Accion propellant is a liquid salt material, similar in structure to common table salt, which can be made in large quantities.
one that would create designer colors without the use of chemical dyes and pigments. Rather than controlling the chemical composition of a material,
Its flexibility was imparted by embedding the silicon bars into a flexible layer of silicone. As the silicone was bent
or flexed, the period of the grating spacings responded in kind. The semiconductor material also allowed the team to create a skin that was incredibly thin, perfectly flat,
Additionally, ZDDP does not work as well on the lightweight engine materials eyed as potential replacements for steels."
and quickly wear down due to very high local stresses through direct steel-on-steel contacts. The resulting debris can further increase the friction between the surfaces
"The film that grows is not as stiff as the steel. When you push on a stiff surface,
The team demonstrated efficient optical coupling of an array of silicon waveguides to a substrate containing an array of polymer waveguides.
The significant size difference between the silicon waveguides and the polymer waveguides originally presented a major challenge.
The researchers overcame this obstacle by gradually tapering the silicon waveguide, leading to an efficient transfer of the optical signal to the polymer waveguide.
"Mirkin is the George B. Rathmann Professor of Chemistry in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and professor of medicine, chemical and biological engineering, biomedical engineering and materials science and engineering.
while also creating new opportunities for graduate students to use the technique for research in materials science and drug delivery at UNC and NCSU.
including elastomers, silicones, nylon-like materials, ceramics and biodegradable materials. The technique itself provides a blueprint for synthesizing novel materials that can further research in materials science.
Rima Janusziewicz and Ashley R. Johnson, graduate students in Desimone's academic lab, are co-authors on the paper
and inhibiting stimulated Brillouin scattering in photonic integrated circuits")."from left: Professor Benjamin Eggleton, Thomas Bttner and Moritz Merklein, researchers from CUDOS at the University of Sydney with the chalcogenide photonic chip.
This nonlinear scattering process can cause signal distortions in fibre communications and signal processing applications and is well known to limit the capacity of optical fiber communications networks.
"Now Gorodetsky has fabricated reflectin films on conformable polymer substrates, effectively sticky tape one might find in any household.
In the journal, ACS Nano("Protease-Mediated Release of Chemotherapeutics from Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles to ex Vivo Human and Mouse Lung Tumors"),the scientists reported that this approach led to a significant increase
#Artificial hand able to respond sensitively thanks to muscles made from smart metal wires Engineers at Saarland University have taken a leaf out of natures book by equipping an artificial hand with muscles made from shape-memory wire.
and the Center for Mechatronics and Automation Technology (Zema) is using a new technology based on the shape memory properties of nickel-titanium alloy.
Shape-memory alloy (SMA) wires offer significant advantages over other techniques, says Stefan Seelecke. Up until now, artificial hands,
but have the tensile strength of a thick wire. The bundle can rapidly contract and relax while exerting a high tensile force,
the crystal structure reverts back to its austenitic phase, which causes the material to cool down and further absorb heat from its surroundings.
The team's work is the first demonstration that shows elastocaloric materials such as a nickel-titanium (Ni-Ti) alloy can be loaded cyclically
Tuek and colleagues also stabilized the Ni-Ti alloy to ensure a reproducible effect, which is crucial for practical applications,
and created a uniform elastocaloric effect for the alloy. While heat pumps, air conditioners and refrigerators are most likely to benefit from elastocaloric technology,
As it shrinks, the quantum dots come closer together, increasing their conductivity, as measured by the electrodes."
than a sensor made with the most advanced man-made water-absorbing polymers. There was also better sensitivity in extreme low-pressure, low-humidity situations."
Today reverse-osmosis filters are typically polymers. A filter is thin and resides on a support.
A porous graphene membrane could be more permeable than a polymer membrane, so separated water would drive faster through the membrane under the same conditions, the scientists reasoned."
The researchers transferred the graphene membrane to a silicon nitride support with a micrometer-sized hole.
