Advanced ink formulations could be the key to turning perovskite solar cells (PSCs) from heroes of academic labs into commercially successful products. Researchers at KAUST have developed a perovskite ink tailor-made for a mass manufacturing process called slot-die coating, producing PSCs that captured solar energy with high efficiency. The ink could also be coated onto silicon to create perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells that capture even more of the Sun’s energy. “PSCs have shown a lot of promise in lab-scale work…
A project jointly initiated by the Austrian Society for Construction Technology (ÖBV), TU Graz and OTH Regensburg provides a more systematic understanding of shotcrete applications and forms the basis for new, even more durable concrete mixes and thus for more durable tunnels. The service life of tunnels today is designed to last at least for one hundred years – in the case of the Brenner basis tunnel it is even 200 years. The problem with this: “The service life is…
Researchers from Jena and Cambridge develop glass materials with novel combinations of properties. Linkages between organic and inorganic materials are a common phenomenon in nature, e.g., in the construction of bones and skeletal structures. They often enable combinations of properties that could not be achieved with just one type of material. In technological material development, however, these so-called hybrid materials still represent a major challenge today. A new class of hybrid glass materials Researchers from the Universities of Jena (Germany)…
Electronic shirts that keep the wearer comfortably warm or cool, as well as medical fabrics that deliver drugs, monitor the condition of a wound and perform other tasks, may one day be manufactured more efficiently thanks to a key advance by Oregon State University researchers. The breakthrough involves inkjet printing and materials with a crystal structure discovered nearly two centuries ago. The upshot is the ability to apply circuitry, with precision and at low processing temperatures, directly onto cloth –…
Crystal symmetry is one of the decisive physical attributes that determines the properties of a material. In particular, the behaviour of an electron is largely affected by the symmetry of the crystal which in turn governs the fundamental behaviour of the material, such as its conductive or optical properties. With recent developments of experimental techniques and advances in ultrafast laser experiments, another symmetry besides the crystal has turned out to influence the electrons: the symmetry of light. Now researchers from…
IBS researchers in South Korea probe the cage formation of the glass at surgical precision and elucidate the onset of glass transition. Bo Li, Kai Kou, Research Fellows of IBS Center for Soft and Living Matter, Walter Kob, Professor of University of Montpellier and Institute Universitaire de France and Steve Granick, Director of the IBS Center for Soft and Living Matter report together in the 7833 issue of the journal Nature that onset of glass transition is a highly non-trivial…
Developing new materials takes a lot of time, money and effort. Recently, a POSTECH research team has taken a step closer to creating new materials by applying AI to develop high-entropy alloys (HEAs) which are coined as “alloy of alloys.” A joint research team led by Professor Seungchul Lee, Ph.D. candidate Soo Young Lee, Professor Hyungyu Jin and Ph.D. candidate Seokyeong Byeon of the Department of Mechanical Engineering along with Professor Hyoung Seop Kim of the Department of Materials Science…
A new and efficient way to create nanographene for power and display devices. Nanographene is a material that is anticipated to radically improve solar cells, fuel cells, LEDs and more. Typically the synthesis of this material has been imprecise and difficult to control. For the first time, researchers have discovered a simple way to gain precise control over the fabrication of nanographene. In doing so, they have shed light on the previously unclear chemical processes involved in nanographene production. You…
A research team has developed a new method for creating metal-organic framework (MOF) thin films that can be applied to sensors and electric devices. Like sponges, porous materials contain pores. The pore size affects the property of the material. For example, small pores create more absorbent surface areas. Silica gel, which is often used in food packaging to soak up moisture, is one typical example. Recent studies on porous materials have led to the development of new materials with designable…
Complex 3D nanoscale architectures based on DNA self-assembly can conduct electricity without resistance and may provide a platform for fabricating quantum computing and sensing devices. Three-dimensional (3-D) nanostructured materials–those with complex shapes at a size scale of billionths of a meter–that can conduct electricity without resistance could be used in a range of quantum devices. For example, such 3-D superconducting nanostructures could find application in signal amplifiers to enhance the speed and accuracy of quantum computers and ultrasensitive magnetic field…
Germanium telluride (GeTe) is known as a ferrolectric Rashba semiconductor with a number of interesting properties. The crystals consist of nanodomains, whose ferrolectric polarization can be switched by external electric fields. Because of the so-called Rashba effect, this ferroelectricity can also be used to switch electron spins within each domain. Germanium telluride is therefore an interesting material for spintronic devices, which allow data processing with significantly less energy input. Now a team from HZB and the Lomonosov Moscow State University,…
Scientists have found a way to generate electricity from nylon, raising hopes that the clothes on our backs will become an important source of energy. Researchers have found a way to produce nylon fibres that are smart enough to produce electricity from simple body movement, paving the way for smart clothes that will monitor our health through miniaturised sensors and charge our devices without any external power source. This discovery – a collaboration between the University of Bath, the Max…
For quality control and damage assessment of injection-moulded components, simple and cost-effective tests are desired. Preparation of the standard test specimens is sometimes costly. In this case, the specimens taken from the flat areas of the component can be preferred. Scientists at the Fraunhofer LBF have improved known in-plane geometry for the shear test. Together with the modified loading schema, the new procedure is reliable and can be used for a wide range of materials. The new test specification is…
A porous organic material created at KAUST could significantly improve energy storage and delivery by supercapacitors, which are devices that are able to deliver quick and powerful bursts of energy. Supercapacitors use technology that is significantly different from the reversible chemical reactions used in rechargeable batteries. They store electrical energy by building up a separation of positive and electric charge and this ability enables them to supply quick bursts of energy needed, for example, to power the acceleration of electric…
A hybrid implant coating made from antibacterial silver and an antibiotic will protect patients from infection in the future. The antibiotic is tailored to the patient’s unique requirements for even better protection. The AntiSelectInfekt project came about in collaboration with a research team from Charité-Universtitätsmedizin Berlin. Anyone who now receives an artificial knee, shoulder or hip joint at the hospital can expect the best-possible treatment and cutting-edge medicine. But implantation is not without its risks. On average, 1 to 2…
Rice University lab detours potential environmental hazard into useful material. Plastic waste comes back in black as pristine graphene, thanks to ACDC. That’s what Rice University scientists call the process they employed to make efficient use of waste plastic that would otherwise add to the planet’s environmental woes. In this instance, the lab of Rice chemist James Tour modified its method to make flash graphene to enhance it for recycling plastic into graphene. The lab’s study appears in the American…
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