#Researchers probe nanoscale properties and mechanisms of lubricant films The pistons in your car engine rub up against their cylinder walls thousands of times a minute;
The team conducted research to probe nanoscale properties and mechanisms of lubricant films and ultimately uncovered the molecular mechanisms behind a common anti-wear additive.
The tip also provides data on the amount of force necessary to break the additive down into a film that protects the surfaces.
Absent a buffering layer of a protective film, those peaks, known as asperities, would rub against each other
"They found that films only began to form when the tip was slid at a certain pressure.
the faster the films grew. The researchers also found an explanation to why these films grow to a certain thickness and then stop growing."
"It's essentially a'cushion effect, '"Carpick said.""The film that grows is not as stiff as the steel.
When you push on a stiff surface, you get a high stress due to the concentration of force.
The thicker the film, the more it acts as a cushion to reduce the stress that is needed to cause the chemical reactions needed to keep growing.
"The self-limiting nature of the films is beneficial, as they would otherwise quickly use up the small amount of ZDDP in the oil."
and observe the film growth at the same time, there would be no way to connect the pressure threshold with the point at which the film begins to form
and when it stops growing.""This is a fascinating example of what we call'tribochemistry, '"Carpick said."
And when the pressure drops, the film growth stops as needed.""The study provides a way forward for scientifically testing new anti-wear additives.
the film needed some kind of trigger. An initial search revealed that acetic acid vapors could cause the film to swell
and disappear when viewed with an infrared camera. But these conditions won't work for soldiers in the field."
"What we were doing was the equivalent of bathing the film in acetic acid vapors--essentially exposing it to concentrated vinegar,
"Now Gorodetsky has fabricated reflectin films on conformable polymer substrates, effectively sticky tape one might find in any household.
#Ultra-thin silicon films create vibrant optical colors A new technology, which creates a rainbow of optical colors with ultra-thin layers of silicon,
Vibrant optical colors are generated from ultra-thin single layer silicon films deposited on a thin aluminum film surface with a low cost manufacturing process.
The optical colors are controlled by the thickness of silicon films. The thickness of the silicon films ranges from 20 to 200 nanometers for creating different colors.
For reference, 100 nanometers is about 1/1000 of the thickness of a single sheet of paper.
The combination of high index of refraction and low absorption enables strong optical wave interference inside ultra-thin silicon films
spectral selective perfect light absorption in single layer silicon films on aluminum surface and its thermal tunability".
"The use of the nanostructures--as opposed to using a continuous film to cover the Mos2--allows the material to retain its flexible nature and natural mechanical properties.
Made by sandwiching a soft insulating elastomer film between two compliant electrodes, dielectric elastomers can be squeezed
"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.
but the smectic E phase has the advantage of retaining the thin-film shape. They then fabricated organic FETS by spin coating a solution of their material at 110 C before allowing it to cool.
which is likely an advantage from the smoothness of the obtained film. The researchers conclude,"The discovery of a dramatic enhancement of FET mobility up to 13. 9cm2v-1s-1,
Output characteristics of FETS fabricated using the polycrystalline thin films as-coated (top) and after thermal annealing at 120 C for 5 min (bottom).
The team managed to synthesize a thin film made of densely packed aluminum oxide nanorods blended with molecules of a thrombolytic enzyme (urokinase-type plasminogen activator).
the film causes the parietal area of the graft to get filled with a stable concentration of a substance, called plasmin,
The unique properties of the film arise from its structure, which represents a porous matrix,
Yulia Chapurina, laboratory researcher and first author of the paper, set up several in vitro experiments that helped demonstrate just how effective the film is:"
It consists of small clusters of four copper atoms each, supported on a thin film of aluminum oxide.
This has been accomplished by embedding a needle base in a film scaffold, which dissolves upon contact with biological tissue.
Silk fibroin is used as the dissolvable film because it has high biocompatibility, and is known a biomaterial used in implantable devices."
The technology consists of an elastic film that is studded with biocompatible microcapsules. These microcapsules, in turn, are packed with nanoparticles that can be filled with drugs.
The microcapsules stick halfway out of the film, on the side of the film that touches a patients skin.
