a transparent elastomer that can be a liquid or a soft, rubbery solid. Kim, whose research focus is micro-electromechanical systems,
where people don't want to make robots out of iron and steel. This project is an overlap of both of those fields.
He and his colleagues therefore came up with the idea of investigating a compound consisting of the transition metal niobium (Nb)
The new technique relies on polymer self-assembly, where molecules are designed to spontaneously assemble into desired structures.
an intensely hot laser swept across the sample to transform disordered polymer blocks into precise arrangements in just seconds."
To further exploit the power and precision of LZA, the researchers applied a heat-sensitive elastic coating on top of the unassembled polymer film.
the scientists converted the polymer base into other materials. One method involved taking the nano-cylinder layer
These molecules then glom onto the self-assembled polymer, converting it into a metallic mesh.
A wide range of reactive or conductive metals can be used, including platinum, gold, and palladium.
where a vaporized material infiltrates the polymer nano-cylinders and transforms them into functional nanowires.
"We can stack metals on insulators, too, embedding different functional properties and interactions within one lattice structure."
allowing it to drive polymer self-assembly even on top of complex underlying layers. This versatility enables the use of a wide variety of materials in different nanoscale configurations."
Researchers from the IBM Materials Integration and Nanoscale Devices group demonstrated a novel, robust and yet versatile approach for integrating III-V compound semiconductor crystals on silicon wafers a novel and an important step
The device, described in a study published June 23 in Nature Communications("Bifunctional non-noble metal oxide nanoparticle electrocatalysts through lithium-induced conversion for overall water splitting"),could provide a renewable source of clean
typically platinum and iridium, two rare and costly metals. But in 2014, Stanford chemist Hongjie Dai developed a water splitter made of inexpensive nickel and iron that runs on an ordinary 1. 5-volt battery.
is actually more stable than some commercial catalysts made of precious metals.''We built a conventional water splitter with two benchmark catalysts, one platinum and one iridium,
At its most basic level, a battery is made of two metal electrodes (an anode and a cathode) with some sort of solution between them (electrolyte.
and cardiac hypertrophy through biodegradable polymer-encapsulated delivery of glycosphingolipid inhibitor), "builds on recent research by the same team that previously identified a fat-and-sugar molecule called GSL as the chief culprit behind a range of biological glitches that affect the body's ability to properly use, transport
Such an ultrathin display can be applied to flexible materials like plastics and synthetic fabrics. The research has major implications for existing electronics like televisions,
Light polarizes silicon nuclear spins within a silicon carbide chip. This image portrays the nuclear spin of one of the atoms shown in the full crystal lattice below.
so using silicon carbide (Sic), an industrially important semiconductor. Nuclear spins tend to be oriented randomly. Aligning them in a controllable fashion is complicated usually a and only marginally successful proposition.
Awschalom and his associates aligned more than 99 percent of spins in certain nuclei in silicon carbide (Sic).
or"color-centers,"in the Sic crystals do. The electron spins in these color centers can be cooled readily optically and aligned,
Getting spins to align in room-temperature silicon carbide brings practical spintronic devices a significant step closer,
and plastically deforms to weld the metal together. Each one of these reservoirs, until you open it,
the team discovered the new materials have crystal structures that repeat every 12, 16 or 32 atoms respectively, said Professor Jim Williams, from the Electronic Material Engineering group at RSPE."
The new crystal structures have survived for more than a year now.""These new discoveries are not an accident,
However, the ultra-short laser micro-explosion creates pressures many times higher than the strength of diamond crystal can produce.
#Fuel and chemicals from steel plant exhaust gases (Nanowerk News) Carbon monoxide-rich exhaust gases from steel plants are only being reclaimed to a minor extent as power or heat.
and acetone at its fermentation facilities, using the synthesized gas from the steel plants. Fuels and specialty chemicals can be procured from these.