The silicon nitride chip held the graphene membrane in place while water flowed through it from one chamber to the other.
the researchers relied on the Center for Nanophase Materials sciences (CNMS), a DOE Office of Science User Facility at ORNL.
There has been considerable recent work on using magnetite to clean up toxic metals. For example, magnetite can reduce the toxic form of chromium, chromium VI, to the less toxic chromium (III),
"Aydin and his team tackled this problem by combining nanotechnology, materials science, and plasmonics, the study of the interactions between light and metal.
Sefaatiin Tongay, assistant professor of materials science and engineering at Arizona State university, provided the large-area monolayer Mos2 material used in the study.
#Next important step toward quantum computer with quantum dots Physicists at the Universities of Bonn and Cambridge have succeeded in linking two completely different quantum systems to one another.
There the so-called quantum dots (abbreviated: qdots) play the role of the forgetful genius. Quantum dots are unbeatably fast,
when it comes to disseminating quantum information. Unfortunately, they forget the result of the calculation
In an experiment, recently published in Science("Probing Johnson noise and ballistic transport in normal metals with a single-spin qubit),
thus electrons travel dont travel very far--roughly 10 nanometers or less--before scattering off an obstacle.
In contrast, a single crystal is uniform at these length scales and electrons can travel over 100 times farther.
and corresponding magnetic field noise from the single silver crystal is a departure from so-called Ohmic predictions of the polycrystalline case,
as well as metrology for commercial materials science e
#Extremely sensitive temperature sensor developed with plant nanobionic materials Humans have been inspired by nature since the beginning of time.
These electrically conductive carbon nanotubes formed a network between the tobacco cells and were also able to penetrate the cell walls.
#Soft, energy-efficient robotic wings Dielectric elastomers are novel materials for making actuators or motors with soft and lightweight properties that can undergo large active deformations with high-energy conversion efficiencies.
This has made dielectric elastomers popular for creating devices such as robotic hands, soft robots, tunable lenses and pneumatic valves--and possibly flapping robotic wings.
Reporting this week in the journal Applied Physics Letters("Phenomena of nonlinear oscillation and special resonance of a dielectric elastomer minimum energy structure rotary joint"),researchers from the Harbin Institute of technology in Weihai, China
Los angeles (UCLA), have discovered a new resonance phenomenon in a dielectric elastomer rotary joint that can make the artificial joint bend up and down,
Jianwen Zhao/Harbin Institute of technology in Weihai, University of California-Los angeles)" The dielectric elastomer is a kind of electro-active polymer that can deform
He said that most studies on dielectric elastomers are using a static or stable voltage to stimulate the joint motion,
"Zhao said this new phenomenon makes the dielectric elastomer joint a good candidate for creating a soft and lightweight flapping wing for robotic birds,
which would be more efficient than bird wings based on electrical motors due to the higher energy conversion efficiency (60 to 90 percent) of the dielectric elastomer.
Dielectric elastomers, due to their soft and lightweight inherent properties and superior electromechanical performances, are considered as a kind of material close to human muscles
Made by sandwiching a soft insulating elastomer film between two compliant electrodes, dielectric elastomers can be squeezed
and expanded in a plane when a voltage is applied between electrodes. In contrast to actuators based on rigid materials such as silicon, dielectric elastomers can reach a very large extent of stretch, often exceeding 100 percent elongation while not breaking,
enabling new possibilities in many fields including soft robotics, tunable optics, and cell manipulation. The dielectric elastomer actuator Zhao used is called a"dielectric elastomer minimum-energy structure"
which is composed of a thin elastic frame and pre-stretched dielectric elastomer films, Zhao said. After adhering the pre-stretched film to the thin elastic frame,
the restoring force of the dielectric elastomer film bends the elastic frame, balancing at a minimum energy state.
When applying kilovolts of low-current electricity on the dielectric elastomer, the frame flattens out and the bending angle decreases.