When the elastic film is stretched, it also stretches the microcapsules enlarging the surface area of the microcapsule
#Scientists achieve major breakthrough in thin-film magnetism Recent work by a team of scientists working in Singapore, The netherlands,
and control of ferromagnetism in Lamno3/Srtio3 heterostructures"),has uncovered a new twist to the story of thin-film magnetism.
The conjecture is that this arises from an avalanche of electrons from the top surface of the film to the bottom,
The team plans to use local electric fields to controllably turn on/off the magnetism of its 5-layer films
The new perovskite film, with the formula Srxla1-xcro3,(x up to 0. 25), conducts electricity more effectively than the unmodified oxide and yet retains much of the transparency to visible light exhibited by the pure material.
The researchers demonstrate that crystalline LSCO films deposited on Srtio3 (001) by molecular beam epitaxy show figures of merit
Just like something from science fiction-think of the Liquid-Metal Man robot assassin (T-1000) in the Terminator films-these materials behave more like glass or plastic than metal.
The researchers produced a film that is 300 times thinner than a sheet of paper by converting graphene oxide film to reduced graphene oxide through a photoreduction process. hese flexible graphene oxide lenses are mechanically robust
including temporary tattoo films. The cutter is programmable so the size of the patch and pattern can be customized easily.
a process typically used to produce thin films. In graphene, the process naturally creates tiny defects.
The discovery of such skyrmions in thin magnetic films and multilayers, already used in today technology,
"The key reason the antenna needed to be fabricated as a metal/polymer bilayer is that standalone metal thin films are very malleable,
The new SLIPS-enhanced steel is described in Nature Communications("Extremely durable biofouling-resistant metallic surfaces based on electrodeposited nanoporous tungstite films on steel"."
The team solved this by using an electrochemical technique to grow an ultrathin film of hundreds of thousands of small and rough tungsten-oxide islands directly onto a steel surface."
"So the recent film The Martian, which involved an astronaut stranded on Mars growing potatoes
The scientists made a film of a liquid crystal molecule called 5cb, which de Pablo called the ruit flyof liquid crystal research
Floating on top of the film was made a membrane of molecules resembling those found in the membranes of biological cells.
This disturbance on the membrane the imprint of the protein fibers is transmitted down through the liquid crystal film,
the DWLS"prints"using an ultraviolet laser on a super-thin film--only about 50 nanometers thick.
The film is made of a photoreactive polymer that responds to both the intensity and the polarization of the light.
amplifying the pattern on the underlying thin film. To understand how the DWLS works, you have to understand that it doesn't have an inkjet--it prints light,
The metamaterial consists of low-aspect-ratio silicon pillar arrays embedded in a polymer matrix and clad by gold films.
Now, the U s. Dept of energy (DOE) Oak ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has developed a method to save steps in the organic solar cell manufacturing process by introducing solvents into solar cell film production.
and made the film structure more uniform. Lack of uniformity in a film mixture causes clusters to form,
which absorb electrons meant for conversion. According to researchers, the sample with the solvent additive was consistent throughout
We also fabricated transistor structures onto the Mos2 films and proved that indeed our analysis is correct.
Conductive carbon black powder is added to the liquid silicone before it is spread flat by a thin-film applicator.
when suddenly all the bubbles coalesce, leading to the well-known film boiling.""Although they weren't expecting to generate plasma at all,
this isn't the same as the gravitational wormholes that allows humans to travel rapidly across space in science fiction TV SHOWS and films such as Stargate, Star trek,
By applying electrodes and a voltage to the resulting film, patterns can be identified, which are matched then up to various diseases."
when they're arrayed into films, a certain portion of them will act more like metals than semiconductors--an unforgiving flaw that fouls the film,
shorts the circuit and throws a wrench into the gears of any potential electronic device. In fact, according to University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign professor John Rogers, the purity needs to exceed 99.999 percent--meaning even one bad tube in 100,000 is enough to kill an electronic device."
aligned arrays of carbon nanotubes packed with good densities on thin films has largely been solved by several different groups of scientists in recent years,
"Working with researchers from the National Physical Laboratory and Cambridge-based dielectric antenna company Antenova Ltd, the Cambridge team used thin films of piezoelectric materials, a type of insulator
The researchers found that by subjecting the piezoelectric thin films to an asymmetric excitation, the symmetry of the system is broken similarly,
Piezoelectric materials can be made in thin film forms using materials such as lithium niobate, gallium nitride and gallium arsenide.
the heated film stimulates the polymer to solidify. The group tested the film on a common carbon-fiber material used in aircraft components,
and found that the film created a composite as strong as that manufactured in conventional ovens
--while using only 1 percent of the energy. The new"out-of-oven"approach may offer a more direct
the film itself--a fraction of a human hair's diameter--meshes with the composite, adding negligible weight.
