Material Science

Sensors to detect viruses, explosives or drugs often use a technique called surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) in which light wavelengths from a chemical or biological species adsorbed on metal nanostructures are detected and mapped to the identity of the species. In SERS, detection efficiency depends on the surface morphology of the nanostructure. Now, scientists have…

by Georgia Institute of Technology For electric vehicles (EVs) to become mainstream, they need cost-effective, safer, longer-lasting batteries that won’t explode during use or harm the environment. Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology may have found a promising alternative to conventional lithium-ion batteries made from a common material: rubber. Elastomers, or synthetic rubbers, are…

ELCRES HTV150 film, from SABIC and Shin-Etsu Polymer Co., is the first engineering thermoplastic high-voltage, high-temperature film for DC link power capacitors capable of high energy densities over long periods of time without significant current leakage or charge loss. The film exhibits stable performance and offers excellent handling through metallization and capacitor building processes. ELCRES…

Because of their excessive size, weight, power, cost and environmental sensitivity, continuous wave deep ultraviolet lasers have long been exclusively laboratory devices. The Model 261, from UVC Photonics, is an entirely new approach to deep ultraviolet lasers. Several years of development has resulted in a rugged, compact and low-cost module suitable for integration into fixed,…

By Markus Buehler, McAfee Professor of Engineering at MIT When we talk about advances in materials science, the focus is typically on the materials themselves: how strong we can make this fabric, how light we can make the construction materials, how cheap we can manufacture better products than we have now. But the benefits of…

PPG has pioneered dielectric powder for electric vehicles to enhance their safety. ENVIROCRON Extreme Protection Thermally Conductive Dielectric Powder Coating is engineered to provide thermal conductivity in a dielectric material to enhance safety and performance. Used instead of film and/or tape solutions, this product supports high throughput and automated application. ENVIROCRON enables electric vehicle manufacturers…

Invisibility devices may soon no longer be the stuff of science fiction. A new study published in the De Gruyter journal Nanophotonics by lead authors Huanyang Chen at Xiamen University, China, and Qiaoliang Bao, suggests the use of the material Molybdenum Trioxide (α-MoO3) to replace expensive and difficult to produce metamaterials in the emerging technology…

By Karen McNulty Walsh and Stephanie Kossman, Brookhaven National Laboratory Research at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory spans scales from the cosmic to subatomic, advancing our understanding of the world around and within us. Looking for discoveries that spark transformational technologies? Brookhaven has those, too! Here’s the 2021 recap of important…

Guest editorial from Permali, a material solutions company specializing in manufacture, design and qualification of composite and PU material solutions for the defense, aerospace, health, rail, automotive and many other engineering sectors that require compliance with complex regulatory frameworks. There is growing importance in the ways industries implement circular economy models at scale, not only…

As part of its 2030 Sustainability Goals, DuPont launched a new portfolio of sustainable acetal homopolymer grades, with the brand name of Delrin Renewable Attributed (RA), from E.I. DuPont de Nemours (Mobility & Materials). Delrin Renewable Attributed base polymer is produced from 100% bio-feedstock from second generation waste sources (not in competition with food or…

Mitsubishi Chemical Methacrylates and partner, Agilyx Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Agilyx AS and a pioneer in the chemical recycling of post-use plastics, announced the successful results of a full-scale production trial for polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA; commonly called acrylic) depolymerization at Agilyx’s facility in Tigard, Oregon. The full-scale trial, conducted in August 2021, returned…

Corning Guardiant is an antimicrobial additive that can be dosed into paints and coatings. Testing performed at the University of Arizona’s microbiology lab show that coatings containing Corning Guardiant can kill 99.9% of germs on coated surfaces, including the virus that causes COVID-19 within two hours. Guardiant uses Corning’s expertise in glass ceramic technology, allowing…

By Dr. Wesley De Boever, Product Marketing Manager, TESCAN New developments in time-resolved micro-CT allow researchers to study material behaviors in situ as the materials respond dynamically to environmental influences. Dynamic micro-CT, which acquires data continuously, is a significant evolution in micro-CT technology, enabling scientists to capture data from unpredictable events that may be missed…

By Julie Fornaciari, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Titanium is strong and lightweight, boasting the highest strength to weight ratio of any structural metal. But processing it while maintaining a good balance of strength and ductility – the ability of a metal to be drawn out without breaking – is challenging and expensive. As a result,…

DuPont celebrated the inauguration of its new medical elastomers mixers at the Healthcare Industries Materials Site (HIMS) in Hemlock, Mich., with a formal ribbon-cutting ceremony. The investment in the new mixers responds to increased supply needs from DuPont Liveo Healthcare Solutions customers. The capacity expansion will: Expand in-house medical-grade silicone elastomer (Liquid Silicone Rubber and…

Materials and mechanical scientists are using machine learning to rapidly vet combinations of elements that could be used in next-generation environmental barrier coatings needed to protect vehicles traveling in the extreme conditions of aerospace and space environments. The project, led by researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, is supported by the National Science Foundation. Environmental barrier…

From Argonne National Laboratory  How do we make battery recycling cost effective? Scientists at the ReCell Center have taken another step towards that goal. Lithium-ion batteries are the engines of our technological present and future. They power portable electronics, such as smartphones and laptops and electric vehicles (EVs), which are growing in popularity. But the…

From Brookhaven National Laboratory A multidisciplinary team of scientists has used the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II), a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User facility located at the DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, to investigate how high-temperature molten salts corrode metal alloys. The group found a novel approach for using molten salts…

From Argonne National Laboratory By confining the transport of electrons and ions in a patterned thin film, scientists find a way to potentially enhance material properties for design of next-generation electronics. Like ripples in a pond, electrons travel like waves through materials, and when they collide and interact, they can give rise to new and…

Creator and supplier of realistic artificial green walls, Vistafolia, has launched a collaboration with the University of Surrey to create a new base polymer, the material that their artificial plants are made from, using renewable sources, while maintaining the established safety and design standards of its original product. Co-funded by Innovate U.K., as part of…

A team led by Tania Betancourt, an associate professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Texas State University, has received a six-year National Science Foundation (NSF) Partnerships for Research and Education in Materials (PREM) grant of nearly $4 million to establish the Center for Intelligent Materials Assembly (CIMA). The PREM CIMA is a…

Accurate predictive simulations of the electrochemical reactions that power solar fuel generators, fuel cells and batteries could advance these technologies through improved material design, and by preventing detrimental electrochemical processes, such as corrosion. However, electrochemical reactions are so complex that current computational tools can only model a fraction of all relevant factors at one time…

Researchers at Art-Science production company, Ohme, in Brussels, have created a choreographed audio-visual performance, ‘Tales of Entropy’, following the physical changes of organic materials as temperature changes (from crystal, to liquid crystal, to liquid), using Linkam temperature controlled stages. Founded in 2017 by a team of engineers and culture professionals, Ohme is an organization developing…

By Theresa Duque, Berkeley Lab Crystallization is one of the most fundamental processes found in nature – and it’s what gives minerals, gems, metals and even proteins their structure. In the past couple of decades, scientists have tried to uncover how natural crystals self-assemble and grow – and their pioneering work has led to some…

In a new study, researchers from the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST) in Korea investigated the transformation dynamics induced by an electric field in mixed-phase lanthanum-doped bismuth ferrite (BLFO) epitaxial thin films. They observed a connection between the presence of S/Stilt phases in BLFO film and their high piezoelectricity. These findings can help…