Science Daily June 9, 2023 Researchers in South Korea investigated the effects of an azide photocrosslinker’s molecular length and structure on the microstructural, electrical features, and stretchability of photocrosslinked conjugated polymer films. For a systematic comparison, they synthesized a series of nitrene-induced photocrosslinkers (n-NIPSs) with different numbers of ethylene glycol repeating units (n = 1, 4, 8, 13) that bridge two tetrafluoro-aryl azide end groups. Two semicrystalline conjugated polymers and two nearly amorphous conjugated polymers were co-processed with n-NIPSs and crosslinked by brief exposure to UV light. They found that among the synthesized n-NIPSs, the shortest one (1-NIPS) is the […]
Breakthrough: Scientists develop artificial molecules that behave like real ones
Phys.org June 8, 2023 Researchers in the Netherlands demonstrated a solid-state quantum simulator emulating molecular orbitals, based solely on positioning individual cesium atoms on an indium antimonide surface. Using scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy, combined with ab initio calculations, they showed that artificial atoms could be made from localized states created from patterned cesium rings. The artificial atoms served as building blocks to realize artificial molecular structures with different orbital symmetries. The corresponding molecular orbitals allowed them to simulate two-dimensional structures reminiscent of well-known organic molecules. This system serves as a versatile platform with which to emulate quantum chemistry on […]
China Digging 10,000 Meter Superdeep Hole
Next Big Future June 11, 2023 China has been exploring the deep Earth for many years. China has started drilling a 6.2 mile (10,000 meters) superdeep borehole into the Earth’s crust in China’s large oil-bearing basin – the Tarim Basin of northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. In May 2023 they completed building a 12,000-tonne offshore drilling rig to mine the geological reserves of natural gas. In the deep hole drilling will penetrate over 10 continental strata or layers of rock formation, go beyond the Cretaceous system, a series of layered rocks below the oldest tertiary deposits and above the […]
For experimental physicists, quantum frustration leads to fundamental discovery
Phys.org June 14, 2023 A typical frustrated system is correlated bosons on moat bands, which could host topological orders with long-range quantum entanglement. However, the realization of moat-band physics is still challenging. Researchers at UMass, Amherst explored moat-band phenomena in shallowly inverted InAs/GaSb quantum wells, where they observed an unconventional time-reversal-symmetry breaking excitonic ground state under imbalanced electron and hole densities. They found a large bulk gap encompassing a broad range of density imbalances at zero magnetic field (B), accompanied by edge channels that resemble helical transport. Under an increasing perpendicular B, the bulk gap persisted, and an anomalous plateau […]
‘Heat highways’ could keep electronics cool
Science Daily June 6, 2023 Researchers in China constructed uniaxial-polyvinyl alcohol/nanodiamond (U-PVA/ND) and coaxial-polyvinyl alcohol/nanodiamond (C-PVA/ND) composite fiber films with different microscopic morphologies by uniaxial and coaxial electrospinning. The results showed that the thermal conductivities of U-PVA/ND and C-PVA/ND composite fibers with 60 wt % ND content are 71.3 and 85.3 W m–1 K–1, respectively, which were 171.2 and 205.1 times greater than that of the pure PVA fiber film. The maximum thermal decomposition temperature (Tmax) and volume resistivity of the C-PVA/ND composite fiber film were 364.3 °C and 2.29 × 1015 Ω·cm, respectively, demonstrating the excellent thermal stability and […]
Liquid metal sticks to surfaces without a binding agent
Science Daily June 9, 2023 Origami’s performance is limited by the properties of the constituent materials, including long-term bending, electrical, and thermal conductivity. Researchers in China reported a new method for directly adhering liquid metal onto non-wetting substrates on a large scale, allowing for the regulation of the mechanical and electrical properties of the enhanced paper by controlling the applied force during fabrication. The mechanism of adhesion between different liquid metals (eGaIn and BiInSn) and non-wetting substrates through force was explained. Multifunctional origami structures based on the enhanced paper could switch between several deformation modes and include a shape memory […]
Megawatt electrical motor designed by MIT engineers could help electrify aviation
MIT News June 8, 2023 To electrify larger, heavier jets, such as commercial airliners, MIT engineers are creating a 1-megawatt motor. The team designed and tested the major components of the motor. Through detailed computations they showed that the coupled components can work to generate one megawatt of power, at a weight and size competitive with current small aeroengines. As designed, the MIT electric motor and power electronics are each about the size of a checked suitcase weighing less than an adult passenger. The motor’s main components are a high-speed rotor, lined with an array of magnets with varying orientation […]
Multifunctional self-healing liquid metal hydrogel developed for human-computer interaction
Phys.org June 8, 2023 Researchers in China used gallium indium alloy (EGaIn) to initiate the polymerization and simultaneously serve as flexible fillers to construct a super-stretchable and self-healing liquid metal/polyvinyl alcohol/p(acrylamide-co-octadecyl methacrylate) (liquid metal/PVA/P(AAm-co-SMA)) double network hydrogel (LM hydrogel). These together with the ionic coordination and hydrogen bonds between polymer networks (multiple physical cross-links) made LM hydrogel super-stretchable, tough, notch resistant, and self-healing. The LM hydrogel exhibited sensitive strain sensing behavior, allowing human–computer interaction to achieve motion recognition and health monitoring because of the photothermal effect and low infrared emissivity of EGaIn. The LM hydrogel showed potential in infrared camouflage. […]
New material transforms light, creating new possibilities for sensors
Phys.org June 12, 2023 Hybrid structures formed between organic molecules and inorganic quantum dots can accomplish unique photophysical transformations by taking advantage of their disparate properties. However ,the electronic coupling is typically weak, leading photoexcited charge carriers to spatially localize to the dot or to a molecule at its surface. A team of researchers in the US (University of Utah, University of Colorado, UC Riverside, UT Austin) has shown that by converting a chemical linker that covalently binds anthracene molecules to silicon quantum dots from a carbon–carbon single bond to a double bond, they accessed a strong coupling regime where […]
New technique in error-prone quantum computing makes classical computers sweat
Phys.org June 14, 2023 The widely accepted solution to noise in quantum computing is the implementation of fault-tolerant quantum circuits, which is out of reach for current processors. A team of researchers in the US (IBM -Yorktown Heights, NY, UC Berkeley) conducted experiments on a noisy 127-qubit processor and demonstrated the measurement of accurate expectation values for circuit volumes at a scale beyond brute-force classical computation. According to the researchers this represents evidence for the utility of quantum computing in a pre-fault-tolerant era. They established the accuracy of the measured expectation values by comparing them with the output of exactly […]