Carbon nanotube deicerswardle and his colleagues have experimented with CNT films in recent years, mainly for deicing airplane wings.
The group first developed a technique to create a film of aligned carbon nanotubes composed of tiny tubes of crystalline carbon
creating a dense film of aligned carbon nanotubes. In experiments, Wardle and his team integrated the film into airplane wings via conventional,
oven-based curing methods, showing that when voltage was applied, the film generated heat, preventing ice from forming.
The deicing tests inspired a question: If the CNT film could generate heat, why not use it to make the composite itself?
How hot can you go? In initial experiments, the researchers investigated the film's potential to fuse two types of aerospace-grade composite typically used in aircraft wings and fuselages.
Normally the material, composed of about 16 layers, is solidified, or cross-linked, in a high-temperature industrial oven.
and placed the film over a square of Cycom 5320-1. They connected electrodes to the film,
then applied a current to heat both the film and the underlying polymer in the Cycom composite layers.
"To do this, the group tested the film's ability to generate higher and higher temperatures,
"Gregory Odegard, a professor of computational mechanics at Michigan Technological University, says the group's carbon nanotube film may go toward improving the quality and efficiency of fabrication processes for large composites, such as wings on commercial aircraft.
and help to improve processes such as preparation of inorganic ceramics and thin-film solar cells. The experiments were performed with the help of Yu-chen Karen Chen-Wiegart, Feng Wang, Jun Wang and their co-workers at Beamline X8c
"Enter Ozcan's smartphone attachment--an external lens, thin-film interference filter, miniature dovetail stage mount for making fine alignments,
#Chemists cook up three atom-thick electronic sheets This process of film deposition is common for traditional semiconductors like silicon
The films were designed and grown by postdoctoral associate Kibum Kang and graduate student Saien Xie. Their work is published online in Nature, April 30."
The researchers pulled off the feat by tuning the growth conditions of their films using a technique called metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD.
Park's group systematically optimized the technique to make the films, tweaking conditions and temperatures not unlike experimenting in the kitchen.
and characterize the quality of the films as they went along. The team also demonstrated their films'efficacy
when stacked layer by layer alternating with silicon dioxide and employing standard photolithography. This effectively proved that these three-atom-thick semiconducting films can be made into multilevel electronic devices of unsurpassed thinness.
The MOCVD method for thin film generation is seemingly generic. The researchers showed the ability to simply change the precursor to make other films;
for example, they also grew a tungsten disulfide film with different electrical properties and color. They envision perfecting the process to make atomically thin films of all varieties,
like a packet of colored paper, from which new, exciting electronic and optoelectronic devices can be derived."
"These were only the first two materials, but we want to make a whole palette of materials,
"Park said. The paper is titled"High-mobility three-atom-thick semiconducting films with wafer scale homogeneity."
"The work was supported by the Air force Office of Scientific research, the National Research Foundation of Korea and the Cornell Center for Materials Research funded by the National Science Foundation,
more conductive carbon nanotube films"It's a simple process and can create a lightweight CNT film,
or'bucky paper,'that is a meter wide and twice as strong as previous such films--it's even stronger than CNT FIBERS,
"says Yuntian Zhu, Distinguished Professor of Materials science and engineering at NC State and corresponding author of a paper describing the work.
creating a layered film of pure CNTS. Researchers can control the thickness of the film by controlling the number of layers.
The CNT films made using the microcombing technique had more than twice the tensile strength of the uncombed CNT films--greater than 3 gigapascals for the microcombed material,
versus less than 1. 5 gigapascals for the uncombed material. The microcombed CNT film also had 80 percent higher electrical conductivity than the uncombed film."
"This is a significant advance, but we want to find ways to make CNT alignment even straighter,
a polyester film with microfluidic channels to capture the T cells, and a detection technology known as lensless shadow imaging.
