In a study published Sept. 20 in Nature, UChicago and Cornell University researchers describe an innovative method to make stacks of semiconductors just a few atoms thick. The technique offers scientists and engineers a simple, cost-effective method to make thin, uniform layers of these materials, which could expand capabilities for devices from solar cells to cell phones.
Lawrence Livermore National Lab will be part of a multi-lab effort to apply high-performance computing to US-based industry’s discovery, design, and development of materials for severe environments under a new initiative announced by the Department of Energy (DOE) on Sept. 19.
Researchers in the United States and Germany have just discovered a previously overlooked part of protein molecules that could be key to how proteins interact with each other inside living cells to carry out specialized functions.
UAB will be a fundamental player in the Alabama jurisdiction of the program, which has just five awardees, with primary goals of improving scientific research and building workforce capacity.
Researchers at Columbia Engineering have developed a 3D-printable synthetic soft muscle that can lift 1,000 times its own weight. The muscle has intrinsic expansion ability and, unlike previous artificial muscles, it does not require an external compressor or high voltage equipment, signaling a breakthrough in the creation of soft robots that can move independently. The new material also has a strain density – an ability to expand – that is 15 times larger than natural muscle.
Berkeley Lab scientists have developed a new electrocatalyst that can directly convert carbon dioxide into multicarbon fuels and alcohols using record-low inputs of energy. The work is the latest in a round of studies coming out of Berkeley Lab tackling the challenge of a creating a clean chemical manufacturing system that can put carbon dioxide to good use.
Berkeley Lab scientists have harnessed the power of photosynthesis to convert carbon dioxide into fuels and alcohols at efficiencies far greater than plants. The achievement marks a significant advance in the effort to move toward sustainable sources of fuel.
Playdough and Legos are among the most popular childhood building blocks. But what could you use if you wanted to create something really small—a structure less than the width of a human hair? It turns out, a team of chemists has found, this can be achieved by creating particles that have both playdough and Lego traits.
A physics professor at Missouri University of Science and Technology will lead a four-year effort to spur research, development and commercial adoption of a new class of oxide semiconductors that outperform silicon-based transistors and could lead to new uses for flexible displays.
PNNL researchers have measured the forces that cause certain crystals to assemble, revealing competing factors that researchers might be able to control. The work has a variety of implications in both discovery and applied science. In addition to providing insights into the formation of minerals and semiconductor nanomaterials, it might also help scientists understand soil as it expands and contracts through wetting and drying cycles.
A new chemical principle discovered by scientists at Indiana University has the potential to revolutionize the creation of specially engineered molecules whose uses include the reduction of nuclear waste and the extraction of chemical pollutants from water and soil.
Argonne National Laboratory announces the appointment of Santanu Chaudhuri, Ph.D., as the Director of the Laboratory’s new Manufacturing Science and Engineering initiative, effective Sept. 14, 2017
A new Berkeley Lab-led study provides insight into how an ultrathin coating can enhance the performance of graphene-wrapped nanocrystals for hydrogen storage applications.
Using cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), Berkeley Lab scientists have obtained 3-D models of a human transcription factor at near-atomic resolutions. The protein complex is critical to gene expression and DNA repair, and could aid research in targeted drug development.
Researchers are rolling out a new manufacturing process and chip design for silicon carbide (SiC) power devices, which can be used to more efficiently regulate power in electronics. The process was developed to make it easier for companies to enter the SiC marketplace and develop new products.
Recent experiments conducted on the DIII-D National Fusion Facility suggest that up to 40 percent of high-energy particles are lost during tokamak fusion reactions because of Alfvén waves.
Today’s rechargeable lithium-ion batteries are good, but they could be much better in the future.
Suhas Kumar, a postdoctoral researcher at Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), wants to develop next-generation information storage devices and better computers. His particular interest is a new type of electronic device, called a memristor, that could make future computer memories faster, more durable and more energy efficient than today’s flash memory.
A team of researchers from the National University of Singapore has successfully designed a novel organic material of superior electrical conductivity and energy retention capability for use in battery applications. This invention paves the way for the development of ultra-stable, high capacity and environmental friendly rechargeable batteries.
University of Delaware researchers have invented a more efficient process for extracting sugars from wood chips, corn cobs and other organic waste. This biorenewable feedstock could serve as a cheaper, sustainable substitute for petroleum used to make tons of consumer goods annually.
A new rare-earth magnet recycling process developed by researchers at the Critical Materials Institute (CMI) dissolves magnets in an acid-free solution and recovers high purity rare earth elements.
A group of researchers from Queen’s University Belfast have discovered a stretchy miracle material that could be used to create highly resistant smart devices and scratch-proof paint for cars.
Researchers from the University of California, Irvine and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory have reported the first observation of sea level “fingerprints,” tell-tale differences in sea level rise around the world in response to changes in continental water and ice sheet mass. The team’s findings were published today in the American Geophysical Union journal Geophysical Research Letters.
Argonne scientists’ first glimpse inside additive manufacturing process yields important advancements
At an international science conference hosted recently in Santa Fe, N.M., Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists Bruce Carlsten, Dinh Nguyen and Richard Sheffield were awarded the 2017 Free-Electron Laser (FEL) Prize.
Argonne opens call for second cohort of Chain Reaction Innovations. Applications will be accepted from Sept. 5 through Oct. 13.
