Phys.org June 14, 2018 An international team of researchers (Russia, Armenia, China) predicted new tungsten borides, some of which are promising hard materials that are expected to be stable in a wide range of conditions, according to the computed composition–temperature phase diagram. The new boron-rich compound WB5 is predicted to be superhard, with a Vickers hardness of 45 GPa, possess high fracture toughness of ∼4 MPa·m0.5, and thermodynamically stable in a wide range of temperatures at ambient pressure, and remains a high-performance material even at very high temperatures. Superhard substances have a broad scope of application in well drilling, machine […]
Category Archives: Advanced materials
In desert trials, next-generation water harvester delivers fresh water from air (w/video)
Eurekalert June 8, 2018 In 2017, researchers at UC Berkeley successfully field tested their newest prototype water harvester in the Arizona desert. It worked as designed, sucking water out of the air without any power other than sunlight. They demonstrated that the harvester should be easy to scale up by simply adding more of the water absorber, a highly porous MOF. A team of researchers in the US (UC Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) has created a new MOF based on aluminum, called MOF-303, that is at least 150 times cheaper and captures twice as much water in lab tests. This […]
Evidence for a new property of quantum matter revealed
Science Daily June 12, 2018 Quantum spin liquids do not achieve an ordered magnetic state, even at the lowest temperatures. An international team of researchers (USA – Johns Hopkins University, Georgia Institute of Technology, NSF, Argonne National Laboratory, Russia) studied an organic compound called k-(BEDT-TTF)2Hg(SCN)2 Br that may be both a spin liquid and a dipole liquid. They observed that in this quantum material even at super-cold temperatures, electrical dipoles are still present and fluctuate according to the laws of quantum mechanics. The discovery has potential application in quantum computing and information storage… read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE
MOF material offers selective, reversible and repeatable capture of toxic atmospheric gas
Science Daily June 11, 2018 An international team of researchers (UK, USA – Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Russia, France, China) has developed an MOF, denoted as MFM-300(Al), which exhibits reversible, selective capture of nitrogen dioxide at ambient pressures and temperatures — at low concentrations — in the presence of moisture, sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide. Despite the highly reactive nature of nitrogen dioxide, the MFM-300(Al) material proved extremely robust, demonstrating the capability to be fully regenerated, or degassed, multiple times without loss of crystallinity or porosity. This work may pave the way for the development of future capture and conversion technologies… […]
Novel insulators with conducting edges
Eurekalert June 1, 2018 An international team of researchers (Switzerland, Spain, USA – Princeton University, Germany, France) has predicted a new class of topological insulators, called “higher-order topological insulators”, that have conducting properties on the edges of crystals rather than on their surface. The conducting edges are extraordinarily robust. If an imperfection gets in the way of the current, it simply flows around the impurity, if the crystal breaks, the new edges automatically conduct current and in theory electricity can be conducted without any dissipation. They have proposed tin telluride as the first compound to show these novel properties. The […]
Plastic crystals hold key to record-breaking energy transport
Nanowerk May 29, 2018 Researchers in the UK developed a new way to make highly ordered crystalline semiconducting structures using polymers. The distance that the photo-exited states travelled reached distances of 200 nanometres – 20 times further than was previously possible. 200 nanometres is especially significant because it is greater than the thickness of material needed to completely absorb ambient light, making these polymers more suitable as “light harvesters” for solar cells and photodetectors… read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Researchers develop electronic skins that wirelessly activate fully soft robots
Phys.org June 01, 2018 Skin-like electronic system proposed by researchers in South Korea consists of two-part electronic skins (e-skins) that are designed to perform wireless inter-skin communication for untethered, reversible assembly of driving capability. The physical design of each e-skin features minimized inherent hardness in terms of thickness, weight, and fragmented circuit configuration. The e-skin pair can be softly integrated into separate soft body frames (robot and human), wirelessly interact with each other, and then activate and control the robot. The design is highly compact and shows that the embedded e-skin can equally share the fine soft motions of the […]
An elastic fiber filled with electrodes set to revolutionize smart clothes
Science Daily May 25, 2018 Using thermal drawing researchers in Switzerland created hundreds‐of‐meters long multimaterial optical and electronic fibers and devices that can sustain up to 500% elastic deformation before recovering their initial shape. The fibers can detect even the slightest pressure and strain that makes them perfect for applications in smart clothing and prostheses, and for creating artificial nerves for robots… read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Scientists discover new magnetic element
Phys.org May 24, s018 A team of researchers in the US (University of Minnesota, University of Wisconsin, industry) has demonstrated single element ferromagnetism in ruthenium. They observed a saturation magnetization of 148 and 160 emu cm−3 at room temperature and 10 K, respectively. Increasing thickness results in strain relaxation, and thus diluting the magnetization. Anomalous Hall measurements are used to confirm its ferromagnetic behavior. The discovery could be used to improve sensors, devices in the computer memory and logic industry, or other devices using magnetic materials… read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Dielectric metamaterial is dynamically tuned by light
Nanowerk May 1, 2018 A team of researchers in the US (Duke University, UC San Diego) has developed a technology where each grid location of a metamaterial contains a photodoped silicon cylinder making it conductive. The size of the cylinders dictates what frequencies of light they can interact with, while the angle of the photodoping affects how they manipulate the electromagnetic waves. For demonstration they sized the cylinder to interact with terahertz waves. According to the researchers controlling terahertz waves could improve broadband communications between satellites, and lead to security technology. The approach could also be adapted to other bands […]