A single drop of whole blood from a fingerprick was applied to the polyester film, where capillary forces pull the blood into the microfluidic channels.
The shadow of the CD4+T cells that adhere to the channels can then be visualized on the polyester film.
Overall, the platform allows efficient CD4+T cell counting using fingerprick volume of unprocessed whole blood samples on disposable film at the point-of-care.
"We were able to analyze samples such as very thin films whose X-ray signals would be very weak."
This has been accomplished by embedding a needle base in a film scaffold, which dissolves upon contact with biological tissue.
Silk fibroin is used as the dissolvable film because it has high biocompatibility, and is known a biomaterial used in implantable devices."
Arrayin their lab, Poulain and his colleagues devised a setup to run electricity through conductive droplets and film the droplets'behavior at high speed..
Although plasma dynamics may seem far removed from the problem of film boiling in nuclear reactors,
Then, the regular levels of organic materials are formed as films on the board. The dip coating process allowed the layers of organic materials to be created easily on boards with a 3-D structure including a cylinder
"When placed on a metal film, electrons that tunnel across the gap can excite plasmons, although inefficiently."
#Super-stretchable metallic conductors for flexible electronics Washington state University researchers have discovered how to stretch metal films used in flexible electronics to twice their size without breaking.
when they made a metal film out of indium, a fairly inexpensive metal compared to gold,
they were able to stretch the metal film to twice its original length. When the pieces broke
"A metal film doubling its size and not failing is very unusual, ''he said.""We have proposed a model for the stretchy metal
Hills and Potholes Many of these types of flexible electronic devices will rely on thin films of organic materials that catch sunlight
the UVM team was able to observe nanoscale defects and boundaries in the crystal grains in the thin films of phthalocyanine--roadblocks in the electron highway."
very carefully controlling how the thin films are deposited. Using a novel"pen-writing"technique with a hollow capillary,
the team worked in the lab of UVM physics and materials science professor Randy Headrick to successfully form films with jumbo-sized crystal grains and"small angle boundaries."
and Naveen Rawat G'15--opens a window to view how increasing"long-range order"in the organic semiconductor films is a key mechanism that allows excitons to migrate farther."
This allows organic thin films to carry energy along this molecular highway with relative ease,
#Antimicrobial film for future implants The implantation of medical devices is not without risks. Bacterial or fungal infections can occur
and create a film invisible to the naked eye (between 400 and 600 nm thick) that is made of several layers.
Embedded antimicrobial peptides on a thin silver coating The film is also unique due to the fact that it embeds natural antimicrobial peptides
we have placed a silver-coated precursor before applying the film. Silver is an anti-infectious material currently used on catheters and dressings.
preventing and controlling infection The results from numerous tests performed on this new film shows that it reduces inflammation
that the presence of the film on the implant suppresses the activation of inflammatory markers normally produced by immune cells in response to the implant.
"the film inhibits the growth and long-term proliferation of staphylococcal bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus), yeast strains (Candida albicans) or fungi (Aspegillus fumigatus) that frequently cause implant-related infection"emphasises Philippe Lavalle.
Researchers conclude that this film may be used in vivo on implants or medical devices within a few years to control the complex microenvironment surrounding implants
In the past couple of years, organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites have been processed solution into thin films or bulk crystals for photovoltaic devices that have reached a 20-percent power conversion efficiency.
a process typically used to produce thin films. In graphene, the process naturally creates tiny defects.
The discovery of such skyrmions in thin magnetic films and multilayers, already used in today's technology,
"The metamaterial consists of silicon pillar arrays embedded in a polymer matrix and clad in gold film.
#Internal fingerprint sensor peers inside fingertips for more surefire ID In the 1971 film Diamonds are Forever,
a portable USB-powered film scanner to image the test strips; and a portable computer for real-time data analysis.
"The study was funded co by Capillary Film Technology Ltd--a UK SME developing low-cost microfluidic fluoropolymer film for life sciences and clinical diagnostics.
but we succeeded due to our great knowledge in growing high quality thin films and our knowledge in ionic and electronic transport mechanism in these films says Professor Nini Pryds.
The results of this work were patented recently, with the hope that this discovery opens brand new possibilities for usingd-Bismuth as an ion conductor. e have used very advanced fabrication
and characterization methods together with our previous knowledge to create this thin films architecture. The use of thin film technology for Bi oxide is not trivial and required long and hard studies.