Fraunhofer IME) The exhaust gas masses that arise from steel manufacturing plants are gigantic: the chimneys of the Duisburg Stahlwerke alone unleash several million tons of carbon dioxide.
and used it for experiments with the steel and chemicals industry. The chemists around Axel Kraft at UMSICHT evaporate the residual fermentation products and in a continuous catalytic process
Caltech researchers adopted a novel technique, ultrafast electron crystallography (UEC), to visualize directly in four dimensions the changing atomic configurations of the materials undergoing the phase changes.
"To study this, the researchers used their technique, ultrafast electron crystallography. The technique, a new developmentifferent from Zewail's Nobel Prizeinning work in femtochemistry, the visual study of chemical processes occurring at femtosecond scalesllowed researchers to observe directly the transitioning atomic configuration of a prototypical phase-change material
Nuclear Magnetic resonance (NMR) and x-ray crystallography being the main techniques.""One of the strengths of Ume University is the open cooperative climate with low or no barriers between research groups.
A group of scientists from Russia and the USA, including Pavel Sorokin and Liubov Antipina from MIPT, recently conducted research on the properties of the crystals of one such material, Nb3site6, a compound of niobium telluride
"In their structure, the crystals resemble sandwiches with a thickness of three atoms (around 4 angstroms:
The scientists synthesized Nb3site6 crystals in a laboratory at Tulane University (New orleans. They then separated them into two-dimensional layers, taking samples for further analysis by transmission electron microscopy, X-ray crystal analysis and other methods.
because it helped simplify the description of processes in crystals, and tracking of electron-phonon interaction is fundamentally important for description of the different conducting properties in matter."
The cloak is a thin Teflon sheet (light blue) embedded with many small, cylindrical ceramic particles (dark blue.
which unlike metals do not absorb light. This cloak includes two dielectrics, a proprietary ceramic and Teflon,
which are tailored structurally on a very fine scale to change the way light waves reflect off of the cloak.
which many small cylindrical ceramic particles were embedded, each with a different height depending on its position on the cloak."
as well as semiconductive and conductive polymers to tailor the behavior of natural cotton fibers. The layers were so thin that the flexibility of the cotton fibers is preserved always
which are coated with a charged polymer layer that helps them adhere to the target microbes,
and Staphylococcus epidermis, a bacterium that can cause harmful biofilms on plastics like catheters in the human body.
#For faster, larger graphene add a liquid layer (Nanowerk News) Millimetre-sized crystals of high-quality graphene can be made in minutes instead of hours using a new scalable technique,
In just 15 minutes the method can produce large graphene crystals around 2-3 millimetres in size that it would take up to 19 hours to produce using current chemical vapour deposition (CVD) techniques in
The researchers took a thin film of silica deposited on a platinum foil which, when heated, reacts to create a layer of platinum silicide.
or silica creating a thin liquid layer that smooths out nanoscale'valleys'in the platinum
'Because it is allowed to grow naturally in single graphene crystals there are none of the grain boundaries that can adversely affect the mechanical and electrical properties of the material.'
'Using widely-available polycrystalline metals in this way can open up many possibilities for cost-reduction and larger-scale graphene production for applications where very high quality graphene is needed.'
But with the liquid layer of platinum silicide the researchers show that graphene crystals of 2-3 millimetres can be produced in minutes.
such as rubber, detergents, and polymers.""This is a proof-of-concept study that shows we have the knowledge
as temperature-induced damage, strains, metal spiking and unintentional diffusion of dopants may occur.""Thus, although the conventional graphene fabrication method of chemical vapor deposition is used widely for the large-area synthesis of graphene on copper and nickel films,
when scientists discovered that it could be used to make polycarbonate plastic--a hard, durable, and transparent material perfect for everything from water bottles to medical devices.
