as Made In Space was able to 3d print a number of specimens from aerospace-grade plastics that will now be analyzed in terms of their mechanical properties,
PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) is one of the most widely used thermoplastics there is. It is used to make plastic drink bottles as well as many other products (including fabrics) and for packaging purposes
and a 3d printer, any plastic and possibly ceramics or even metal (with binder jetting or future wire melting technologies) objects could be produced anywhere in the world.
3d printing bone requires a combination of a reabsorbable material such as a biodegradable polymer and an inorganic bioactive phase material such as ceramics.
The research group led by Prof. Maria Vallet-Regí at the faculty of pharmacy-Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain) recently demonstrated that,
The polymer they used was a material that is rather easy to 3d print and that was approved FDA for use in implants:
and polymers are used widely as bone regenerators and biocompatible functional materials in tissue engineering, as they are very similar to the natural bone tissue,
by adding conducting CNTS into the bioprinted polymer and mineral prosthetic bone implant, you can stimulate the regrowth of the actual bone cells.
while the polymer-based support dissolves efficiently. These research lines also involve the production and study of bioceramic systems for the controlled release of biotechnological and antitumoral species
Moreover, they are pioneers in the application of silica-based ordered mesoporous materials, as release systems of biologically active species, cell encapsulation in silica porous materials, mesoporous materials for gene therapy and transfection, organic-inorganic hybrid materials.
Using Envisiontec 3d bioplotter they were able to take their research to new levels creating very complex multilateral 3d structures following specific designs previously programmed on the computer. his is an incredible advantage
The multidisciplinary team was able to 3d print custom silicone guides infused with biochemical cues that proved to effectively regrow nerve tissue in lab rats.
the silicone guide was saturated with chemical cues (colored red and green in the video above) to trigger motor and sensory nerve growth.
With their own version of 4d printing, Fergal B. Coulter and Anton Ianakiev are exploring the fabrication of artificial muscle by creating a system for producing seamless tubular silicone membranes with dielectric elastomer actuators (DEA
a form of electroactive polymer that induces a change in form. Coulter and Ianakiev describe the DEAS as ssentially flexible capacitors sending low energy electric signals to the flexible tubular structure
The material used was a tough and flexible silicone material called Shore 73a which is composed of thixotropic, a bit of kaolin mineral filler (10),
%and alumina trihydrate (5%).The modified 3d printing system was engineered to print multiple layers of the silicone rubber material at a consistent rate,
Each surface layer of the 3d printed silicone was coated with graphite, capable of acting as a DEA electrode.
The team inflicted mechanical strain on these silicone muscles during the process by inflating the balloon-like mandrel structure,
the silicone was able to make an evenly distributed return to its original shape. The energy used in the shape change was kept to a minimum because of the compression within the 3d printed tubular structure.
Using robust silicone material, DEA electrodes, and a modified 3d printing system, the research team was able to not only replicate the structure of the muscle,
extruding ABS-carbon fiber composite over the course of 40 hours, before the body was milled to achieve a more refined look.
and the material supplier for the ABS-carbon fiber composite we were able to reduce the material
the UFL team were trying to find a way to deal with the problems of low surface tension
especially in the case of biomaterials. olding material within the gel negates the effects of surface tension, gravity,
including silicones, hydrogels, colloids, and living cells. For example, they have used this process to create complex multi-scale structures using PVA hydrogels and fluorescent colloids.
The 3d printed elastomer body of the Spongesuit bikini has a unique, spiderweb-like design,
#Turning plastic waste into a resource What if we were to stop thinking about plastic waste as something to be disposed of,
Plastics are made essentially polymers from long chains of carbon and other elements. They are relatively inexpensive to manufacture and their versatility,
But, because polymers and plastics are so cheap to manufacture the economic benefit of recycling can be marginal.
and her idea that the carbon and hydrogen in waste plastics might be a useful resource for the manufacture of steel.
the use of the waste polymers needed to be more cost-effective than traditional methods,
On the path to commercialisation, her team found an even more effective approach was to use the polymers in another type of waste used car tyres.
Most of the existing uses for old tyres involve making low value secondary products such as asphalt, aggregate for cement, artificial reefs, footwear, plastic and rubber composites,
Together with technology partner One Steel Veena's team perfected the technique of'polymer injection'for electric arc furnaces.
In Australia alone, this technology has resulted so far in over two million used car tyres being converted from waste into a valuable feedstock for steel production.