That might be the reason why we succeeded where many didn says senior researcher Vincenzo Esposito,
Making othing The method for making nanogaps begins with the production of thin films in
this method allows graphene to be transferred to gold film with minimal defects or contamination. his new method,
gold thin film. The films are sliced then into 150 nm-wide nanostructures. Finally, the structures are treated with oxygen plasma to remove graphene.
Scanning electron micrographs of the structures reveal extremely small nanogaps between the gold layers. Nanogap applications One potential application for this technology is in ultra-sensitive detection of single molecules,
#icrocombingcreates Stronger, More Conductive Carbon nanotube Films Researchers from North carolina State university and China Suzhou Institute of Nanoscience and Nano-Biotics have developed an inexpensive technique called icrocombingto align carbon nanotubes (CNTS),
pure CNT films that are stronger than any previous such films. The technique also improves the electrical conductivity that makes these films attractive for use in electronic
and aerospace applications. t a simple process and can create a lightweight CNT film, or ucky paper, that is a meter wide and twice as strong as previous such films it even stronger than CNT FIBERS,
says Yuntian Zhu, Distinguished Professor of Materials science and engineering at NC State and corresponding author of a paper describing the work.
The researchers begin by growing the CNTS on a conventional substrate in a closely packed array.
creating a layered film of pure CNTS. Researchers can control the thickness of the film by controlling the number of layers.
The CNT films made using the microcombing technique had more than twice the tensile strength of the uncombed CNT films greater than 3 gigapascals for the microcombed material
versus less than 1. 5 gigapascals for the uncombed material. The microcombed CNT film also had 80 percent higher electrical conductivity than the uncombed film. his is a significant advance,
but we want to find ways to make CNT alignment even straighter, Zhu says. t still not perfect. n addition,
This film is coated on both sides with highly flexible electrodes of graphite or carbon black. When the film deforms as a result of compression or stretching,
its thickness decreases and its surface area simultaneously increases. This means its capacitance rises with pressure an effect the ISC researchers can measure.
The team managed to synthesize a thin film made of densely packed aluminum oxide nanorods blended with molecules of a thrombolytic enzyme (urokinase-type plasminogen activator.
the film causes the parietal area of the graft to get filled with a stable concentration of a substance, called plasmin,
The unique properties of the film arise from its structure, which represents a porous matrix,
Yulia Chapurina, laboratory researcher and first author of the paper, set up several in vitro experiments that helped demonstrate just how effective the film is:
But it the promise of MOF nanoparticles suitable to make into thin films for sensors and microelectronics that is particularly alluring.
films on various substrates. These thin films can, for instance, function as a coupled temperature-moisture sensor that rapidly switches from turquoise to dark blue colour for easy identification, reversibly, upon heating.
Thin film sensors created using MOF nanoparticles harvested from hybrid gels The team worked with Isis Innovation to patent the technology and Samsung Electronics
who part-funded the research, are looking to translate this discovery into a range of real-world applications including optoelectronics, thin-film sensors,
and microelectronics. e believe our method has huge potential, comments Jin-Chong, t opens the door to exploiting MOF-based supramolecular gels as a new 3d scaffolding material useful for engineering optoelectronics and innovative micromechanical devices n
Thin films of Mos2 are also under study as possible catalysts that facilitate chemical reactions. In addition
flexible film typically used to manufacture flexible printed circuits and the outside layer of spacesuits. Researchers were able to easily peel off the sensors from the curved film without compromising their functioning.
In order to make the sensors more like peel off stickers researchers essentially had to build the sensors upside down
According to NC State, the technology consists of an elastic film that is studded with biocompatible microcapsules.
The university said in a statement that the microcapsules stick halfway out of the film, on the side of the film that touches a patient skin.
When the elastic film is stretched it also stretches the microcapsules enlarging the surface area of the microcapsule
The coating is applied using an electrochemical technique that deposits an ultrathin film of tungsten oxide islands on to the steel.
films and advertisements making up the rest. think we will be looking in the next couple of years at digital surpassing physical,
000 to produce the four minute film, shot on a host of cameras that saw frontwards, sideways and backwards,
000 to produce the four-minute film, shot on a host of cameras that saw frontwards, sideways and backwards,
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