"The inclusion of a noble metal like silver in the ultraviolet-responsive Tio2 has extended significantly the spectrum towards the visible light through localized surface plasmon resonance effects,
Brandl had synthesized previously polymers that could be cleaved apart by exposure to UV LIGHT. But he and Bertrand came to question their suitability for drug delivery,
A trap for ater-fearingpollution The researchers synthesized polymers from polyethylene glycol, a widely used compound found in laxatives, toothpaste,
and polylactic acid, a biodegradable plastic used in compostable cups and glassware. Nanoparticles made from these polymers have a hydrophobic core and a hydrophilic shell.
Due to molecular-scale forces in a solution hydrophobic pollutant molecules move toward the hydrophobic nanoparticles,
In that case, both the plastic and the oil-based sauce are hydrophobic and interact together.
hormone-disrupting chemicals used to soften plastics, from wastewater; BPA, another endocrine-disrupting synthetic compound widely used in plastic bottles and other resinous consumer goods, from thermal printing paper samples;
and the polymers are biodegradable, minimizing the risks of leaving toxic secondary products to persist in,
from environmental remediation to medical analysis. The polymers are synthesized at room temperature, and don need to be prepared specially to target specific compounds;
The research, published in the academic journal Advanced Materials("Discovery of a Novel Polymer for Human Pluripotent Stem Cell Expansion and Multilineage Differentiation"),could forge the way for the creation of'stem cell
iscovery of a Novel Polymer for Human Pluripotent Stem Cell Expansion and Multilineage Differentiation was led by Morgan Alexander,
and his team have been searching for polymers on which human pluripotent stem cells can be grown
but instead of making it out of plastic, we print it in DNA at the nanoscale.
#Magnetic material unnecessary to create spin current (Nanowerk News) It doesn't happen often that a young scientist makes a significant and unexpected discovery,
"What he found--that you don't need a magnetic material to create spin current from insulators--has important implications for the field of spintronics and the development of high-speed,
and architectures where spin currents are generated without ferromagnetic materials, which have been the centerpiece of all spin-based electronic devices up until this point.
scientists have kept typically electrons stationary in a lattice made of an insulating ferromagnetic material, such as yttrium iron garnet (YIG.
You can use either a paramagnetic metal or a paramagnetic insulator to do it now
#Superfast fluorescence sets new speed record (Nanowerk News) Researchers have developed an ultrafast light-emitting device that can flip on and off 90 billion times a second
graphene, a conductive polymer and carbon nanotubes, which are atom-thick latticelike networks of carbon formed into cylinders.
The graphene in liquid form was mixed with the conductive polymer and reduced to solid and the carbon nanotubes carefully inserted between the graphene layers to form a self-assembled flat-packed,
or ratios of the components appropriately in order to obtain a composite material with maximum energy storage performance was another challenge.
or sophisticated equipment. ur graphene-based flexible composite is highly conductive, lightweight, is able to fold like a roll
#Smart hydrogel coating creates'stick-slip'control of capillary action Coating the inside of glass microtubes with a polymer hydrogel material dramatically alters the way capillary forces draw water into the tiny structures,
a so-called"smart"polymer (PNIPAM), everything changes. Water entering a tube coated on the inside with a dry hydrogel film must first wet the film
while the polymer layer locally deforms. The meniscus then rapidly slides for a short distance before the process repeats.
After using high-resolution optical visualization to study the meniscus propagation while the polymer swelled, the researchers realized they could put this previously-unknown behavior to good use.
or cooling the polymer inside a microfluidic chamber, you can either speed up the filling process
That would allow precise control of fluid flow on demand using external stimuli to change polymer film behavior."
