanodrapes” are less than a nanometer thick, chemically inert, and provide a layer of protection without changing the properties of the underlying material.
Water pours into a cup at about the same rate regardless of whether the water bottle is made of glass or plastic. But at nanometer-size scales for water and potentially other fluids, whether the container is made of glass or plastic does make a significant difference.
Aided by funding from NASA and using methods similar to 3-D printing, researchers at Missouri University of Science and Technology are running computer simulations of processes that could lead to stronger, more durable materials for the space agency.
By inserting platinum atoms into an organic semiconductor, University of Utah physicists were able to “tune” the plastic-like polymer to emit light of different colors – a step toward more efficient, less expensive and truly white organic LEDs for light bulbs of the future.
Researchers from Columbia Engineering and Brookhaven National Laboratory have identified a series of clues that particular arrangements of electrical charges known as “stripes” may play a role in superconductivity, using a method to detect fluctuating stripes of charge density in a material closely related to a superconductor.
Commercial uses for ultraviolet (UV) light are growing, and now a new kind of LED under development at The Ohio State University could lead to more portable and low-cost uses of the technology.
This new flexible patch treatment can quicken drug delivery time while cutting waste, and can likely minimize side-effects in some cases, notable in vaccinations and in cancer therapy.
Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed a new oxygen “sponge” that can easily absorb or shed oxygen atoms at low temperatures. Materials with these novel characteristics would be useful in devices such as rechargeable batteries, sensors, gas converters and fuel cells.