The technology has also been licensed to steel makers in South korea, Thailand and the UK enabling high quality steel products to be produced more economically and with less energy,
while at the same time reducing the environmental problems of waste tyre disposal s
#Deep-sea fish found to be warm-blooded Calling someone a cold fish may not hold any more after scientists today revealed a deep-sea fish that is warm-blooded.
said Xiang Zhang, director of the Materials sciences Division of the US Department of energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a professor at the University of California, Berkeley."
#Predicting Which Combinations Will Yield Metallic Glass Materials scientists have created an nstruction manualfor developing metallic glassn ultra-tough yet flexible alloy described as the most significant materials science innovation since plastic.
Just like something from science fictionhink of the Liquid-Metal robot assassin in the Terminator filmshese materials behave more like glass or plastic than metal.
While still being metals, they become as malleable as chewing gum when heated and can be molded easily
They are also three times stronger and harder than ordinary metals on average, and are among the toughest materials known. hey have been described as the most significant development in materials science
since the discovery of plastics more than 50 years ago, says study author, Dr. Kevin Laws from the University of New south wales (UNSW).
Most metals are crystalline when solid, with their atoms arranged in a highly organised and regular manner.
Metallic glass alloys, however, have disordered a highly structure, with the atoms arranged in a non-regular way. here are many types of metallic glass, with the most popular ones based on zirconium, palladium, magnesium, titanium or copper.
But until now, discovering alloy compositions that form these materials has required a lengthy process of trial and error in the laboratory,
says Laws. In the present study, Laws and his colleagues describe the first model of the atomic structure of metallic glass
They have used their model to successfully predict more than 200 new metallic glass alloys based on magnesium, silver, copper,
says Laws. etallic glass alloys are expensive to manufacture and to date have only been used in niche products,
which includes a photovoltaic cell using a high-quality semiconductor crystal similar to the ones for lasers
The discovery, published online today in Nature Nanotechnology, details how Dr. Zheng and his research team created a new type of microbubble using a compound called porphyrin-a naturally occurring pigment in nature that harvests light.
***a polymer network that can absorb water and expand significantly; the amount of expansion depends on the chemical properties of the gel and the environment around it.
***Hydrogels are linked cross networks of polymers that can absorb various amounts of water depending on their chemical composition and structure.
or greater thermal conductivity. iniaturization results in less space to dissipate heat generated from today high-performance processors,
Angstron is able to tailor its thermal foil sheets in thicknesses ranging from 5 um to 40 um with thermal conductivity between 800 W/m-K and 1,
or by introducing coloured pigments into the luminous layer, says physicist de Oliveira. At the same time the developers want to alter the materials in such a way that the light sheets can be used even at a lower mains voltage.
and demand of rare-earth metals. he research group focused on three or four different catalytic reactions used in high production volume chemicals,
But rare-earth metals like cerium, which is as abundant as copper, are primary products of mining for other, more valuable rare-earth elements.
and reduce reliance on rare-earth metals and other materials critical to the success of clean energy technologies.
The biomolecule sorting technique was developed in the laboratory of Joanna Aizenberg, Amy Smith Berylson Professor of Materials science at Harvard School of engineering and Applied sciences (SEAS) and Professor in the Department of chemistry and Chemical Biology.
and a high rate of capture of the target molecules, said lead author Ximin He, Assistant professor of Materials science and engineering at Arizona State university and formerly a postdoctoral research fellow in Aizenberg group at Harvard.
This capability supports"materials by design,"a concept that enables the development of unique new materials for function-specific applicability, such as lighter, stronger fiber composites for airplane wings;
Philip Withers, Professor of Materials science and Director of the Manchester Henry Moseley X-ray Imaging Facility, says,
foams, metal alloys, and single microcrystals. A team led by Brian M. Patterson uses the stage to better understand damage initiation
The company's extensive portfolio enables research and routine applications in the life and materials sciences.
Photo by Anurag Mathur, Healy Lab) Instead, the research team led by bioengineering professor Kevin Healy is presenting a network of pulsating cardiac muscle cells housed in an inch-long silicone device that effectively models human heart tissue,
This is possible because it can automatically define all the different parts of a cell based on an optical property called the"refractive index".