To restrict frame bending to only one axis, two stiffening frames are mounted to the primary frame as rigid nonbending edges,
which makes dielectric elastomer minimum-energy structures a useful structure for fabricating soft devices, Zhao said.
After experimenting with various parameters such as voltage values, frequencies and the joint mass in the dielectric elastomer joint system,
Also, since dielectric elastomers feature high energy density (seventy times higher than conventional electromagnetic actuators) and high-energy conversion efficiency (60 to 90 percent), they could be good candidates for making energy-efficient devices,
The researchers'next step is to improve the function of the dielectric elastomer rotary joint and refine the fabrication technique to make a real flapping wing g
In actual alloy nanowires though, atoms of the same element might cluster together to form short sections composed of the same elements.
"Their results suggest that heat conduction in a nanowire does not just depend on the relative concentrations of the alloy atoms and the difference in their masses;
high-frequency phonons could travel much further than the average length of the ordered regions in the alloy.
In contrast, a random distribution of alloy atoms resulted in a higher resistance over triple that of the ordered case for a 2. 5-micrometer-long wire.
If this disorder can be realized in real composite materials then we could tailor the thermal conductivity of the system,
For instance, the surface roughening of nanowires is known to reduce the thermal conductivity contribution of high-frequency phonons
The researchers hope their model will help scientists design composite materials with low thermal conductivity. One attractive application is thermoelectric devices,
a low thermal conductivity is desirable for optimal performance e
#Smart micelles for marine environments martmaterials that alter their structure in response to specific, controllable stimuli have applications in various fields, from biomedical science to the oil industry.
when moved from water to an electrolyte solution, such as salt water("Dual hydrophilic and salt responsive schizophrenic block copolymers synthesis and study of self-assembly behavior").
Materials composed of segments of two different monomers, each with different characteristics, are known as block copolymers.
Vivek Vasantha at A*STAR Institute of Chemical and Engineering sciences together with scientists from across Singapore under the Innovative Marine Antifouling Solutions (IMAS) program developed a new block copolymer that can self-assemble into spherical micelle structures in
which one monomer forms the core and the other forms the outer shell. The monomers are the hydrophilic poly (ethylene glycol
or PEG, which mixes well with water, and the halophilic polysulfabetaine (PSB), which has a preference for salt solution. e created salt-responsive block copolymers that self-assemble in water to form either onventionalor nversemicelles, states Vasantha.
The conventional micelles form in deionized water and have a core of halophilic PSB with a hydrophilic PEG shell.
However, the team showed that the micelles reassemble themselves when immersed in salt solution; PEG formed the core,
The researchers mixed the block copolymers with primer to create a nontoxic coating to replace traditional antifouling paint.
They constructed the outer layer out of cationicor positively chargedsegments of the polymers. For inside the carrier, they secured the drug with hydrophobic and ph-responsive polymers.
The positively charged outer layer of the carrier is able to stay in place at the surface of the teeth
because the enamel is made up, in part of HA (hydroxyapatite), which is negatively charged. Just as oppositely charged magnets are attracted to each other,
or Antimony-Telluride (Sb2te3) alloys and had a peak efficiency (zt) of 1. 1, meaning the electricity going in was only slightly less than the heat coming out.
Since the 1960's there have been incremental advancements in alloy technology used in Peltier devices.
and Materials science department at California Institute of technology California, USA have formulated a new method for creating a novel and much more efficient TE alloy.
TE alloys are special because the metals have an incredibly high melting point. Instead of melting the metals to fuse them,
they are combined through a process called sintering which uses heat and/or pressure to join the small,
metallic granules. The joint team, including IBS researchers, used a process called liquid-flow assisted sintering
which combined all three antimony, bismuth and telluride granules into one alloy (Bi0. 5sb1. 5te3).
