Scientists at UMass Amherst can now accurately predict how double-gyroid networks form. Polymer scientists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst recently announced in the journal Nature Communications that they have solved a longstanding mystery surrounding a nanoscale structure, formed by collections of molecules, called a double-gyroid. This shape is one of the most desirable for materials scientists, and has a wide range of applications; but, until now, a predictable understanding of how these shapes form has eluded researchers. “There’s a…
3D printing leads to fabricating a shape memory alloy with increased superelasticity. Laser powder bed fusion, a 3D-printing technique, offers potential in the manufacturing industry, particularly when fabricating nickel-titanium shape memory alloys with complex geometries. Although this manufacturing technique is attractive for applications in the biomedical and aerospace fields, it has rarely showcased the superelasticity required for specific applications using nickel-titanium shape memory alloys. Defects generated and changes imposed onto the material during the 3D-printing process prevented the superelasticity from…
Physicist at TU Graz Develops Multisensory Hybrid Material. The “smart skin” developed by Anna Maria Coclite is very similar to human skin. It senses pressure, humidity and temperature simultaneously and produces electronic signals. More sensitive robots or more intelligent prostheses are thus conceivable. The skin is the largest sensory organ and at the same time the protective coat of the human being. It “feels” several sensory inputs at the same time and reports information about humidity, temperature and pressure to…
Study describes new mechanism for lowering thermal conductivity to aid search for materials that convert heat to electricity or electricity to heat. In a world of materials that normally expand upon heating, one that shrinks along one 3D axis while expanding along another stands out. That’s especially true when the unusual shrinkage is linked to a property important for thermoelectric devices, which convert heat to electricity or electricity to heat. In a paper just published in the journal Advanced Materials, a…
Simple microstructures that bend, twist and perform stroke-like motions could be used for soft robotics, medical devices and more. For years, scientists have been attempting to engineer tiny, artificial cilia for miniature robotic systems that can perform complex motions, including bending, twisting, and reversing. Building these smaller-than-a-human-hair microstructures typically requires multi-step fabrication processes and varying stimuli to create the complex movements, limiting their wide-scale applications. Now, researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS)…
Researchers at Osaka University use silicon nanoparticles to help visualize the coalescence of quantized vortices that occur in superfluid helium, which can help improve our understanding of quantum fluids and materials, including superconductors. Scientists from the Graduate School of Engineering Science at Osaka University have shown how silicon nanoparticles can become trapped inside the vortices that form inside superfluid helium. This work opens up new possibilities in optical research for other quantum properties of superfluid helium, such as the optical…
The left hand looks like the right hand in the mirror but the left-handed glove does not fit on the right hand. Chirality refers to this property where the object cannot be superimposed on to the mirror image. This property in molecules is an important factor in pharmaceutical research as it can turn drugs toxic. These molecules and mirror-symmetrical molecules have the same physical properties, and therefore cannot be distinguished using general optical analysis. Instead, polarized light – that spins…
While 3D printing techniques have advanced significantly in the last decade, the technology continues to face a fundamental limitation: objects must be built up layer by layer. But what if they didn’t have to be? Dan Congreve, an assistant professor of electrical engineering at Stanford and former Rowland Fellow at the Rowland Institute at Harvard University, and his colleagues have developed a way to print 3D objects within a stationary volume of resin. The printed object is fully supported by…
Researchers have discovered that light — in the form of a laser — can trigger a form of magnetism in a normally nonmagnetic material. This magnetism centers on the behavior of electrons. These subatomic particles have an electronic property called “spin,” which has a potential application in quantum computing. The researchers found that electrons within the material became oriented in the same direction when illuminated by photons from a laser. The experiment, led by scientists at the University of Washington and the…
Using nanotechnology, scientists have created a newly designed neuromorphic electronic device that endows microrobotics with colorful vision. Georgia State University researchers have successfully designed a new type of artificial vision device that incorporates a novel vertical stacking architecture and allows for greater depth of color recognition and scalability on a micro-level. The new research is published in the top journal ACS Nano. “This work is the first step toward our final destination–to develop a micro-scale camera for microrobots,” says assistant professor of Physics…
Rice study suggests stress among misaligned particles in typical cathodes limits flow. If you could shrink enough for a fantastic voyage across a lithium battery electrode, you’d see the level of charge at every scale is highly uneven. This is not good for the battery’s health. Rice University researchers who recognize the problem worked with the Department of Energy to view in great detail how the various particles in an electrode interact with lithium during use. Specifically, the Rice lab…
Design also poised to save space, retain memory in event of power loss. A new spin on one of the 20th century’s smallest but grandest inventions, the transistor, could help feed the world’s ever-growing appetite for digital memory while slicing up to 5% of the energy from its power-hungry diet. Following years of innovations from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Christian Binek and University at Buffalo’s Jonathan Bird and Keke He, the physicists recently teamed up to craft the first magneto-electric…
The breakthrough could lead to the development of ‘beyond-5G’ wireless technology for high-speed communication networks. An international team, co-led by researchers at The University of Manchester’s National Graphene Institute (NGI) in the UK and the Penn State College of Engineering in the US, has developed a tunable graphene-based platform that allows for fine control over the interaction between light and matter in the terahertz (THz) spectrum to reveal rare phenomena known as exceptional points. The team published their results today (8 April)…
… at JEC World 2022 in Paris. The ITA Institut für Textiltechnik of RWTH Aachen University will present a collaborative robot (cobot) including tools for semi-automated draping of reinforcement textiles at JEC World 2022 in Paris. The cobot is used without additional safety measures such as protective fences or light barriers thanks to integrated sensor technology. It can thus collaborate directly with human. Another ITA exhibit is a demonstrator for mobile hydrogen storage in the form of a Type-4 pressure…
The quality of composite systems made of cords of high-strength fibers such as polyester, aramid or polyamide and matrix materials of rubber is largely determined by the adhesion properties of the fibers to the matrix. In the established manufacturing process, adhesion promoters made of resorcinol-formaldehyde-latex (RFL) are used to improve the adhesion properties. Researchers at DITF are showing ways to replace the harmful formaldehyde with technically equivalent substances that are harmless to health. In car tires, conveyor belts and V-belts,…
Results from the European HITCOMP project. The Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) coordinates the HITCOMP (High Temperature Characterisation and Modelling of Thermoplastic Composites) project within the Horizon 2020 programme, which aims to study the possible advantages of thermoplastic materials in the aerospace industry. The European aerospace sector typically uses low-weight, high-performance thermosetting plastic composites—also known as epoxy resin based composites—in many applications. However, these materials are not as heat resistant as other metal aircraft components, which can compromise safety…
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