The study also used resources at Center for Nanophase Materials sciences, a DOE Office of Science User Facility at ORNL.
a Core Faculty member at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard university and the Amy Smith Berylson Professor of Materials science at Harvard School of engineering and Applied sciences (SEAS), has developed an entirely new,
"Using a technique called X-ray crystallography, the researchers were able to determine the shape and molecular components of the Nano-85/P domain complex,
#Touch-Sensitive Flexible Silicone Stickers Worn on the Skin Can Help Control Mobile devices Someone wearing a smartwatch can look at a calendar
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.''This makes them easier to use in an everyday environment.
Lithium metal, for example, can store about 10 times as much energy per gram, but is extremely dangerous,
who has a joint appointment in MIT Department of Materials science and engineering. e came up with the method serendipitously,
as Made In Space was able to 3d print a number of specimens from aerospace-grade plastics that will now be analyzed in terms of their mechanical properties,
and nanoparticles to naturally occurring plant cells, biological polymers and tissues. The first application in which this microscope was deployed in the DOE Bioenergy Science Center was for analyzing plant cell walls,
#Berkeley Lab M-TIP Solves Reconstruction Problem for Fluctuation X-ray Scattering But because these objects are a thousand times smaller than the width of human hair,
This novel reconstruction method plays a central role in mapping out the strengths of fluctuation scattering as a routine biophysical technique. vercoming the Limitations of Traditional Imagingwith advances in light source technology,
If particles can be organized into sufficiently large crystals, their structure can be determined through crystallography, which involves shooting x-rays through a crystal.
But, many important structures are too floppy to succumb to crystallization and may have a different structure in solution compared to
what is determined from crystallography. As an alternative and complementary technique, structural biologists often gather diffraction patterns from particles in solution.
However, in these so called small-and wide-angle x-ray scattering (SAXS/WAXS) experiments particles can rotate during imaging,
X-ray sources and optics bring fluctuation scattering of cryogenically frozen large macromolecular machines within practical reach of modern synchrotrons,
and chemically grafted nanomembranes loaded with iron oxide nanoparticles, in the Journal of Applied Polymer Science, July 14.
Frey and her colleagues are replacing that cost by making the devices with nanofibers from plastics,
the pesticide and polylactic acid a polymer derived from corn. The materials are derived biodegradable and from renewable resources. he chemical is protected,
"Using Crystals, Robotics and X-rays to Advance Neuroscience To study the joined protein structure, researchers in Brunger's laboratory at the Stanford School of medicine found a way to grow crystals of the complex.
They used a robotic system developed at SSRL to study the crystals at SLAC's LCLS, an X-ray laser that is one of the brightest sources of X-rays on the planet.
SSRL and LCLS are DOE Office of Science User Facilities. The researchers combined and analyzed hundreds of X-ray images from about 150 protein crystals to reveal the atomic-scale details of the joined structure.
SSRL's Aina Cohen who oversaw the development of the highly automated platform used for the neuroscience experiment,
But perhaps most importantly, EPGL has invented solutions that will enable microelectronics to be placed into modern Silicone Hydrogel contact lenses for mass market production,
2015 that it has solved for the critical Silicone Hydrogel mass market production challenges as EPGL has."
such as whether it exists as a monomer, or combined with another copy into a dimer,
Using the Drndic group silicon nitride nanopores which can be drilled to custom diameters, the research team set out to test their technique on GCN4-p1,
The monomer version is unzipped and is likely not helical; it probably more like a string.
and monomer form of the protein block a different number of ions, so we see a different drop in current
including for the first time, inorganic materials with a high propensity towards crystallization, such as table salt. These unstructured, inorganic nanoparticles have different electronic, magnetic and optical properties from their crystalized counterparts,
delaying the formation of crystals. These factors prevent crystallization in nanoparticles, even in materials that are highly prone to crystallization, such as table salt.
The amorphous nanoparticles are exceptionally stable against crystallization lasting at least seven months at room temperature. The next step, Amstad said,
this templated polymerization approach paves the way for the design of novel one-dimensional nanomaterials. Nanosized materials such as nanowires offer unique properties that are completely distinct from those of the bulk materials.
Hisanori Shinohara from Nagoya University in Japan and his colleagues have developed a method that uses carbon nanotubes as a reaction vessel for the templated polymerization of linear-chain nanomaterials.
The idea was that during polymerization, the small precursor molecules would naturally adopt the one-dimensional structure of the tubes
so that the polymerization could terminate or become uncontrolled. By using this method, Shinohara and his colleagues were able to synthesize a one-dimensional nanodiamond polymeric structure by a relatively simple annealing technique.
