Quantum dot logic circuits provide the long-sought building blocks for innovative devices, including printable electronics, flexible displays, and medical diagnostics. Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory and their collaborators from the University of California, Irvine have created fundamental electronic building blocks out of tiny structures known as quantum dots and used them to assemble functional logic circuits. The innovation promises a cheaper and manufacturing-friendly approach to complex electronic devices that can be fabricated in a chemistry laboratory via simple, solution-based…
A spot of pressure enables chemical conversion to hardened 2D material. Marrying two layers of graphene is an easy route to the blissful formation of nanoscale diamond, but sometimes thicker is better. While it may only take a bit of heat to turn a treated bilayer of the ultrathin material into a cubic lattice of diamane, a bit of pressure in just the right place can convert few-layer graphene as well. The otherwise chemically driven process is theoretically possible according…
Graphene and other single-atom-thick substances are a category of wonder materials, with researchers the world over investigating their electronic properties for potential applications in technologies as diverse as solar cells, novel semiconductors, sensors, and energy storage. The greatest challenge for the design of these single-layer or 2D materials into all their myriad potential uses is the need for an atom-by-atom perfection and uniformity that can be difficult and painstaking to achieve at such small scales, and difficult to assess as…
Scientists have created synthetic soft surfaces with tongue-like textures for the first time using 3D printing, opening new possibilities for testing oral processing properties of food, nutritional technologies, pharmaceutics and dry mouth therapies. UK scientists led by the University of Leeds in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh have replicated the highly sophisticated surface design of a human tongue and demonstrated that their printed synthetic silicone structure mimics the topology, elasticity and wettability of the tongue’s surface. These factors are…
An international multi-institution team of scientists has synthesized graphene nanoribbons – ultrathin strips of carbon atoms – on a titanium dioxide surface using an atomically precise method that removes a barrier for custom-designed carbon nanostructures required for quantum information sciences. Graphene is composed of single-atom-thick layers of carbon taking on ultralight, conductive and extremely strong mechanical characteristics. The popularly studied material holds promise to transform electronics and information science because of its highly tunable electronic, optical and transport properties. When…
Researchers at National University of Science and Technology MISIS (NUST MISIS) have managed to develop a unique method to process bulk metallic glasses. According to the authors of the study, they have managed to find processing conditions that significantly improve the quality of this promising material. The research results were published in Journal of Alloys and Compounds. Metallic glasses (amorphous metals) are materials which, unlike crystalline forms, don’t have a long range atomic order. According to the scientists, this makes…
This is the first report for the syntheses of water-soluble polyimides which are Interestingly derived from bio-based resources, showing high transparency, tunable mechanical strength and the highest thermoresistance in water-soluble polymers reported ever. Water-soluble polymers are of great interest in many areas of soft materials. These soft materials have been widely used in application related to aqueous solutions, such as dispersants, aggregation agents, thickeners, moisturizers, binders, and hydrogels. With increase in global awareness about environmental concerns, the importance of water-soluble…
As part of an international collaboration, a team at the HZB has examined the corrosion processes of high-quality BiVO4 photoelectrodes using different state-of-the-art characterisation methods. The result is the first operando stability study of high-purity BiVO4 photoanodes during the photoelectrochemical oxygen evolution reaction (OER). This work shows how the stability of photoelectrodes and catalysts can be compared and enhanced in the future. Hydrogen is a versatile fuel that can store and release chemical energy when needed. Hydrogen can be produced…
Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have discovered a way to control the growth of twisting, microscopic spirals of materials just one atom thick. The continuously twisting stacks of two-dimensional materials built by a team led by UW-Madison chemistry Professor Song Jin create new properties that scientists can exploit to study quantum physics on the nanoscale. The researchers published their work today in the journal Science. “This is the current frontier of 2D material research. In the last few years,…
‘Multi-ferroic’ materials in low-energy data storage. A new UNSW study comprehensively reviews the magnetic structure of the multiferroic material bismuth ferrite (BiFeO3 – BFO). The review advances FLEET’s search for low-energy electronics, bringing together current knowledge on the magnetic order in BFO films, and giving researchers a solid platform to further develop this material in low-energy magnetoelectric memories. BFO is unique in that it displays both magnetic and electronic ordering (ie, is ‘multiferroic’) at room temperature, allowing for low-energy switching…
Topological states of matter hold tremendous promise for potential applications in quantum technologies. The creation and control of such states on demand with short flashes of light is currently under intense investigation. Now an international collaboration of researchers involving a theory team at the MPSD has shown that short-lived topological states can be tracked with equally short light flashes spiraling like a corkscrew. In the past decade, quantum materials science has seen a surge in the quest for topological materials….
Researchers discover how water can affect its own filtration. Membranes with microscopic pores are useful for water filtration. The effect of pore size on water filtration is well-understood, as is the role of ions, charged atoms, that interact with the membrane. For the first time, researchers have successfully described the impact water molecules have on other water molecules and on ions as part of the filtration mechanism. The researchers detail a feedback system between water molecules which opens up new…
Metal-organic frameworks, or MOFs, are composed of metal ions periodically surrounded by organic bridging molecules, and these hybrid crystalline frameworks feature a cage-like hollow structure. This unique structure motif offers great potential for a range of applications in energy storage, chemical transformations, optoelectronics, chemiresistive sensing, and (photo)electrocatalysis, among others. Debuted in the early 2000s, MOFs are a fascinating nanomaterial. Though numerous applications exploit MOFs, little has been known as to how oxygen may work in the synthesis of MOFs. Led…
Purdue University innovators are taking cues from nature to develop 3D photodetectors for biomedical imaging. The Purdue researchers used some architectural features from spider webs to develop the technology. Spider webs typically provide excellent mechanical adaptability and damage-tolerance against various mechanical loads such as storms. “We employed the unique fractal design of a spider web for the development of deformable and reliable electronics that can seamlessly interface with any 3D curvilinear surface,” said Chi Hwan Lee, a Purdue assistant professor…
The need for everyday objects with antiviral surfaces is high due to the COVID 19 pandemic. It is known that the material composition of an object has an influence on the viability of viruses on surfaces. This is where the work of the Fraunhofer IFAM comes in: In cross-disciplinary research projects between material science and biology, the effect of functionalized surfaces and treatment processes on the survival time of viruses is evaluated for various materials using real-time PCR tests. The…
Ultrathin materials such as graphene promise a revolution in nanoscience and technology. Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, have now made an important advance within the field. In a recent paper in Nature Communications they present a method for controlling the edges of two-dimensional materials using a ‘magic’ chemical. “Our method makes it possible to control the edges – atom by atom – in a way that is both easy and scalable, using only mild heating together with abundant,…
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