They also want to explore other"smart"polymers which change the flow rate in response to different stimuli,
dynamically evolving polymer interfaces in which the system creates an energy barrier to further motion through elasto-capillary deformation,
"This insight has implications for optimal design of microfluidic and lab-on-a-chip devices based on stimuli-responsive smart polymers
#Making polymer nanostructures from a greenhouse gas (Nanowerk News) A future where power plants feed their carbon dioxide directly into an adjacent production facility instead of spewing it up a chimney
it is also a good source of carbon for processes like polymer production. In the journal Angewandte Chemie("Construction of Versatile and Functional Nanostructures Derived from CO2-based Polycarbonates),
"American scientists have introduced now a two-step, one-pot conversion of CO2 and epoxides to polycarbonate block copolymers that contain both water-soluble and hydrophobic regions
and can aggregate into nanoparticles or micelles. Versatile nanostructures made from CO2 based polycarbonates. Wiley-VCH) CO2 and epoxides (highly reactive compounds with a three-membered ring made of two carbon atoms
and one oxygen atom) can be polymerized to form polycarbonates in reactions that use special catalysts.
These processes are a more environmentally friendly alternative to conventional production processes and have already been introduced by several companies.
However, because current CO2-based polycarbonates are hydrophobic and have no functional groups, their applications are limited.
In particular, biomedical applications, an area where the use of biocompatible polycarbonates is established well, have been left out.
the researchers have been able to produce amphiphilic polycarbonate block copolymers in which both the hydrophilic and hydrophobic regions are based on CO2.
They were also able to incorporate a variety of functional and charged groups into the polymers.
Because it is very difficult to find building blocks to make hydrophilic polycarbonates, the researchers used a trick:
and continue the polymerization. The AGE-containing polymer grows on both ends of the existing polycarbonate, leading to a triblock copolymer.
The length of the blocks can be controlled precisely. Subsequently a thiolene click reaction can be used to simply click a water-soluble group into place at the double bond.
Some of the amphiphilic polycarbonates made by this method are able to aggregate into particles or micelles in a self-organization process.
However, these devices, often created with nondegradable elastic polymers, bear an inherent risk of intestinal obstruction as a result of accidental fracture or migration.
Now, researchers at MITS Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have created a polymer gel that overcomes this safety concern
Image courtesy of the researchers) This polymer is ph-responsive: It is stable in the acidic stomach environment
and folding of devices into easily ingestible capsules meaning this polymer can be used to create safe devices designed for extremely prolonged residence in the stomach.
-responsive supramolecular polymer gel as an enteric elastomer for use in gastric devices")that describes the application of this new polymer gel for creating gastric devices.
the researchers were interested in developing a polymer with elastic properties. An elastic device can be folded into something small
But the size and shape of existing devices with elastic polymers have been limited by safety concerns,
Because of this, the researchers wanted their polymer to also be enteric or have a mechanism that would enable it to pass through the stomach unaltered before disintegrating in the intestines.
The proposed supramolecular polymer gel network. Structures in yellow are synthesized polymer; structures in purple are linear polymer;
and the red structures are inter-polymer hydrogen bonds. Image courtesy of the researchers) To lower any possible risk of obstruction,
we wanted a material that could dissolve in the intestines, thereby dissociating the device, and safely pass out of the body,
Zhang says. To create this new material, the researchers synthesized an elastic polymer and combined it in solution with a clinically utilized enteric polymer.
Adding hydrochloric acid and centrifuging the solution resulted in a flexible, yet resilient, polymer gel that exhibits both elastic and enteric properties.
The researchers used the gel polycaprolactone (PCL), a nontoxic, degradable polyester, to construct several device prototypes.
They first created ring-shaped devices by using the gel to link arcs of PCL in a circular mold.
These elastic devices had a diameter of 3 centimeters wider than the pylorus before they were folded into orally ingestible capsules.
the polymer gel dissolved, allowing for the safe passage of the small PCL pieces without obstruction.
Improving adherence The combined enteric and elastic properties of this polymer gel could significantly improve the design and adoption of gastric-resident devices.
With further work in adjusting the polymer composition or the design of the system they say that they could tailor devices to release drugs over a specific timeframe of up to weeks or months at a time.