"The present template-based approach for the synthesis of linear-chain diamondoid polymers is entirely different from conventional chemical approaches."
as a precursor molecule and building block for polymerization. This molecule was brominated at either side so that, upon addition of iron nanoparticles,
In a normal chemical polymerization reaction, the formed radicals would abstract hydrogen for termination reactions, but:"
either be transformed into the linear-chain polymers or into amorphous carbon.""As a result, the structures formed in the 1-nm-sized tubes were a polymeric chain of nanodiamondoids,
the formed carbon nanotubes filled with the nanodiamondoid polymer look like macaroni filled with spaghetti. In order to extract the inner polymer,
a solution-phase sonication/extraction can be applied, the group reports. The big advantage of the new method is the simplicity and specificity of the formation of the one-dimensional nanostructured polymer chain.
This technique will certainly attract the attention of materials scientists s
#Researchers Demonstrate Breakthrough Method for Getting Nanoparticles to Self-Assemble The medium is the message.
and humans. anoporous gold can be imagined as a porous metal sponge with pore sizes that are a thousand times smaller than the diameter of a human hair,
and humans. anoporous gold can be imagined as a porous metal sponge with pore sizes that are a thousand times smaller than the diameter of a human hair,
The thermal expansion of these nanoparticles generates sound that can be detected with an ultrasound transducer attached to the skin.
Enclosed within the platelet membranes are made nanoparticle cores of a biodegradable polymer that can be metabolized safely by the body.
The nanoparticles can be packed with many small drug molecules that diffuse out of the polymer core and through the platelet membrane onto their targets.
#Coated Silica Nanoparticles Could be used for Restorative Treatment of Sensitive Teeth Researchers at the University of Birmingham have shown how the development of coated silica nanoparticles could be used in restorative treatment of sensitive teeth
The study, published in the Journal of Dentistry, shows how sub-micron silica particles can be prepared to deliver important compounds into damaged teeth through tubules in the dentine.
When your outer enamel is breached, the exposure of these tubules is really noticeable. If you drink something cold,
"The aim of restorative agents is to increase the mineral content of both the enamel and dentine,
However, the Birmingham team turned to sub-micron silica particles that had been prepared with a surface coating to reduce the chance of aggregation.
"These silica particles are available in a range of sizes, from nanometre to sub-micron,
Polymer molecules are being employed for these nano-dispenser systems because scientists can change their size,
Both synthetic and natural polymers play an essential role in most people lives every day ranging from familiar synthetic plastics,
such as disposable cutlery, to natural biopolymers like DNA and proteins-fundamental to human life. Using insecticides is one of the few ways farmers currently have to treat their groves for greening, also known as Huanglongbing or HLB.
Other members of the team include Wendy Meyer with UF entomology and nematology department at CREC, Pablo Gurman, with the University of Texas at Dallasdepartment of Materials science and engineering,
a family member of complex oxide materials with distinctive cubic crystal structures. Perovskites have long been recognized for a variety of useful physical properties,
But crystals aren formed always perfectly. If one out of each 100 strontium ions is missing from the cube-shaped strontium titanate crystal,
it can create polarized nano-sized regions within the crystal. Ordinarily, the material bulk serves to isolate such polar nanoregions in an insulating matrix.
Physicists at the University of Wisconsin, however fabricated epitaxial films of strontium titanate, spread across a substrate of the same material, no thicker than the size of these polar nanoregions.
Others involved in the work included Penn State university, Korea Institute of Materials science, Temple University, Pohang University of Science and Technology, University of California-Santa barbara and Boise State university n
The work, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, pairs gold nanomesh with a stretchable substrate made with polydimethylsiloxane
In materials science,"fatigue"is used to describe the structural damage to a material caused by repeated movement or pressure, known as"strain cycling."
and fatigue has been a deadly disease for metals, "the researchers wrote.""We weaken the constraint of the substrate by making the interface between the Au (gold) nanomesh and PDMS slippery,
For more than 100 years, researchers have inferred how atoms are arranged in three-dimensional space using a technique called X-ray crystallography,
which involves measuring how light waves scatter off of a crystal. However, X-ray crystallography only yields information about the average positions of many billions of atoms in the crystal
and not about individual atomsprecise coordinates. t like taking an average of people On earth, Miao said. ost people have a head, two eyes, a nose and two ears.
