Form shapes function: Special feature discovered in the enamel of shark teeth. Shark teeth must function to the point during their short retention time: The Port Jackson shark feeds on hard-shelled prey such as sea urchins, starfish, mussels and snails. Its teeth must be able to withstand high mechanical stress. The special structure of the tooth enamel ensures this continuously high performance: “The special feature is that the inner layer of tooth enameloid provides mechanical stability, while the outer one…

The demand for lithium is rapidly growing, but Europe’s conventional resources are limited. Connecting European circular economy to global networks, the EIT RawMaterials Innovation Community and leading European research institutions initiated the European Lithium Institute eLi. The virtual institute will gather relevant stakeholders along the whole lithium battery value chain to generate focused international cooperation. eLi started its operational work and welcomes industrial actors as partners and members as well. European energy transition and electric mobility transition leads to a…

In future, commercial vehicles will not only have to emit less CO2 but also meet stricter exhaust emission limits. Many experts expect that this could herald the end for fossil diesel. One possible alternative is dimethyl ether: The highly volatile substance burns very cleanly and can be produced from renewable energy. Empa is investigating this new powertrain concept using a special test engine. Operating a fleet of trucks is a tough business. Forget trucker romance; strong competition and high price…

Scientists are working on new materials to create neuromorphic computers, with a design based on the human brain. A crucial component is a memristive device, the resistance of which depends on the history of the device – just like the response of our neurons depends on previous input. Materials scientists from the University of Groningen analysed the behaviour of strontium titanium oxide, a platform material for memristor research and used the 2D material graphene to probe it. On 11 November…

Simplified model of van der Waals forces will allow previously impossible simulations of how faceted nanoparticles self-assemble into larger structures. Materials scientists at Duke University have devised a simplified method for calculating the attractive forces that cause nanoparticles to self-assemble into larger structures. With this new model, accompanied by a graphical user interface that demonstrates its power, researchers will be able to make previously impossible predictions about how nanoparticles with a wide variety of shapes will interact with one another….

A team of physicists led by researchers from the University of Oldenburg, Germany, have recorded an ultrafast film of the directed energy transport between neighbouring molecules in a nanomaterial. Theoretical simulations confirmed the experimental finding. Whether in solar cells, in photosynthesis or in the human eye: when light falls on the material, a green leaf or the retina, certain molecules transport energy and charge. This ultimately leads to the separation of charges and the generation of electricity. Molecular funnels, so-called…

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have invented a miniature thermometer with big potential applications such as monitoring the temperature of processor chips in superconductor-based quantum computers, which must stay cold to work properly. NIST’s superconducting thermometer measures temperatures below 1 Kelvin (minus 272.15 ?C or minus 457.87 ?F), down to 50 milliKelvin (mK) and potentially 5 mK. It is smaller, faster and more convenient than conventional cryogenic thermometers for chip-scale devices and could be mass…

After the summer harvest, fruits are sold as dried products suitable for the current season. However, if fruit or vegetables are dried with heat, nutrients can be destroyed and flavors can be reduced. This is why non-thermal drying of food – i.e. without heating – is preferred by the industry. Among other things, fans are used for this purpose. A new drying process developed at Empa using ionic wind promises to make the non-thermal drying of food much more energy-efficient,…

With just a 50-million-electron jumpstart, sensors can power themselves for more than a year. Shantanu Chakrabartty’s laboratory has been working to create sensors that can run on the least amount of energy. His lab has been so successful at building smaller and more efficient sensors, that they’ve run into a roadblock in the form of a fundamental law of physics. Sometimes, however, when you hit what appears to be an impenetrable roadblock, you just have to turn to quantum physics…

The right material for the mobile communication standard of tomorrow. The performance of radio-frequency applications such as 5G or radar depends mainly on the materials and interconnects used. In order to investigate and optimize these, a new research group has been founded at Fraunhofer IZM in Berlin. Drawing on the expertise of the researchers, radio-frequency structures are assembled in such a way that facilitates optimal wave transmission. According to a study by technology analysts Yole Développement, the market for radio…

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)…

Liquids aren’t as well behaved in space as they are on Earth. Inside a spacecraft, microgravity allows liquids to freely slosh and float about. This behavior has made fuel quantity in satellites difficult to pin down, but a new prototype fuel gauge engineered at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) could offer an ideal solution. The gauge, described in the Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, can digitally recreate a fluid’s 3D shape based on its electrical properties. The…

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 –…

Against the background of the global energy transition, the development of new technologies and characterization methods for thermochemical and electrochemical systems is becoming more significant. In context of the National Innovation Programme for Hydrogen and Fuel Cell, the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE has expanded its R&D infrastructure and now operates one of the few facilities worldwide for High Temperature Near-Ambient Pressure X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (HT-NAP-XPS). With this, the institute sets yet another milestone for the development of…