Ribo-T may be able to be tuned to produce unique and functional polymers for exploring ribosome functions
or producing designer therapeutics and perhaps one day even non-biological polymers. No one has developed ever something of this nature. e felt like there was a small very small chance Ribo-T could work,
Researchers at Purdue University have shown how an optical material made of aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) is able to modulate
a quality found normally in metals and new"metamaterials, "which contain features, patterns or elements that enable unprecedented control of light by harnessing clouds of electrons called surface plasmons.
The researchers"doped"zinc oxide with aluminum, meaning the zinc oxide is impregnated with aluminum atoms to alter the material's optical properties.
Doping the zinc oxide causes it to behave like a metal at certain wavelengths and like a dielectric at other wavelengths.
If it were possible to extract the energy of the infrared laser pulse before the crystal has melted
which race through a crystal differently than through irregularly structured materials. Since the researchers also sent the electrons after the exciting laser pulse with a different delay
The crystal loses its regular structure in the process. Although five picoseconds sounds short, this time is sufficient to qualify the material for uses other than data storage.
#New insight on how crystals form may advance materials, health and basic science research Scientists have worked long to understand how crystals grow into complex shapes.
Crystals are important in materials from skeletons and shells to soils and semiconductor materials, but much is unknown about how they form.
Now, an international group of researchers has shown how nature uses a variety of pathways to grow crystals that go beyond the classical, one-atom-at-a-time route.
The findings, published today in Science("Crystallization by particle attachment in synthetic, biogenic, and geologic environments"),have implications for decades-old questions in science
and technology such as how animals and plants grow minerals into shapes that have no relation to their original crystal symmetry.
and laboratory-grown crystals that cannot be explained by traditional theories, "said Patricia Dove, a University Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech and the C. P. Miles Professor of Science in the College of Science."
"We show how these crystals can be built up into complex structures by attaching particles as nanocrystals, clusters,
and pathways to becoming a crystal our challenge was to put together a framework to understand them."
and begin to combine with each other and with nearby crystals and other surfaces. For example, nanocrystals prefer to become oriented along the same direction as the larger crystal before attaching,
much like adding Legos. In contrast, amorphous conglomerates can simply aggregate. These atoms later become organized by"doing the wave"through the mass to rearrange into a single crystal,
researchers said. Study authors say much work needs to be done to understand the forces that cause these particles to move and combine.
what appear to be crystals with the traditional faceted surfaces or they can have unexpected completely shapes
"Our group synthesized the evidence to show these pathways to growing a crystal become possible because of interplays between of thermodynamic and kinetic factors."
"By understanding how animals form crystals into the working structures known as shells, teeth, and bones, scientists will have a bigger toolbox for interpreting the crystals formed in nature.
The insights may also help in the design of novel materials and explain unusual mineral patterns in rocks.
Thats what Northeastern physicists Swastik Kar and Srinivas Sridhar found during their four-year project to modify graphene, a stronger-than-steel infinitesimally thin lattice of tightly packed carbon atoms.
The pair was controlled familiar with alloys combinations of elements that resulted in materials with properties that surpassed graphenesfor example,
Just as with nappies, adding water causes the acrylate polymer to swell. After stretching the fluorescent-tagged molecules move further away from each other;
which resides at the boundary between the neural retina and the retinal pigment epithelium. Their stepwise nduction-reversalculture method induces the formation of boundary tissue,
This degree of cellular organization is the closest scientists have yet come to building self-growing retinal tissue from stem cells. ur results are consistent with the current view that the retinal pigment epithelium
and FGFR induced the transition from NR tissue to retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), and that removing this inhibition facilitated the reversion of this RPE-like tissue back to the NR fate.
like a polymer, and could literally be sucked into a glass needle or pipette. From there, we simply asked,
or flexible polymers they cause inflammation in the tissue that requires periodically changing the position or the stimulation. ut with our injectable electronics, it as if it not there at all.
researchers lay out a mesh of nanowires sandwiched in layers of organic polymer. The first layer is dissolved then, leaving the flexible mesh,
which it can then relay to human cells. ur artificial neuron is made of conductive polymers
or is shot down there is no terrible news to pass to the families of the aircrew just a pile of crumpled metal.
but the top brass will recommend an ordinary (low risk) Foreign Military Sales (FMS) buy that will also exclude Australian industry from the system global supply chain.
because chromatophores sacs of pigment in the skin are stretched by the surrounding muscle, expanding the sacs to create large brown patches.
