Material could be used in smart textiles, medical devices and more As anyone who has ever straightened their hair knows, water is the enemy. Hair painstakingly straightened by heat will bounce back into curls the minute it touches water. Why? Because hair has shape memory. Its material properties allow it to change shape in response to certain stimuli and return to its original shape in response to others. What if other materials, especially textiles, had this type of shape memory?…

When it comes to assembly tasks, especially regarding small and medium lot sizes, up till now flexible robot programming has been a time-consuming and costly job. The “Rob-aKademI” research project, which was launched on July 1, 2020, aims to change this. The technologies used in the project, above all advanced simulation and machine learning, are intended to make programming easier and more autonomous. The partners in the “Rob-aKademI” research project, including Fraunhofer IPA and the Institute for Industrial Manufacturing and…

Rice researchers find effect that could aid 3D displays, virtual reality, self-driving vehicles Microscopic crystals in tantalum disulfide have a starring role in what could become a hit for 3D displays, virtual reality and even self-driving vehicles. A two-dimensional array of the material has unique optical characteristics that can be controlled in ambient conditions and under general illumination, according to engineer Gururaj Naik and graduate student Weijian Li of Rice’s Brown School of Engineering. When they pull a two-dimensional sliver…

Florida State University researchers have developed a new material that could be used to make flexible X-ray detectors that are less harmful to the environment and cost less than existing technologies. The team led by Biwu Ma, a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, created X-ray scintillators that use an environmentally friendly material. Their research was published in the journal Nature Communications . “Developing low-cost scintillation materials that can be easily manufactured and that perform well remains a…

Additive manufacturing is currently one of the most significant trends in industry. Now a team from the Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems IKTS has developed a Multi Material Jetting system that allows different materials to be combined into a single additively manufactured part. This makes it possible to create products with combined properties or functions. The new system can be used with particularly high-performance materials such as ceramics and metal. Additive manufacturing technologies such as 3D printing involve…

Novel devices can be folded, cut, attached to surfaces University of Texas at Dallas researchers and their international colleagues have developed a method to create micro LEDs that can be folded, twisted, cut and stuck to different surfaces. The research, published online in June in the journal Science Advances, helps pave the way for the next generation of flexible, wearable technology. Used in products ranging from brake lights to billboards, LEDs are ideal components for backlighting and displays in electronic…

The inside of future nuclear fusion energy reactors will be among the harshest environments ever produced on Earth. What’s strong enough to protect the inside of a fusion reactor from plasma-produced heat fluxes akin to space shuttles reentering Earth’s atmosphere? Zeke Unterberg and his team at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory are currently working with the leading candidate: tungsten, which has the highest melting point and lowest vapor pressure of all metals on the periodic table, as…

HelioControl Project Completed Among solar thermal power plants, solar tower systems are considered to have the greatest potential in terms of efficiency and cost reduction. In particular, costs can be saved on mirrors (heliostats), which account for between 30 and 40 percent of the investment. Frequent calibration or control of the heliostat aim points is one approach. In the HelioControl project, the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE developed a calibration and control system based on digital image processing…

New spectroscopic technique for studying nanostructures demonstrates that stibnite nanodots can act as high-optical-quality waveguides and are promising candidates as photoswitchable materials for future applications. Antimony sulfide, or stibnite (Sb2S3), has been investigated intensively in recent years as a promising material for nontoxic, environmentally friendly solar cells. It is now possible to fabricate thin photovoltaic films from an ink containing nanoparticles of stibnite, and to nanopattern those films for 2D and 3D structures of pretty much any shape. Such simple,…

Sandwich is the food concocted by the 18th-ceuntry nobles to play card games uninterrupted. Meat or vegetables were layered then tucked between bread to be eaten quickly while engaged in the game. This efficient food also delivered ample calories and nutrition. POSTECH research team has discovered that layering like the sandwich is an excellent way to obtain hydrogen energy, an alternative energy source for fossil fuels. The research team led by Professor In Su Lee, SunWoo Jang, a student in…

During experiments on high-performance wire arc additive manufacturing researchers produced a metal with unique ductility. During experiments on high-performance Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM) researchers from Peter the Great St.Petersburg Polytechnic University (SPbPU) produced a metal with unique ductility. The ductility is three times higher than specified in the standard. The research results were published in a prestigious journal – “Materials & Design“. Increase of WAAM productivity led to discovery of unique properties of aluminum. Elongation of specimens during tensile…

The sample was first obtained by quenching Cathode materials based on sodium and d-metals fluorophosphates are in great demand in the production of metal-ion batteries, because they have a rich chemical composition that allows to regulate their electrochemical properties. The research team of the scientists of Samara Center for Theoretical Materials Science of Samara Polytech, Institute of Solid State Chemistry and Mechanochemistry of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Federal Research Center Boreskov Institute of Catalysis and…

The ATES iQ project aims to demonstrate whether the carbonate rocks 500 meters below Berlin are suitable for heating buildings. In 2017 a huge storage facility in the pores of a sandstone layer at a depth of between 1015 and 1045 meters below Berlin’s Grunewald forest that had been used to temporarily store natural gas, to cover the city’s fluctuating needs, was shut down. In 2017 a huge storage facility in the pores of a sandstone layer at a depth…

A research group composed of Professor Takayuki Shibata and his colleagues at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Toyohashi University of Technology has applied a microfluidic chip technology to develop a multiplex genetic diagnostic device for the early detection and prevention of crop diseases. The group conducted a gene amplification experiment using four kinds of cucumber viruses on the palm-size diagnostic device, and successfully demonstrated that the rapid multiplex diagnosis can be performed within 1 hour of testing. This diagnostic device…

Atomically thin diamond, also called diamane, is a two-dimensional carbon allotrope and has attracted considerable scientific interest due to its potential physical properties. However, previous studies suggest that atomically thin diamond films are not achievable in a pristine state because diamonds possess a three-dimensional crystalline structure and would lack chemical stability when thinned down to the thickness of diamond’s unit cell due to the dangling sp3 bonds. Chemical functionalization of the surface carbons with specific chemical groups was considered necessary…

By introducing defects to a common material, Berkeley Lab researchers create a highly efficient capacitor with dramatically increased energy density Capacitors that rapidly store and release electric energy are key components in modern electronics and power systems. However, the most commonly used ones have low energy densities compared to other storage systems like batteries or fuel cells, which in turn cannot discharge and recharge rapidly without sustaining damage. Now, as reported in the journal Science, researchers have found the best…