Additional melted tellurium was used as the liquid between the Bi0. 5sb1. 5te3 granules to help fuse them into a solid alloy,
Institute for Basic Science) By creating the alloy this way, the joints between the fused grains,
This new thermoelectric alloy paves the way for the future of modern TE devices s
Polycarbonate skeleton of robot, testing apparatus, fully blown membrane (last two pix. click on image to enlarge) This ground-breaking research was published in Bioinspiration
The end result is a polycarbonate 3d printed streamlined skeleton which had no moving parts (Fig. 1) and no energy storage device other than a thin elastic outer membrane.
If you put polymer chains on the surface that are attracted to the solvent, the particles will bounce off each other
Synthetic diamonds with nitrogen vacancies (NVS) defects that are extremely sensitive to magnetic fields have held long promise as the basis for efficient, portable magnetometers.
and boron nitride (Nanowerk News) The research group led by Professor Yuichi Ikuhara (also appointed as a professor at Tokyo University), Associate professor Zhongchang Wang and Assistant professor Chunlin Chen at the Advanced Institute for Materials Research
in collaboration with Group Leader Takashi Taniguchi at the National Institute for Materials science (NIMS) and Japan Fine Ceramics Center (JFCC), succeeded for the first time in identifying the atomic structure and bonding mechanism in coherent interfaces between diamond
, the hardest known material, and cubic boron nitride, the second hardest, using a state-of-the-art super-high-resolution scanning transmission electron microscope and first-principles calculation.
The research group has attempted to develop new functional materials by focusing on lattice defects in crystals
and extensive theoretical calculation based on first principles, the group revealed that in coherent interfaces between diamond and cubic boron nitride,
This study was published in the online version of the UK scientific journal Nature Communications("Misfit accommodation mechanism at the heterointerface between diamond and cubic boron nitride
said study lead author Ashwin Atre, a graduate student in the lab group of Jennifer Dionne, an assistant professor of materials science and engineering.
shape and size of the polymers. Based on these findings, the team developed a new photolithographic technology that enabled the production of micropatterns with three-dimensional structures in various shapes and sizes.
and thus control the shape and size of the polymer. The use of the polymerization inhibitors enabled
and facilitated the fabrication of complex, three-dimensional micropatterns. Professor Kim said, hile 3d printing is considered an innovative manufacturing technology,
His newest technology will enhance the manufacturing process of three-dimensional polymers which were considered difficult to be commercialized.
and optimal precious metal use. Researchers are optimistic that the approach can be applied readily to other multimetallic catalysts
ACS (click on image to enlarge) The researchers investigated the polymer xylan which comprises a third of wood matter.
"Using advanced NMR techniques we found that the xylan polymer, which comprises about a third of wood,
Using atomic force microscopy the researchers identified that at around 120 C in the crystal formed a bilayer crystal phase.
resulting from the phase transition from a monolayer to a bilayer crystal structure in mono-alkylated liquid crystalline molecules may lead to the possibility of designing new materials for the burgeoning field of printed electronics."
and single-crystal structures of the ac (middle) and ab planes (bottom). Right: Output characteristics of FETS fabricated using the polycrystalline thin films as-coated (top)
Background Small-molecule versus polymer FETS The main issues around organic semiconductor FETS with small molecules are the low thermal durability.
The same bonding that makes the molecules soluble for printing fabrication processes also leaves them prone to low melting points,
Attempts to use polymers with benzene-like delocalised electron bonding alleviated issues around the thermal durability to a certain extent.
such as reproducible synthesis and purification of the polymers, as well as control of crystallinity and the molecular orientations towards both the substrate surface and the electrodes.
the researchers concluded that crystal-to-crystal phase change from a monolayer to a bilayer structure was improved responsible for the transistor performance in annealed devices s
ITBM, Nagoya University) Metal-catalyzed C-H borylation of aromatic rings is considered an efficient way to introduce functional groups to make functional molecules via a boryl moiety.
and materials science for creating benzene-containing functional molecules, I figured that para-selective C-H functionalization would be an extremely useful technique for the late-stage diversification of core structures.