Using X-ray crystallography they found that the bases could incorporate themselves into strands of both natural and unnatural bases that included runs of Z and P up to six bases long.
but is absorbed by hemozoin waste crystals that are produced by the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum when it feeds on blood.
When the crystals absorb this energy, they warm the surrounding blood plasma, making it bubble. An oscilloscope placed on the skin alongside the laser senses these nanoscale bubbles
They also scattered polystyrene beads 10 micrometres wide into a Petri dish filled with macrophages a type of white blood cell that ingests foreign material.
In the standard configuration the optical sensors are packaged in a hermetically-sealed stainless steel tube with an outer diameter of 800 m. This configuration provides a thermal constant as low as 70 ms and long term stability up to 600°C (1,
this project will utilize 3ds's Direct Metal Printing technology as well as the additive manufacturing and materials expertise of Penn State's Center for Innovative Materials Processing through Direct Digital Deposition (CIMP-3d).
and Direct Metal 3d printing capabilities to meet the high standards of production demanded by the US Air force.
aerospace and defense manufacturers are expected to gain full control of the direct metal manufacturing process at the layer level,
delivering"fully dense, chemically-pure, flightworthy metals parts
#Precision optics deliver next-gen endoscopes A trio of companies has collaborated to develop a tiny new CMOS imaging module designed specifically for endoscopes.
which interact with each other within the silica fiber optic cables. The researchers note that this approach could be used in systems with far more communication channels.
Individual germanium quantum dots were coated with silicon dioxide (silica), doped to make them p-type, and then deposited, using Natcore's liquid phase deposition (LPD) process,
#Ultrafast Lasers Create 3-D Crystal Waveguides in Glass Ultrafast Lasers Create 3-D Crystal Waveguides in Glassbethlehem, Pa.
June 9, 2015 Femtosecond laser pulses can create complex single-crystal waveguides inside glass a discovery that could enable photonic integrated circuits (PICS) that are smaller, cheaper, more energy-efficient and more reliable than current networks that use
"Other groups have made crystal in glass but were not able to demonstrate quality, "said professor Himanshu Jain."
"With the quality of our crystal, we have crossed the threshold for the idea to be useful.
Dynamic phase modulation allows growth of symmetric crystal junctions with single-pass writing, the researchers said."
"With our crystal, it is possible to do this in 3-D so that the wire the light can curve
but crystals, with their highly ordered lattice structure, have the requisite optical qualities. Scientists have been attempting for years to make crystals in glass in order to prevent light signals from being scattered
Jain said. The task is complicated by the"mutually exclusive"nature of the properties of crystal and glass.
Glass turns to crystal when it is heated, he said, but it is critical to control the transition."
"The question is, how long will this process take and will we get one crystal or many,
"Jain said.""We want a single crystal; light cannot travel through multiple crystals. And we need the crystal to be in the right shape and form."
"The fact that the demonstration was achieved using Labgeo5, a ferroelectric material, creates additional possibilities, Dierolf said."
"Ferroelectric crystals have demonstrated an electrical-optical effect that can be exploited for switching and for steering light from one place to another as a supermarket scanner does said,
"he.""Ferroelectric crystals can also transform light from one frequency to another. This makes it possible to send light through different channels."
"The research was published in Scientific Reports (doi: 10.1038/srep10391. For more information, visit www1. lehigh. edu. Harsh Environments No Match for New Fiber Sensor Nanofiber Fabrication Boosts Quantum computing Sulfur Copolymers Boost IR Optics
Bandwidth Demands Drive Fiber optics Advance s
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