news, journals and articles from all over the world.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Critical Materials Institute has developed a low-cost, high performance permanent magnet by drawing inspiration from an out-of-this-world source: iron-nickel alloys in meteorites. The magnet rivals widely used “Alnico” magnets in magnetic strength and has the potential to fill a strong demand for rare-earth- and cobalt-free magnets in the market.
To address PPE shortages during the pandemic, scientists at Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley are developing a rechargeable, reusable, anti-COVID N95 mask and a 3D-printable silicon-cast mask mold.
Columbia University researchers report that they have achieved plasmonically active graphene with record-high charge density without an external gate. They accomplished this by exploiting novel interlayer charge transfer with a two-dimensional electron-acceptor known as -RuCl3. “This work allows us to use graphene as a plasmonic material without metal gates or voltage sources, making it possible to create stand-alone graphene plasmonic structures for the first time,” said Mechanical Engineering Prof. James Hone.
The prestigious prize for 2019-2020 goes to Professor Joseph DeSimone of Stanford University for significant contributions to materials science, chemistry, polymer science nano medicine, and 3D printing; and to Professor Raphael Mechoulam of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem for the discovery of the active molecules in cannabis
A new platform could accelerate the development of blended materials with desired properties.
How much information can you get from a speck of purple pigment, no bigger than the diameter of a hair, plucked from an Egyptian portrait that’s nearly 2,000 years old? Plenty, according to a new study. Analysis of that speck can teach us about how the pigment was made, what it’s made of – and maybe even a little about the people who made it.
Personal protective equipment, like face masks and gowns, is generally made of polymers. But not much attention is typically given to the selection of polymers used beyond their physical properties. To help with the identification of materials that will bind to a virus and speed its inactivation for use in PPE, researchers have developed a high-throughput approach for analyzing the interactions between materials and viruslike particles. They report their method in the journal Biointerphases.
Materials scientists at PNNL are demonstrating materials with improved properties using solid phase processing.
Removing one charged molecule from a one-dimensional array causes the others to alternately turn ‘on’ or ‘off,’ paving the way for information transfer in tiny circuits
The American Physical Society has selected physicist Ivan Bozovic of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory as a co-recipient of the 2021 James C. McGroddy Prize for New Materials. Bozovic and his collaborators were recognized “For pioneering the atomic-layer-by-layer synthesis of new metastable complex-oxide materials, and the discovery of resulting novel phenomena.”
Scientists developed a platform for making 3-D superconducting nano-architectures with a prescribed organization.
A team at Aalto University has used bacteria to produce intricately designed three-dimensional objects made of nanocellulose. With their technique, the researchers are able to guide the growth of bacterial colonies through the use of strongly water repellent – or superhydrophobic – surfaces.
A liquid nanofoam liner undergoing testing could prolong the safe use of football helmets, says a Michigan State University researcher.
An international research team led by PNNL has published a vision for electron microscopy infused with the latest advances in data science and artificial intelligence. Writing a commentary in Nature Materials, the team proposes a highly integrated, autonomous, and data-driven microscopy architecture to address challenges in energy storage, quantum information science, and materials design.
Perovskite materials are increasingly popular as the active layer in solar cells, but internal forces in these materials cause distortions in their crystal structures, reducing symmetry and contributing to their intrinsic instability. Researchers at Soochow University examined the mechanisms at play, as well as several degradation factors that influence the performance of perovskite photovoltaics. In APL Materials, they clarified the factors influencing the degradation and they summarized some feasible approaches for durable perovskite photovoltaics.
An international multi-institution team of scientists has synthesized graphene nanoribbons – ultrathin strips of carbon atoms – on a titanium dioxide surface using an atomically precise method that removes a barrier for custom-designed carbon nanostructures required for quantum information sciences.
Park, a staff researcher at Brookhaven Lab’s Center for Functional Nanomaterials, is designing and building an automated system to generate high-quality ultrathin “flakes,” which can be stacked into layered structures that are essentially new materials.
UB’s Eva Zurek, a theoretical chemist, is an expert on high-pressure chemistry and the search for superconductors BUFFALO, N.Y. — After decades of hunting, scientists recently announced the discovery of a room-temperature superconductor — an elusive material that conveys electricity with…
Momentum Technologies Inc., a Dallas, Texas-based materials science company that is focused on extracting critical metals from electronic waste, has licensed an Oak Ridge National Laboratory process for recovering cobalt and other metals from spent lithium-ion batteries.
Researchers at PNNL have increased the conductivity of composite copper wire by 5%. That small percentage can make a big difference in motor efficiency. The laboratory teamed with General Motors to test out the souped-up copper wire for use in vehicle motor components, as part of a cost-shared research project.
In celebration of National Nanotechnology Day, Molecular Foundry Director Kristin Persson explains atomic-scale engineering at four different levels – for a kindergartner, a middle schooler, a high school senior, and a graduate student
A team led by the University of Washington reports that carefully constructed stacks of graphene — a 2D form of carbon — can exhibit highly correlated electron properties. The team also found evidence that this type of collective behavior likely relates to the emergence of exotic magnetic states.
A shoe scanner that would allow people to keep on their footwear as they pass through airport security and a cement that repairs itself are among five PNNL R&D 100 Award recipients. PNNL now has garnered a total of 116 since the program’s inception.
A team of scientists led by Berkeley Lab has gained important new insight into electrons’ role in the harvesting of light in artificial photosynthesis systems.
Michigan Tech researchers have been selected for a $7.2 million DARPA cooperative agreement award to turn military plastic waste into protein powder and lubricants.
Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory used quantum optics to advance state-of-the-art microscopy and illuminate a path to detecting material properties with greater sensitivity than is possible with traditional tools.
Researchers have designed and demonstrated a new bullseye lens for very bright, very fast electron sources. The lens combines atomically flat surfaces with concentric grooves that direct the interactions of the surface electrons to form an intense electron beam in the center of the bullseye. The lens can generate pulses lasting less than 10 femtoseconds.
Researchers report in Science Advances that the lipid-based nanoparticles they have engineered, carrying two sets of protein-making instructions, showed in animal studies that they have the potential to function as therapies for two genetic disorders.
Researchers at Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley have demonstrated that a common material can be processed into a top-performing energy storage material. Their discovery could improve the efficiency, reliability, and robustness of personal electronics, wearable technologies, and car audio systems.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers have developed artificial intelligence software for powder bed 3D printers that assesses the quality of parts in real time, without the need for expensive characterization equipment.
A new Prospective article—Additive Manufacturing for COVID-19: Devices, Materials, Prospects and Challenges—published in MRS Communications, looks at these critical supply issues and provides an overview of 3D printing and how coupling the tools in additive manufacturing (AM) and advanced materials has provided a viable alternative for rapid production and distribution of PPEs and medical devices.
Graphene, an extremely thin two-dimensional layer of the graphite used in pencils, buckles when cooled while attached to a flat surface, resulting in beautiful pucker patterns that could benefit the search for novel quantum materials and superconductors, according to Rutgers-led research in the journal Nature. Quantum materials host strongly interacting electrons with special properties, such as entangled trajectories, that could provide building blocks for super-fast quantum computers. They also can become superconductors that could slash energy consumption by making power transmission and electronic devices more efficient.
Scientists have developed a machine learning technique for materials research at the atomic and molecular scales. The technique visualizes and quantifies the atomic and molecular structures in three-dimensional samples in real time. It is designed primarily to identify and characterize microstructures in 3D samples.
ORNL Story Tips: Pandemic impact, root studies, neutrons confirm, lab on a crystal and modeling fusion
The Department of Energy has awarded $60 million to a new solar fuels initiative – called the Liquid Sunlight Alliance (LiSA) – led by Caltech in close partnership with Berkeley Lab. LiSA will build on the foundational work of the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP).
An ORNL team developed CrossVis, an open-source, customizable visual analytics system that analyzes numerical, categorical and image-based data while providing multiple dynamic, coordinated views of these and other data types.
Scientists at Argonne and the University of Chicago have developed a method paving the way to using quantum computers to simulate realistic molecules and complex materials. They tested the method on a quantum simulator and IBM quantum computer.
Pioneering materials scientist James De Yoreo receives Distinguished Scientist Fellow award. The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science bestows one of its highest honors on PNNL materials scientist.
The LCLS-II upgrade project will increase the X-ray laser’s power by thousands of times, producing a million pulses per second compared to 120 per second today. Now, the first phase of the upgrade has come into operation, producing an X-ray beam for the first time using newly installed undulators. The full upgrade is due to be completed within the next two years.
Scientists built a machine learning model that can rapidly predict how atoms absorb x-rays for materials science research.
Scientists have completed an important and timely study of cloth masks. The study examined the filtration efficiency of fabrics and focused on aerosol particles in a range of sizes relevant to viral transmission through respiratory exposures. The best-performing masks used hybrid designs that include high thread-count cotton and electrostatic layers such as silk or polyester chiffon.
The National Science Foundation has awarded University of California San Diego researchers a six-year $18 million grant to fund a new Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC).
It’s called CHARM—the University of Delaware’s new Center for Hybrid, Active and Responsive Materials. It will drive fundamental materials science research and enable critical innovations in biomedicine, security, sensing and more.
A team used the Summit supercomputer to simulate transition metal systems—such as copper bound to molecules of nitrogen, dihydrogen, or water—and correctly predicted the amount of energy required to break apart dozens of molecular systems, paving the way for a greater understanding of these materials.
Scientists developed a new technique that uses intense X-ray pulses to measure how atoms move in a sheet of material one molecule thick. Scientists showed that movement of the atoms in a tungsten-selenium “blanket” layer caused the layer to stretch but not wrinkle. The research can help produce materials with new optical and electronic properties.
A team from the University of Washington used an infrared laser to cool a solid semiconductor by at least 20 degrees C, or 36 F, below room temperature, as they report in a paper published June 23 in Nature Communications.
When a material is subjected to a shock or blast wave, damage often forms internally through spall fracture, and research is needed to know how these damaged materials respond to subsequent shock waves. Recent experimentation on spall fracture in metals found that, in certain cases, there was an almost complete lack of damage with only a thin band of altered microstructure observed. In the Journal of Applied Physics, researchers narrowed down exactly why the expected damage was missing.
Humans have drawn technological inspiration from fish scales going back to ancient times: Romans, Egyptians, and other civilizations would dress their warriors in scale armor, providing both protection and mobility. Now, using advanced X-ray imaging techniques, Berkeley Lab scientists have characterized carp scales down to the nanoscale, enabling them to understand how the material is resistant to penetration while retaining flexibility.
According to Rajesh R. Naik , “The current COVID19 crisis provides opportunities for the materials research community to provide solutions to overcome some of the challenges posed by the pandemic in areas such as decontamination, diagnostics and personal protective equipment…
Using electron microscopes, Hwang—a materials scientist at Brookhaven Lab’s Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN)—characterizes the structure and chemistry of operating battery electrode materials.
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