#Lanthanide-organic framework nanothermometers prepared by spray-drying A work in Advanced Functional Materials shows how spray-drying prepared MOF nanoparticles containing lanthanide metals may be used as nanothermometers operative over a wide range of temperatures
the first lanthanide-organic framework prepared by the spray-drying method. This system is the most sensitive cryogenic nanothermometer reported so far
but lets water through (Nanowerk News) The unassuming piece of stainless steel mesh in a lab at The Ohio State university doesn't look like a very big deal,
Bhushan and postdoctoral researcher Philip Brown chose to cover a bumpy surface with a polymer embedded with molecules of surfactant--the stuff that gives cleaning power to soap and detergent.
They sprayed a fine dusting of silica nanoparticles onto the stainless steel mesh to create a randomly bumpy surface
and layered the polymer and surfactant on top. The silica surfactant, polymer, and stainless steel are all nontoxic
and relatively inexpensive, said Brown. He estimated that a larger mesh net could be created for less than a dollar per square foot.
Because the coating is only a few hundred nanometers (billionths of a meter) thick, it is mostly undetectable.
To the touch, the coated mesh doesn't feel any bumpier than uncoated mesh. The coated mesh is a little less shiny,
The researchers chose silica in part because it is an ingredient in glass, and they wanted to explore this technology's potential for creating smudge-free glass coatings.
Rather than silica, he experiments with molybdenum disulfide nanotubes, which mix well with oil. The nanotubes are approximately a thousand times smaller than a human hair.
which consists of chemically modified carbon nanotubes, could be deployed in"smart packaging"that would offer much more accurate safety information than the expiration date on the package,
This MIT device, based on modified carbon nanotubes, can detect amines produced by decaying meat. It could also cut down on food waste
who is the senior author of a paper describing the new sensor this week in the journal Angewandte Chemie("Single-Walled carbon nanotube/Metalloporphyrin Composites for the Chemiresistive Detection of Amines and Meat Spoilage").
Carbon nanotubes can be modified chemically so that their ability to carry an electric current changes in the presence of a particular gas.
In this case, the researchers modified the carbon nanotubes with metal-containing compounds called metalloporphyrins, which contain a central metal atom bound to several nitrogen-containing rings.
Hemoglobin, which carries oxygen in the blood, is a metalloporphyrin with iron as the central atom.
In contrast, Nanolives technology detects the physical refractive index of the different cell parts with resolution far beyond the diffraction limit (see Nobel prize 2014 for chemistry.
and digitally paint the part of a cell based on their physical properties (called refractive index). STEVE will automatically define all regions with same refractive index characteristics (different organelles have different optical properties)
and digitally stain them with the same color. This process is quantitative and can be applied for a limitless amount of colors.
"Bimetallic lanthanide complexes that display a ratiometric response to oxygen concentration"in the periodical Chemical sciences and"Spectrally resolved confocal microscopy using lanthanide centred near-IR emission"in Chemical Communications.
so called lanthanides. One lanthanide, europium, emits a constant red signal. The other, terbium, emits a green signal that increases with diminishing oxygen concentrations.
Most physicians should be able to read the oxygen concentration with the naked eye, explains Thomas Just Sørensen."
They have developed touch-sensitive stickers made from flexible silicone and electrically conducting sensors that can be worn on the skin.
The silicone used to fabricate the sensor patches makes them flexible and stretchable. his makes them easier to use in an everyday environment.
combines a highly sensitive imaging system with a method of genetically engineering cells to produce a pigment
the enzyme that produces the pigment melanin in skin. This turns the cells dark brown so they absorb light from the laser
The researchers are now developing other pigments to increase the palette of colours available to label different parts of an organ,
Scientists curve nanoparticle sheets into complex forms (Nanowerk News) Scientists have been making nanoparticles for more than two decades in two-dimensional sheets, three-dimensional crystals and random clusters.
and filled with an electro-optical polymer, and sidewalls made of gold which, at the same time, act as electrodes.
