Feature Channels: Materials Science

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The ruddy flakes of a rusted nail are a sure sign that an undesirable chemical reaction has occurred at the surface. Understanding how molecules and atoms behave with each other, especially at surfaces, is central to managing both desirable chemical reactions, such as catalysis, and undesirable reactions, like a nail’s corrosion. Yet the field of surface chemistry has been challenged for nearly 100 years to develop predictive theories for these reactions. Now there’s progress, thanks to some new approaches.

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ORNL story tips, November 2017: Fast-learning computing technique supports hurricane damage assessments; neutrons unlock liquid flow mystery; “puckering” 2D material creates tunable energy gap; window air conditioning prototype allows safe use of propane refrigerant; graphene nanoribbons become semiconductors through precise electrical contacts.

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Exploiting reversible solubility allows for direct, optical patterning of unprecedentedly small features.

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While the creation of a paper swan using origami may be intriguing, the idea of creating 3-D circuits based on similar design principles is simply mindboggling. Researchers at the University of Chicago have focused on large scale synthesis and device fabrication using ultra-thin materials, which has led to improvements in 2-D models and the introduction of 3-D vertically integrated devices. They will present the details of their circuit construction and its potential applications at the AVS 64th International Symposium & Exhibition.

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Polysilicon is the material most commonly used as a membrane for microphone devices today. But, in general, single-crystal and polycrystalline-silicon-based devices are brittle and prone to fractures that can cause interior defects during the fabrication processes. This has lead researchers to search for a replacement material. During the AVS 64th International Symposium & Exhibition, Oct. 29-Nov. 3, 2017, in Tampa, Florida, researchers from will present their work with a potential replacement material that shows promise for MEMS microphones: amorphous metallic glass.

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Scientists achieved thin films with structures virtually impossible via traditional methods.

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Would you want a spider web inside your ear? Probably not. But if you’re able to put aside the creepy factor, new research from Binghamton University, State University of New York shows that fine fibers like spider silk actually improve the quality of microphones for hearing aids.

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Glare-free cell phone screens, ultra-transparent windows, and more efficient solar cells—these are some of the applications that could be enabled by texturing glass surfaces with tiny nanoscale features that reduce surface reflections to nearly zero.

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Novel spin-polarized surface states may guide the search for materials that host Majorana fermions, unusual particles that act as their own antimatter, and could revolutionize quantum computers.

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Lawrence Livermore National Lab researchers, along with collaborators at Ames National Laboratory, Georgia Tech University and Oregon State University, have achieved a breakthrough in 3D printing one of the most common forms of marine grade stainless steel – a low-carbon type called 316L – that promises an unparalleled combination of high-strength and high-ductility properties for the ubiquitous alloy.

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The Molecular Foundry and aBeam Technologies bring mass fabrication to nano-optical devices.

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Among the diverse research studies being presented at this year’s 64th AVS International Symposium and Exhibition are two biomaterial interfaces sessions that feature some highly unusual applications of engineering. The first describes the use of stress forces -- more commonly employed to evaluate the failure mechanisms of materials and devices made from them -- to discover how barnacles stick to surfaces. The second explores the development of two novel mechanical systems, both smaller than the eye can see, for use with gas molecules: one to detect them with ultra-high sensitivity and the other to precisely measure their molecular weights.

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In a pair of papers published this month in Nature Communications and Physical Review Letters, a team of scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has come up with a set of rules for making new disordered materials, a process that had previously been driven by trial-and-error. They also found a way to incorporate fluorine, which makes the material both more stable and have higher capacity.

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In hybrid materials, “hot” electrons live longer, producing electricity, not heat, in solar cells.

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A collaborative group of researchers including Petr Kral, professor of chemistry at the University of Illinois at Chicago, describe a new technique for creating novel nanoporous materials with unique properties that can be used to filter molecules or light.

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Menlo Park, Calif. — Scientists from Stanford University and the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have captured the first atomic-level images of finger-like growths called dendrites that can pierce the barrier between battery compartments and trigger short circuits or fires. Dendrites and the problems they cause have been a stumbling block on the road to developing new types of batteries that store more energy so electric cars, cell phones, laptops and other devices can go longer between charges.

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Defects in liquid crystals act as guides in tiny oceans, directing particle traffic.

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In the body, cells move around to form organs during development; to heal wounds; and when they metastasize from cancerous tumors. A mechanical engineer at Washington University in St. Louis found that cells remember the properties they had in their first environment for several days after they move to another in a process called mechanical memory.

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Advances in materials science have improved the composition of materials used in photocathode production that can operate at visible wavelengths and produce a beam with reduced transverse electron momentum spread. Despite these advances, the surface roughness of the photocathode continues to limit beam properties. A research team created computer models to bridge the gap between theoretical and experimental studies to provide a better picture of the physics at the surface of the photocathode. The results are published this week in the Journal of Applied Physics.

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U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) scientists have determined the molecular structures of a highly specialized set of proteins that are used by a strain of E. coli bacteria to communicate and defend their turf.

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Built from the bottom up, nanoribbons can be semiconducting, enabling broad electronic applications.

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Alexander Chao, a professor emeritus of particle physics and astrophysics at Stanford University and the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, has been recognized with the 2018 Robert R. Wilson Prize for Achievement in the Physics of Particle Accelerators. Awarded by the American Physical Society (APS), the prize honors Chao’s contributions to our understanding of how to build, operate and improve complex, accelerator-based discovery devices; his service to the research community; and his engagement in the education of engineers and scientists in the field.

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Scientists reveal structural, chemical changes as nickel-cobalt particles donate electrons, vital for making better batteries, fuel cells.