Van der Waals force, which that enables tiny crystals to grow, could be used to design new materials.
Researchers examining the flow of electricity through semiconductors have uncovered another reason these materials seem to lose their ability to carry a charge as they become more densely “doped.”
ORNL story tips: 3D printing process repairs and strengthens Cummins engine without recasting parts. Unoccupied research house serves as test bed for connected neighborhood project. Atomic force microscopy shows adding chloride to photovoltaic materials enhances ionic conduction. Researchers design innovative home energy router prototype. ORNL hosts molten salt reactor workshop.
Berkeley Lab scientists have discovered the details of an unconventional coupling between a bacterial protein and a mineral that allows the bacterium to breathe when oxygen is not available.
Argonne scientists participating in Lab Accelerator will present on their emerging technologies Sept. 14. The top presenter will go on to a national Lab Accelerator contest.
Graphene’s remarkable electronic properties have surprised scientists for years. But electrons move through it too easily to use it in everyday electronics. Scientists are researching a variety of ways to direct its electron traffic: creating nanoribbons of it, stretching it, using it with boron nitride, and even making “artificial atoms” in it.
A simple, sturdy graphene-based hybrid desalination membrane can provide clean water for agriculture and possibly human consumption.
Rutgers University-New Brunswick engineers have discovered a simple, economical way to make a nano-sized device that can match the friendly neighborhood Avenger, on a much smaller scale. Their creation weighs 1.6 milligrams (about as much as five poppy seeds) and can lift 265 milligrams (the weight of about 825 poppy seeds) hundreds of times in a row. Its strength comes from a process of inserting and removing ions between very thin sheets of molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), an inorganic crystalline mineral compound. It’s a new type of actuator – devices that work like muscles and convert electrical energy to mechanical energy.
The quest for solar cell materials that are inexpensive, stable, and efficient leads to a breakthrough in thin film organic-inorganic perovskites.
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory were able to successfully manipulate the electronic structure of graphene, which may enable the fabrication of graphene transistors-- faster and more reliable than existing silicon-based transistors.
Eight Los Alamos National Laboratory innovations were selected as finalists for the 2017 R&D 100 Awards, which honor the top 100 proven technological advances of the past year as determined by a panel selected by R&D Magazine.
A new way of operating the powerful X-ray laser at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory has enabled researchers to detect and measure fluctuations in magnetic structures being considered for new data storage and computing technologies.
The American Physical Society has recognized Blair Ratcliff, an emeritus physicist at SLAC and Stanford University, with the 2017 Division of Particles and Fields Instrumentation Award “for the development of novel detectors exploiting Cherenkov radiation” – an advance that greatly enhanced BABAR’s capabilities and influenced the design of other experiments.
A science team at Berkeley Lab has precisely measured some previously obscured properties of a 2-D semiconducting material known as moly sulfide, which opens up a new avenue to applications. “That provides very important guidance to all of the optoelectronic device engineers. They need to know what the band gap is” in orderly to properly connect the 2-D material with other materials and components in a device, Yao said. Obtaining the direct band gap measurement is challenged by the so-called “exciton effect” in 2-D materials that is produced by a strong pairing between electrons and electron “holes” – vacant positions around an atom where an electron can exist. The strength of this effect can mask measurements of the band gap. Nicholas Borys, a project scientist at Berkeley Lab’s Molecular Foundry who also participated in the study, said the study also resolves how to tune optical and electronic properties in a 2-D material. “The real power of our technique, and an importa
Feature describes PPPL contribution to resumption of research on the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator in Germany.
Researchers at Columbia Engineering have developed a simple, low-cost, and environmentally sound method for fabricating a highly-efficient selective solar absorber (SSA) to convert sunlight into heat for energy-related applications. The team used a “dip and dry” approach whereby strips coated with a reactive metal are dipped into a solution containing ions of a less reactive metal to create plasmonic-nanoparticle-coated foils that perform as well or better than existing SSAs, regardless of the sun’s angle.
With this breakthrough, the high-performance polymer now could theoretically be used in any shape, size, or structure. And not just within the aerospace industry. The same material can be found in scores of electronic devices, including cell phones and televisions.
The results of the fifth and latest Collaborative Materials Exercise of the Nuclear Forensics International Technical Working Group, a global network of nuclear forensics experts, will be discussed at the American Chemical Society’s national meeting in Washington D.C. on August. 24.
Using plants and trees to make products such as paper or ethanol leaves behind a residue called lignin, a component of plant cell walls. That leftover lignin isn’t good for much and often gets burned or tossed into landfills. Now, researchers report transforming lignin into carbon fiber to produce a lower-cost material strong enough to build car or aircraft parts.
New 41.4-Tesla Instrument Paves Way for Breakthroughs in Physics and Materials Research
Magnesium — the lightest of all structural metals — has a lot going for it in the quest to make ever lighter cars and trucks that go farther on a tank of fuel or battery charge.Magnesium is 75 percent lighter than steel, 33 percent lighter than aluminum and is the fourth most common element on earth behind iron, silicon and oxygen.
Plutonium has more verified and accessible oxidation states than any other actinide element, an important insight for energy and security applications.
Easily manufactured, rigid membranes with ultra-small pores provides to be ultra-selective in separating chemicals.
Scientists have pinpointed how a tiny protein seems to make the deadly Ebola virus particularly contagious.
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