The electro-optical polymer changes its index of refraction as a function of the voltage. The waveguide and the coupler made of silicon route the two parts of a split light beam to the gaps or from the gaps.
The voltage applied to the polymer modulates the surface waves. Modulation is different in both gaps but coherent,
For example, after the implantation of an artificial ureter, urease crystals often start to grow inside
an ARC Australian Laureate Fellow in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular engineering at the University of Melbourne, was published today in Advanced Materials("Multifunctional Thrombin-Activatable Polymer Capsules for Specific Targeting to Activated Platelets").
"We can now study the atomic details of microtubule polymerization and depolymerization to develop a complete description of microtubule dynamics,
and it was seen by some as a black sheep of the transition metal dichalcogenides (TMD) family and purposefully ignored.
A TMD crystal follows an MX2 format: there is one transition metal, represented by M m can be Tungsten, Molybdenum, etc.)
and two chalcogenides, the X2 (Sulfur, Selenium, or Tellurium. These atoms form a thin, molecular sandwich with the one metal and two chalcogenides,
and depending on their fabrication method can exist in several slightly different shaped atomic arrangements. The overwhelming majority of microchips that exist in electronics now are made from silicon,
and make one 2d crystal that was composed of the semiconducting 2h-Mote2 and the metallic 1t'-Mote2.
AIMEN Technology Centre, has over 45 years experience in materials science and technology, and industrial R&d in a wide spectrum of applications, from transport to medicine.
#Integration of quantum dots and photonic crystals produce brighter, more efficient light Recently, quantum dots (QDS) ano-sized semiconductor particles that produce bright, sharp,
developing a new method to extract more efficient and polarized light from quantum dots (QDS) over a large-scale area.
and Andrew Alleyne (Mechse)--embedded QDS in novel polymer materials that retain strong quantum efficiency.
They then used electrohydrodynamic jet (e-jet) printing technology to precisely print the QD-embedded polymers onto photonic crystal structures.
The device is made of thousands of quantum dots, each measuring about six nanometers. e made a tiny device,
The current industrial process to reduce carbon dioxide to methanol uses a catalyst of copper, zinc oxide and aluminum oxide.
When the material is a metal, that spot also becomes very hot. The scientists have shown that the same effect can be achieved using their new silicon device, without the associated temperature increase and its unfortunate consequences.
"However the characteristics of metals that make them good at conducting electricity also lead to the undesirable heating effect,
"The cloud of free-moving electrons around a metal that carries an electrical current can also absorb passing photons.
it becomes pure tantalum, a metal. The researchers determined three related factors give the memories their unique switching ability.
It is stronger than steel yet many times lighter more conductive than copper and more flexible than rubber.
on a substrate crystal of nonmagnetic strontium titanate using a method pulsed laser deposition developed many years ago for high-temperature superconductors and multicomponent materials by Prof Venkatesan,
Phd, a team from Drexel's Department of Materials science and engineering created the material-making method, that can sandwich 2-D sheets of elements that otherwise couldn't be combined in a stable way.
"By'sandwiching'one or two atomic layers of a transition metal like titanium, between monoatomic layers of another metal, such as molybdenum,
Double Transition metals Carbides (MXENES)")is significant because it represents a new way of combining elemental materials to form the building blocks of energy storage technology--such as batteries, capacitors and supercapacitors,
as well as superstrong composites--like the ones used in phone cases and body armor. Each new combination of atom-thick layers presents new properties
it is safe to say that this discovery enables the field of materials science and nanotechnology to move into an uncharted territory,
An Elemental Impasse Four years later, the researchers have worked their way through the section of the Periodic table with elements called"transition metals"
it can use this method to make as many as 25 new materials with combinations of transition metals, such as molybdenum and titanium,
"Anasori plans to make more materials by replacing titanium with other metals, such as vanadium, niobium,
structural composites and many other fields, enabling a new level of engineering on the atomic scale
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