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Wide metastable composition ranges are possible in alloys of semiconductors with different crystal structures.

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The U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory has discovered extreme “bounce,” or super-elastic shape-memory properties in a material that could be applied for use as an actuator in the harshest of conditions, such as outer space, and might be the first in a whole new class of shape memory materials.

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Imagine a tiny donut-shaped droplet, covered with wriggling worms. The worms are packed so tightly together that they locally line up, forming a nematic liquid crystal similar to those found in flat panel displays. In the journal Nature Physics, scientists are reporting on an examination of such an active nematic – but with flexible filaments and microscopic engines rather than worms.

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Scientists combine biology, nanotechnology into composites that light up upon chemical stimulation.

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Swirling soup of matter’s fundamental building blocks spins ten billion trillion times faster than the most powerful tornado, setting new record for “vorticity.”

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Graphene – a one-atom-thick layer of the stuff in pencils – is a better conductor than copper and is very promising for electronic devices, but with one catch: Electrons that move through it can’t be stopped. Until now, that is. Scientists at Rutgers University-New Brunswick have learned how to tame the unruly electrons in graphene, paving the way for the ultra-fast transport of electrons with low loss of energy in novel systems. Their study was published online in Nature Nanotechnology.

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Northwestern University’s Chad A. Mirkin received a prestigious 2017 Wilhelm Exner Medal at an award ceremony at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna on Oct. 19.

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New studies of behaviors of particles containing heavy quarks shed light into what the early universe looked like in its first microseconds.

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A research team from the National University of Singapore has recently invented a novel “converter” that can harness the speed and small size of plasmons for high frequency data processing and transmission in nanoelectronics.

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Inspired by a color changing mechanism found in cephalopods, like squid, cuttlefish and octopus, researchers at the University of New Hampshire have conceived a design for a unique sequential cell-opening mechanism that has many potential applications from drug delivery to color altering camouflage materials.

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A Berkeley Lab-led research team has discovered a surprising set of chemical reactions involving magnesium that degrade battery performance even before the battery can be charged up. The findings could steer the design of next-gen batteries.

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Shawn-Yu Lin, professor of physics, applied physics, and astronomy at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, has built a nanostructure whose crystal lattice bends light as it enters the material and directs it in a path parallel to the surface, known as “parallel to interface refraction.”

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A theoretical method to control grain boundaries in two-dimensional materials could result in desirable properties, such as increased electrical conductivity, improved mechanical properties, or magnetism.

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DOE Secretary Rick Perry awarded Argonne with nearly $4.7 million in projects as part of the DOE’s Office of Technology Transition’s Technology Commercialization Fund (TCF) in September.

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Researchers at Binghamton University, State University of New York have created a micro-scale biological solar cell that generates a higher power density for longer than any existing cell of its kind.

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This year’s SSRL/LCLS Annual Users' Meeting brought together nearly 400 researchers who conduct experiments at Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL) and the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), including 90 participants in the concurrent High-Power Laser workshop.The meeting was held at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory Sept. 27-29.

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Using first-principles-based simulations, researchers found that an overlooked BKT phase sustained by quasicontinuous symmetry emerges between the ferroelectric and paraelectric phases of ferroelectic ultrathin film,

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A new method that precisely measures the mysterious behavior and magnetic properties of electrons flowing across the surface of quantum materials could open a path to next-generation electronics. A team of scientists has developed an innovative microscopy technique to detect the spin of electrons in topological insulators, a new kind of quantum material that could be used in applications such as spintronics and quantum computing.

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Ohio-based Strangpresse has exclusively licensed additive manufacturing-related extruder technology from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory that can quickly print hundreds of pounds of polymer material.

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Argonne researchers have found a new way to produce solar fuels by developing “synthetic purple membranes.” These membranes involve an assembly of lipid nanodiscs, man-made proteins, and semiconducting nanoparticles that, when taken together, can transform sunlight into hydrogen fuel.

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A “cool flame” may sound contradictory, but it’s an important element of diesel combustion — one that, once properly understood, could enable better engine designs with higher efficiency and fewer emissions.

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A Cornell University engineering and physics team is using the octopus as inspiration for a method to morph flat surfaces into three-dimensional ones on demand. They have devised a method for precisely transforming stretchable 2-D objects into 3-D shapes. It involves the use of rigid mesh, laser cut in a way that, when attached to a stretchable material, would constrain the material to form targeted shapes when inflated.

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Berkeley Lab researchers contributed key algorithms which helped scientists achieve a goal first proposed more than 40 years ago – using angular correlations of X-ray snapshots from non-crystalline molecules to determine the 3D structure of important biological objects.

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The technology, shear thickening fluid, permeates fabrics and layers of material and actually gets stronger when it is struck with increasing force, making the material highly puncture and ballistic-resistant. The nanocomposite material, sometimes called "liquid armor," adds little weight to the fabric and does not reduce its flexibility - two critical features for a space suit. NASA recently provided a grant for its study and prototypes will be sent for testing on the International Space Station in November.

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Chemists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have demonstrate that they can repurpose DNA to create new substances with possible medical applications.

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Most manure just sits around. Anaerobic digesters take those piles and place them in large covered tanks and convert waste into an energy source. Chemical engineers from Michigan Tech examined the carbon footprint of anaerobic digestion.

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The same electrostatic charge that can make hair stand on end and attach balloons to clothing could be an efficient way to drive atomically thin electronic memory devices of the future, according to a new Berkeley Lab study. Scientists have found a way to reversibly change the atomic structure of a 2-D material by injecting it with electrons. The process uses far less energy than current methods for changing the configuration of a material's structure.