Because X-ray crystallography doesn reveal the structure of a material on a per-atom basis,
and are discussed in many physics and materials science textbooks. Our results are the first experimental determination of a point defect inside a material in three dimensions.
It is made of a silicon-based polymer, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), and has microvalves and fluidic channels to transport the sample between nodes for various sample preparation steps.
using x-ray crystallography and other standard techniques in structural biology to unlock its transport secrets. The Lithgow lab, working with colleagues from Nagoya, Kyoto and Tokyo, ramped up scale of the technology making literally hundreds of re-coded TOM 40 complexes, each one with a novel additional 21st amino acid.
So the ideal structure uses the antenna as one of the metals in the diode
#Quantity, Dimensions of Carbon black Nanoparticles Crucial for Lithium-Ion Battery Function A Stanford undergraduate has contributed to a discovery that confounds the conventional wisdom in lithium-ion battery design,
The undergraduate was part of a 10-person research team led by William Chueh, an assistant professor of materials science and engineering.
While lithium-ion batteries needed a substance called carbon black in order to function, the precise amount of that material had not been considered crucial to overall performance."
when she was a sophomore with no prior experience in materials science. Chueh praised Li, a Phd student who plans to become a professor,
or lithium cobalt oxide, mixed together with carbon black, an inert material obtained by the incomplete combustion of certain petroleum products.
Prior to the team's research, the quantity and dimensions of the carbon black nanoparticles weren't considered particularly crucial to a battery's function."
Ultimately, the rate at which a cathode particle charges depends on how well it is connected to carbon black particles,
"Li said that by upping the percentage of carbon black as high as 20 percent in some experiments they found that the cathode particles charged more quickly
Increasing the percentage of carbon black decreased the amount of cathode particles available to hold a charge.
So although a battery with a higher carbon black content might charge faster, it would also have less energy
Li and Meyer worked with their teammates to fabricate hundreds of batteries with different concentrations of carbon black.
what ratio of carbon black to lithium iron phosphate to polymer binder to use; what order to add them in;
"Meyer, who is pursuing her co-terminal master's degree in materials science and engineering, said it was the hardest work she ever loved."
This acid is a crystalline solid at room temperature with a structure made up of antimony phosphorous, oxygen and hydrogen atoms. t long been known to scientists that this material is able to take up water
Free radicals are produced during the fire cycle as a polymer degrades, and their removal is critical to stopping the fire from continuing to spread.
which blocks fire's access to its fuel source--the polymer. The synergistic combination of both these processes makes polydopamine an attractive and powerful flame retardant.
In a PFM, the spring arm is replaced by a small plastic sphere that sits at the center of a so-called optical trap and runs along the surface.
#Miniature Plastic Digital Fluorescence Microscope for use in Rural areas For a project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Grand Challenges in Global Health Initiative,
a research team from Rice university has developed a plastic, miniature digital fluorescence microscope that can be used in rural areas to quantify white blood cell levels in patients.
which consists of one polystyrene lens and two polymethyl methacrylate aspheric lenses. The lenses were enclosed then in an all-plastic, 3-D-printed microscope housing and objective.
The use of low-cost components such as LEDS, reflectors and USB detectors, combined with the all-plastic housing and lenses, will allow future versions of the prototype to be mass-produced h
which differentiates it from conventional metals. This enables fabrication of smaller RRAM cells that have the capacity to store more data than conventional metal-based conductors.
The other two study papers were published in Nano Letters and Applied Physics Letters. In these studies, the teams led by Pop
Phase-change memory involves an alloy of germanium antimony and tellurium. Applying a small jolt of electricity to the alloy results in a change in its structure.
The first jolt induces the atoms to form a normal, crystalline structure that facilitates a flow of electrons.
bacteria could be reprogrammed to convert readily available sources of natural energy into pharmaceuticals, plastics and fuel products."
but also respond to valuable products such as renewable plastics or costly pharmaceuticals and give microbes a voice to report on their own efficiency in making these products."
which recur repeatedly to form objects such as snowflakes, ferns and cauliflowers, making their structure appear more complex than it often actually is.
The prototype consists of copper wires insulated with PVC tubes. On one end, the copper wires are hooked up to an external analyzer and on the other end,
printers are adapted to produce pharmaceutical compounds rather than polymers which are used more usually. Such methods are already proving very useful in healthcare with doctors using the system to create customised implants for patients with injuries or other conditions.
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