Version 3.0 of the material simulation software suite DAMASK released. Designing materials to meet high-tech criteria, safety, and sustainability standards is increasingly complex. To address this challenge, a team of materials scientists and software engineers lead by the Max Planck Institute for Sustainable Materials (MPI SusMat) has released an updated version of the Düsseldorf Advanced Material Simulation Kit (DAMASK). This free, unified multi-physics crystal plasticity simulation package, initiated at MPI SusMat, is now developed as open-source software by various research…

More efficient and longer-lasting fuel cells are essential for fuel cell-powered heavy-duty hydrogen vehicles to be an alternative to combustion fuelled counterparts. Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, have developed an innovative method to study and understand how parts of fuel cells degrade over time.  This is an important step towards the improved performance of fuel cells and them becoming commercially successful. Hydrogen is a fuel alternative that is becoming increasingly interesting for heavy-duty vehicles.  Hydrogen-powered vehicles only emit…

AlYN promises more energy-efficient and powerful electronics. Researchers at Fraunhofer IAF have made a breakthrough in the field of semiconductor materials: With aluminum yttrium nitride (AlYN), they have succeeded in fabricating and characterizing a new and promising semiconductor material using the MOCVD process. Due to its excellent material properties and its adaptability to gallium nitride (GaN), AlYN has enormous potential for use in energy-efficient high-frequency and high-performance electronics for information and communications technology. Aluminum Yttrium Nitride (AlYN) has attracted the…

Viewing the Invisible with Advanced Microscopy. Scientists from the Department of Physical Chemistry at the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society have made a groundbreaking discovery in the field of nanotechnology, as detailed in their latest publication in Advanced Materials. Their paper, titled „Spectroscopic and Interferometric Sum-Frequency Imaging of Strongly Coupled Phonon Polaritons in SiC Metasurfaces,” introduces a novel microscopy method that allows for the unprecedented visualization of nanostructures and their optical properties. Tailoring light with Nanomaterials Metamaterials,…

… inspired by vintage toys. Contracting-cord design enables precise control of structural shape and flexibility. Common push puppet toys in the shapes of animals and popular figures can move or collapse with the push of a button at the bottom of the toys’ base. Now, a team of UCLA engineers has created a new class of tunable dynamic material that mimics the inner workings of push puppets, with applications for soft robotics, reconfigurable architectures and space engineering. Inside a push…

… by developing full-color fiber LEDs based on perovskite quantum wires. A research team led by the School of Engineering of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) has developed full-color fiber light-emitting diodes utilizing perovskite quantum wires (PeQWs), paving the way for innovative wearable lighting and display devices. Fiber light-emitting diodes (Fi-LEDs) stand out as a key component in the realm of flexible LEDs because of their compatibility with textile fabrication and excellent spatial luminance uniformity. Metal…

PME researchers were carrying out basic research on a magnetic topological insulator when they realized it had the potential to build optical storage devices. Researchers at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME) have made unexpected progress toward developing a new optical memory that can quickly and energy-efficiently store and access computational data. While studying a complex material composed of manganese, bismuth and tellurium (MnBi2Te4), the researchers realized that the material’s magnetic properties changed quickly and easily…

A low-cost approach regulates heat with common building materials that absorb or radiate heat. With temperatures rising globally, the need for more sustainable cooling options is also growing. Researchers at UCLA and their colleagues have now found an affordable and scalable process to cool buildings in the summer and heat them in the winter. Led by Aaswath Raman, an associate professor of materials science and engineering at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, the research team recently published a study in Cell Reports…

Heidelberg researchers successfully develop a new generation of biocompatible materials for additive manufacturing. Microalgae such as the diatom Odontella aurita and the green alga Tetraselmis striata are especially suitable as “biofactories” for the production of sustainable materials for 3D laser printing due to their high content in lipids and photoactive pigments. An international research team led by Prof. Dr Eva Blasco, a scientist at the Institute for Molecular Systems Engineering and Advanced Materials (IMSEAM) of Heidelberg University, has succeeded for…

Solid-state electrolytes have been explored for decades for use in energy storage systems and in the pursuit of solid-state batteries. These materials are safer alternatives to the traditional liquid electrolyte—a solution that allows ions to move within the cell—used in batteries today. However, new concepts are needed to push the performance of current solid polymer electrolytes to be viable for next generation materials. Materials science and engineering researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have explored the role of helical…

Researchers have demonstrated a technique for creating sensors that can function both in air and underwater. The approach paves the way for “amphibious” sensors with applications ranging from wildlife monitoring to biomedical applications. The new findings are focused on strain sensors, which measure deformation – meaning they can be used to measure how things stretch, bend and move. “For example, there is interest in creating strain sensors that can be used in biomedical applications – such as sensors that can…

… advances understanding of processes applicable to brain-like computing. Charge density waves have applications in next-generation and energy-efficient computing. Today’s supercomputers consume vast amounts of energy, equivalent to the power usage of thousands of homes. In response, researchers are developing a more energy-efficient form of next-generation supercomputing that leverages artificial neural networks. These networks mimic the processes of neurons, the basic unit in the human brain. This mimicry could be achieved through the charge density waves that occur in certain materials. Charge density…

Researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems IPMS have significantly increased the transparency of OLED microdisplays. For the first time, a microdisplay of this kind will be presented at booth No. 38 at the “International Meeting on Information Display” (IMID) 2024 in Jeju, South Korea. Transparent electronics are already providing reliable services in some applications. For instance, they can be found as ultra-thin layers for touch displays or as transparent films with printed antennas for mobile communications. However, OLED…

Eco-friendly 3D concrete printing. A research team led by engineers at the University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science is the first to explore how an emerging plant-based material, cellulose nanofibrils, could amplify the benefits of 3D-printed concrete technology. “The improvements we saw on both printability and mechanical measures suggest that incorporating cellulose nanofibrils in commercial printable materials could lead to more resilient and eco-friendly construction practices sooner rather than later,” said Osman E. Ozbulut, a professor in the…

The digital transformation means that more and more devices such as X-ray and ultrasound machines are being connected to networks in hospital settings, for example. These kinds of equipment have to be movable as needed. In the LINCNET project, Fraunhofer researchers are using light to transmit data to machines and robots in clinical settings and industrial production environments. Combining electrical networks with the ultra-fast 5G mobile network creates powerful and low-cost wireless networks for buildings. When deployed in hospitals, this…

…with high precision and reliability. A cornerstone of the energy transition, offshore wind energy supplies millions of consumers with green electricity. Export cables connect offshore wind farms to the grid onshore. The cable routes need to be surveyed regularly to ensure that the cable positions are precisely known — but the acoustic and magnetic methods that are currently used to do this are time-consuming, incur high costs and lack reliability. For this reason, researchers at the Fraunhofer IWES are working…