High-quality nanopowders made of refractory ceramics are a rare and very expensive material. All known methods of their manufacturing face the same problems – scanty quantities, extensive variety of particle sizes and expensive production. Researchers from the town of Tomsk have invented and manufactured a device to produce a choice selection of particles – all particles are equal to the required size and inexpensive. The project has been funded by two foundations – the Russian Foundation for Basic R
A new class of fibers
Strong and versatile carbon nanotubes are finding new applications in improving conventional polymer-based fibers and films. For example, composite fibers made from single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) and polyacrylonitrile – a carbon fiber precursor – are stronger, stiffer and shrink less than standard fibers.
Nanotube-reinforced composites could ultimately provide the foundation for a new class of strong and lightweight fibers with properties such a
Innovative polymer chemistry employed
Carnegie Mellon University scientists have developed an attractive way to make discrete carbon nanoparticles for electrical components used in industry and research. This method, which employs polyacrylonitrile (PAN) as a nanoparticle precursor, is being presented by Chuanbing Tang, a Carnegie Mellon graduate student, on Sunday, March 28, at the 227th annual meeting of the American Chemical Society in Anaheim, Calif. (POLY69, Garden A). The resear
In what may sound like a project from a high school science fair, scientists are using a household humidifier to create porous spheres a hundred times smaller than a red blood cell. The technique is a new and inexpensive way to do chemistry using sound waves, the researchers say.
In the home, ultrasonic humidifiers are used to raise humidity, reduce static electricity and ease discomfort from the common cold or cough. In the lab, chemists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign ar
Russian researchers produce crystals of various colors and shades based on yttrium, aluminium and oxygen. Outwardly, they practically do not differ from well-known semiprecious garnet stones. However, artificially produced crystals possess higher solidity, and the color variety is much wider than that of their natural “relatives”.
Sometimes a minor thing is sufficient to change the situation beyond recognition. That is particularly important in chemistry, especially in chemistry of crystals.
Like spiders spinning webs, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are creating complex, three-dimensional structures with micron-size features using a robotic deposition process called direct-write assembly.
As reported in the March 25 issue of the journal Nature, Jennifer Lewis and her research team have developed novel inks that readily flow through micro-capillary nozzles and then rapidly solidify to retain their shape. Patterning such fine structures could be use
The development of new types of artificial materials, known as “metamaterials” and with electromagnetic properties not found in nature, is the aim of the Metamorphose Excellence European Network, of which the Public University of Navarre forms part, together with twenty-one other research institutions from 13 European countries.
Perfect plane lenses
Metamaterials are electromagnetic and multifunctional artificial materials, created in order to comply with certain specificati
Researchers at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, the Materials Science Institute of Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC), and various German and North American institutions have developed a simple method for measuring the maximum current that coated superconductors can carry. The material will, most likely, be used to manufacture the superconductor wires of the future. The research has been published in the journal, Applied Physics Letters.
Electric currents pass through superconductor materials wi
Wires, tubes and brushes make it possible to build and maintain the machines and devices we use on a daily basis. Now, with help from a surprising source, these same building blocks can easily be created on a scale 10,000 times smaller than the period at the end of this sentence.
Researchers at Argonne have figured out the basics of using electrochemistry to control the architecture of nanocrystals – small structures with dimensions in billionths of meters. Their findings, published in the
Researchers Tune the Electronic Properties of Individual C60 Molecules
A team led by Michael Crommie, a staff scientist in Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Materials Sciences Division and a professor of physics at the University of California at Berkeley, has used a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) to attach individual potassium atoms to isolated carbon-60 molecules.
By adding potassium atoms to familiar soccer-ball-shaped “buckyballs,” Crommie and his cowork
While textile flax produced in France is exported all over the world for the production of high-quality linen clothes and sheets, these natural fibres are now being re-discovered by French manufacturers and put to unexpected and exciting uses.
Increasingly, flax is being used by automotive equipment manufacturers as a source of raw material that is environmentally friendly and less dangerous — in the event of a vehicle crashing — when used for interior panels in cars. Hemp fibres are also e
A team of physicists and engineers from the University of California, San Diego, the University of California, Los Angeles and Imperial College, London have developed a class of materials that respond magnetically to terahertz radiation, a fundamental finding relevant to many exciting applications in areas including guidance in zero visibility weather conditions, security and biomedical imaging and quality control.
The materials described in the study to be published in the March 5th issue o
High technology is now at our fingertips – literally. A new type of disposable glove emits chlorine dioxide when exposed to light or moisture, killing potentially harmful microbes and making it ideal for use among health care and food workers, according to a study in the March 15 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases, now available online.
The vinyl or polyethylene gloves contain microspheres that release chlorine dioxide, a water-soluble gas used to disinfect drinking water and processed f
A team of American and British scientists has demonstrated an artificially made material that can provide a magnetic response to Terahertz frequency radiation, bringing the realisation and development of novel ‘T-ray’ devices a step closer.
The advance, reported in the journal Science (5 March), suggests many applications in biological and security imaging, biomolecular fingerprinting, remote sensing and guidance in zero visibility weather conditions, say the authors.
Theorist John
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have devised a new method for aligning isolated single wall carbon nanotubes and, in the process, have created a new kind of material with liquid crystal-like properties, which they call nematic nanotube gels. The gels could potentially serve as sensors in complex fluids, where changes in local chemical environment, such as acidity or solvent quality, can lead to visible changes in the gel shape. The researchers describe their findings in the current i
High-quality nanopowders made of refractory ceramics are a rare and very expensive material. All known methods of their manufacturing face the same problems – scanty quantities, extensive variety of particle sizes and expensive production. Researchers from the town of Tomsk have invented and manufactured a device to produce a choice selection of particles – all particles are equal to the required size and inexpensive. The project has been funded by two foundations – the Russian Foundation for Basic R
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