What happens when soft materials are compressed strongly? Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Dynamic and Self-Organization, the University of Twente and Cornell University now revealed the morphology of creases created upon folding at micrometer scale. They revealed a dual folding mechanism driven by capillary forces, similar to wetting liquids, causing a T-shape folding profile. The unfolding leaves behind a scar which serves as a nucleation point for subsequent folds. Without damaging the material, it thereby enables a freely…
Göttingen University researchers create new kind of environmentally friendly bioplastic with hydroplastic polymers. Plastics offer many benefits to society and are widely used in our daily life: they are lightweight, cheap and adaptable. However, the production, processing and disposal of plastics are simply not sustainable, and pose a major global threat to the environment and human health. Eco-friendly processing of reusable and recyclable plastics derived from plant-based raw materials would be an ideal solution. So far, the technological challenges have…
The valence of Mn changes from 4 to 3 under various conditions. Professor Hiromi Nakano of Toyohashi University of Technology used a material with a unique periodical structure (smart material: Li-M-Ti-O [M = Nb or Ta]) as a host material to synthesize new Mn4+-activated phosphors that exhibit red light emissions at 685 nm when excited at 493 nm. Because the valence of the Mn ions in the material changes from Mn4+ to Mn3+ according to the sintering temperature, composition, and…
A collaborative research team, led by the University of Liverpool, has discovered a new inorganic material with the lowest thermal conductivity ever reported. This discovery paves the way for the development of new thermoelectric materials that will be critical for a sustainable society. Reported in the journal Science, this discovery represents a breakthrough in the control of heat flow at the atomic scale, achieved by materials design. It offers fundamental new insights into the management of energy. The new understanding…
Placing a 2D Bose-Einstein condensate in the vicinity of a graphene layer confers superconductivity to the material. Superconductivity is a physical phenomenon where the electrical resistance of a material drops to zero under a certain critical temperature. Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) theory is a well-established explanation that describes superconductivity in most materials. It states that Cooper pairs of electrons are formed in the lattice under sufficiently low temperature and that BCS superconductivity arises from their condensation. While graphene itself is an excellent…
Max Planck scientists publish their latest findings in the journal Nature Materials. Hydrogen – the smallest of all atoms and yet becoming more and more important in terms of climate neutrality. While politics, industry and research are heading to use as much hydrogen as possible as a sustainable energy carrier, hydrogen embrittlement of high-strength alloys has become one of the major issues impeding the realization of the hydrogen economy. These materials are urgently needed for the automotive and aerospace industry…
The absorption of energy from laser light by free electrons in a liquid has been demonstrated for the first time. Until now, this process was observed only in the gas phase. The findings, led by Graz University of Technology, open new doors for ultra-fast electron microscopy. The investigation and development of materials crucially depends on the ability to observe smallest objects at fastest time scales. The necessary spatial resolution for investigations in the (sub-)atomic range can be achieved with electron…
New findings in a new material bring us closer to understanding superconductivity. The discovery of the first high-temperature superconductor in 1986 brought with it the hope that superconductivity would one day revolutionise power transmission, electronic devices and other technologies. Materials that show superconductivity (zero electrical resistance) generally do so at an extremely low temperature. For their use to become widespread and world-changing, we need to develop a material that is superconducting close to room temperature. Research showed that the first…
New nickelate materials give scientists an exciting new window into how unconventional superconductors carry electric current with no loss at relatively high temperatures. Ever since the 1986 discovery that copper oxide materials, or cuprates, could carry electrical current with no loss at unexpectedly high temperatures, scientists have been looking for other unconventional superconductors that could operate even closer to room temperature. This would allow for a host of everyday applications that could transform society by making energy transmission more efficient,…
Although the history of bitumen dates back to the third millennium BC, only little is known about its surface structure. Researchers from TU Wien are now shedding light on the nature of the bitumen surface using physicochemical analyses. While atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy have already provided information on the morphology of bitumen surfaces in the past, for a long time it was not known whether surface and chemical composition correlate with each other. However, the chemical composition…
– effect of doping on the photocatalyst SrTiO3. New study shows how doping affects the charge properties of a photocatalyst, potentially paving the way for better solar energy conversion. For many years, researchers have been focused on developing technologies that can help us fight the imminent climate change crisis. They have one goal in common: finding sustainable energy sources that can replace the environmentally toxic fossil fuels. “Photocatalysts” that drive an artificial process that replicates photosynthesis (in which solar energy…
Natural wood remains a ubiquitous building material because of its high strength-to-density ratio; trees are strong enough to grow hundreds of feet tall but remain light enough to float down a river after being logged. For the past three years, engineers at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Engineering and Applied Science have been developing a type of material they’ve dubbed “metallic wood.” Their material gets its useful properties and name from a key structural feature of its natural counterpart:…
Three years ago, Arthur Ashkin won the Nobel Prize for inventing optical tweezers, which use light in the form of a high-powered laser beam to capture and manipulate particles. Despite being created decades ago, optical tweezers still lead to major breakthroughs and are widely used today to study biological systems. However, optical tweezers do have flaws. The prolonged interaction with the laser beam can alter molecules and particles or damage them with excessive heat. Researchers at The University of Texas…
Researchers from the Fritz Haber Institute (FHI) in Berlin, the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD) in Hamburg and the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg have provided important new insights into a key process for the development of more efficient solar cells and other light-based technologies, called singlet exciton fission. They have managed to track how molecules of a promising material, single crystals comprised of pentacene molecules, move in real time as singlet fission takes place, showing that…
Engineers create seeds for growing near-perfect 2D perovskite crystals. Rice University engineers have created microscopic seeds for growing remarkably uniform 2D perovskite crystals that are both stable and highly efficient at harvesting electricity from sunlight. Halide perovskites are organic materials made from abundant, inexpensive ingredients, and Rice’s seeded growth method addresses both performance and production issues that have held back halide perovskite photovoltaic technology. In a study published online in Advanced Materials, chemical engineers from Rice’s Brown School of Engineering…
University of Bayreuth has large-scale device at its disposal. The engineering sciences at the University of Bayreuth recently acquired a unique laser device equipped with an ultra-short pulse laser source for material processing. In the fields of gas sensor technology, high-frequency technology, and microsystems technology, the device opens up unimagined research possibilities. It can structure layers and coatings on sensitive surfaces with great precision. Hardened or fired technical substrates of all kinds can be precisely cut or milled. The device…
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