Materials Properties and Performance Archives - Page 20 of 33

Controlling light with a material three atoms thick

Scientists use high-tech methods to control light in the laboratory, and now, thanks to a new breakthrough that uses a specialized material only three atoms thick, they can control light more precisely than ever before.

Heterostructures of atomically thin layers help control heat transfer

Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have found new ways of controlling how heat flows through thin materials by stacking atomically thin layers of atoms into van der Waals heterostructures. By comparing different stacks of different materials, or even the same material after heat treatment, they found that weak coupling and mismatch between layers helped significantly reduce heat transport.

Engineers develop flexible, self-healing material to protect steel from the elements

An insulator of sulfur and selenium made with flexible devices in mind may have found its true destiny: As an anticorrosive coating for steel. The compound developed by the Rice University lab of materials scientist Pulickel Ajayan proved itself more dielectric (insulating) than most flexible materials and more flexible than most dielectrics, making it a good candidate for components in electronics like bendable cellphones.

New optical ‘transistor’ speeds up computation up to 1000 times at lowest switching energy possible

An international research team at the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech), Russia, and IBM, Armonk, N.Y., has created an extremely energy-efficient optical switch that could replace electronic transistors in a new generation of computers manipulating photons rather than electrons.

NIST and collaborators develop sensitive new way of detecting transistor defects

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and Pennsylvania State University have devised and tested a new, highly sensitive method of detecting and counting defects in transistors.

Imaging technique reveals strains and defects in vanadium oxide

Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, N.Y., have developed a new technique based on coherent X-ray diffraction imaging for revealing defects in nanostructured vanadium oxide, a widely used transition metal with many potential applications including electrochemical anodes, optical applications, and supercapacitors.

Refuting a 70-year-old approach to predicting material microstructure

Professors Gregory Rohrer and Robert Suter of Carnegie Mellon University’s have uncovered new information that will help materials scientists to predict how the properties of materials change in response to stressors such as elevated temperatures.

Scientists create strange material that can both move and block heat

Scientists at the University of Chicago have invented a new way to funnel heat around at the microscopic level: a thermal insulator made using an innovative technique.

Cold spray additive manufacturing of components for launcher propulsion systems

Impact Innovations GmbH, Germany, collaborating with Airborne Engineering, a UK based company specializing in propulsion system design and testing, demonstrated its cold spray additive manufacturing process is suitable for combustion chambers for commercial rocket engines.

First glimpse of hydrodynamic electron flow in 3D materials

A team of researchers from Harvard and MIT developed a theory to explain how hydrodynamic electron flow could occur in 3D materials and observed it for the first time using a new imaging technique.

Limiting the impact of technology on materials extraction

A team of researchers from the University of Exeter, Minviro, the British Geological Survey, and the Circular Economy Solutions Unit has shown the benefits of utilizing a life cycle assessment (LCA) in the quest to enhance ‘green’ mining techniques.

New high-entropy alloys with attractive hydrogen storage properties

A group of materials and computer scientists from Sandia National Laboratories collaborated with a few international researchers to create 12 new alloys over the course of more than a year. The study shows how machine learning can help expedite the future of hydrogen energy by enabling the simple creation of hydrogen infrastructure for consumers.

A super material applicable to batteries and other energy conversion devices

Mercouri Kanatzidis, professor at Northwestern University with a joint appointment in the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, was searching for a new superconductor with unconventional behavior when he made an unexpected discovery.

High-throughput method of identifying novel materials

Coupling computer automation with an ink-jet printer originally used to print T-shirt designs, researchers at Caltech and Google have developed a high-throughput method of identifying novel materials with interesting properties.

Berkeley Lab researchers devise a simple tactic to increase the efficiency of LED devices

Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and UC Berkeley, Calif., have demonstrated an approach for achieving near 100% light-emission efficiency in LEDs at all brightness levels based on stretching or compressing a thin semiconductor film in a way that favorably changes its electronic structure.

Improving optoelectronic performance with bandgap engineering

Research from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia, shows that bandgap engineering can improve the performance of optoelectronic devices that aim to harness the energy of “hot” electrons.

Spray Tips – Alumina surface roughening parameters during dry abrasive grit blasting

Second to cleaning, roughening is the most important step in preparing the surface to accept a sprayed coating.

Air Products selected to 100 best corporate citizens list for 10th consecutive year

Air Products, Allentown, Pa., has been named to the 100 Best Corporate Citizens List for the tenth consecutive year. The list, published by 3BL Media, recognizes outstanding environmental, social and governance (ESG) transparency and performance among the 1000 largest public companies in the United States.

New $3 million National Science Foundation center aims to connect materials data science research to industry

Case Western Reserve and the University of Pittsburgh launch MDS-Rely Center to make industrial materials more reliable and develop skilled manufacturing.

3D-printed grafts could revolutionize the treatment of cardiovascular disease

A biodegradable and customizable 3D-printed vascular graft could help prevent heart failure in cardiovascular patients.

Understanding silicon failures opens research path for higher-capacity lithium-ion batteries

Research with nanowires at Los Alamos National Laboratory, N.M., reveals an electrolyte’s role in blocking electrical current inside anodes and suggests coating might solve the problem, opening fresh avenues for harnessing the potential for silicon to revolutionize high-capacity, long-lasting batteries for everything from cell phones to automobiles.

Submerged sensors to control wearable electronics

Researchers based at Soongsil University in Korea developed flexible and waterproof sensors that could unlock new applications for wearable electronics, transforming their use in healthcare, smart textiles, and for applications including scuba diving equipment.

Hitachi High-Tech launches the AFM100 and AFM100 Plus atomic force microscopes

Hitachi High-Tech Corporation, Japan, announced the launch of its AFM100 and AFM100 Plus systems – entry-level and intermediate-level models of Hitachi’s compact and versatile atomic force microscopes.

Shape-memory alloys might help airplanes land without a peep

Researchers at Texas A&M University have conducted a computational study that validates using a shape-memory alloy to reduce the unpleasant plane noise produced during landing. They noted that these materials could be inserted as passive, seamless fillers within airplane wings that automatically deploy themselves into the perfect position during descent.

A college of semiconductor research is established in Taiwan

National Tsing Hua University’s (NTHU) plan to establish a College of Semiconductor Research (CoSR) has been approved by the Ministry of Education and student recruitment will soon follow. President Hocheng Hong said that the institute will be headed by Academician of Academia Sinica Burn J. Lin, whose research in immersion lithography has had a major impact on the semiconductor industry worldwide.