Shining new light on electron behavior using 2-photon photoemission spectroscopy. Understanding electron behavior and surface structure of triphenylene thin film molecules deposited on graphite substrates under light irradiation. Organic electronics is a field that has garnered significant interest in academic and industrial circles due to its potential applications in OLEDs and organic solar cells, offering advantages such as lightweight design, flexibility, and cost-efficiency. These devices are made by depositing a thin film of organic molecules onto a substrate that acts…

Leafhoppers, a common backyard insect, secrete and coat themselves in tiny mysterious particles that could provide both the inspiration and the instructions for next-generation technology, according to a new study led by Penn State researchers. In a first, the team precisely replicated the complex geometry of these particles, called brochosomes, and elucidated a better understanding of how they absorb both visible and ultraviolet light. This could allow the development of bioinspired optical materials with possible applications ranging from invisible cloaking…

Imaging being able to wear your smartphone on your wrist, not as a watch, but literally as a flexible band that surrounds around your arm. How about clothes that charge your gadgets just by wearing them? Recently, a collaborative team led by Professor Jin Kon Kim and Dr. Keon-Woo Kim of Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Professor Taesung Kim and M.S./Ph.D. student Hyunho Seok of Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU), and Professor Hong Chul Moon of University of Seoul (UOS)…

Synthetic biologists’ hack blood-glucose reaction to create chemotherapy detector. Rice University synthetic biologists have found a way to piggyback on the glucose monitoring technology used in automated insulin dosing systems and make it universally applicable for the monitoring and dosing of virtually any drug. In a recently published study in Nature Communications, researchers in the lab of Caroline Ajo-Franklin demonstrated the technique by modifying a blood-glucose sensor to detect the anticancer drug afimoxifene , an estrogen inhibitor that patient’s bodies…

– Fraunhofer WKI advises on bonding. For the company Modvion AB in Gothenburg, researchers from the Fraunhofer WKI accompanied the bonding of the first wooden tower for commercial wind turbines on the construction site and advised the company on complex bonding processes. The so-called “Wind of Change Tower” of the energy provider Varberg Energi AB was inaugurated on 4 March 2024. Including a V90-2.0MW turbine from Vestas Group, the tower reaches a total height of 150 metres (pure tower height…

In our rapidly industrialized world, the quest for sustainable materials has never been more urgent. Plastics, ubiquitous in daily life, pose significant environmental challenges, primarily due to their fossil fuel origins and problematic disposal. Now, a study led by Jeremy Luterbacher’s team at EPFL unveils a pioneering approach to producing high-performance plastics from renewable resources. The research, published in Nature Sustainability, introduces a novel method for creating polyamides – a class of plastics known for their strength and durability, the…

– vacuum process may offer a short track to commercialization. A large variety of fabrication processes are investigated in research and industry – comparative study assesses options for mass production. Over the past decade, perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells have demonstrated a stunning development. In research, efficiencies of more than 33 percent have been shown, exceeding by far those of conventional silicon-based solar cells. However, yet the technology has not reached the market. One of the major challenges is the unresolved…

Materials that are incredibly thin, only a few atoms thick, exhibit unique properties that make them appealing for energy storage, catalysis and water purification. Researchers at Linköping University, Sweden, have now developed a method that enables the synthesis of hundreds of new 2D materials. Their study has been published in the journal Science. Since the discovery of graphene, the field of research in extremely thin materials, so-called 2D materials, has increased exponentially. The reason is that 2D materials have a…

3D-printed microscopic particles, so small that to the naked eye they look like dust, have applications in drug and vaccine delivery, microelectronics, microfluidics, and abrasives for intricate manufacturing. However, the need for precise coordination between light delivery, stage movement, and resin properties makes scalable fabrication of such custom microscale particles challenging. Now, researchers at Stanford University have introduced a more efficient processing technique that can print up to 1 million highly detailed and customizable microscale particles a day. “We can now create much…

Argonne researchers pioneer ​“redox gating” — a new way to precisely modulate electron flow. Breakthrough could help lead to the development of new low-power semiconductors or quantum devices. As the integrated circuits that power our electronic devices get more powerful, they are also getting smaller. This trend of microelectronics has only accelerated in recent years as scientists try to fit increasingly more semiconducting components on a chip. Microelectronics face a key challenge because of their small size. To avoid overheating,…

Altermagnetic CrSb with promising characteristics for electronic applications. Altermagnets represent a newly recognized class of materials in magnetism that could enable novel applications in spin-based electronics. Their magnetically ordered state consists of an antiparallel arrangement of microscopic magnetic moments, so-called spins, as in antiferromagnets. In contrast to antiferromagnetism, however, the altermagnetic state with zero net-magnetization enables the generation of electrical currents with spin polarization, as required in spin-based electronics. Thus, altermagnets combine the advantages of antiferromagnets, i.e., ultrafast dynamics, and…

eVTOL battery analysis reveals unique operating demands. Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory are taking cleaner transportation to the skies by creating and evaluating new batteries for airborne electric vehicles that take off and land vertically. These aircraft, commonly called eVTOLs, range from delivery drones to urban air taxis. They are designed to rise into the air like a helicopter and fly using wing-borne lift like an airplane. Compared with helicopters, eVTOLs generally use more rotors…

Novel technology reaches 100-kW wireless power transfer for passenger vehicle. A team of researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory demonstrated that a light-duty passenger electric vehicle can be wirelessly charged at 100-kW with 96% efficiency using polyphase electromagnetic coupling coils with rotating magnetic fields. ORNL’s patented system transferred power to a Hyundai Kona EV across a five-inch airgap using electromagnetic fields, a process similar to the wireless charging of small consumer devices. “We’ve achieved the highest power density in the…

Tests on living cell cultures are becoming increasingly important for personalized medicine, drug development and clinical research. The Aachen-based Fraunhofer Institutes for Laser Technology ILT and for Production Technology IPT have developed an AI-assisted high-throughput process that now makes it possible to automatically isolate specific cell types. Using a so-called LIFTOSCOPE, laboratories can localize, identify and analyze dozens of living cells per second in order to transfer them to microtiter plates with laser-induced forward transfer (LIFT). At analytica 2024 in…

Researchers from Osaka University combine high-speed atomic force microscopy with a laser light source for real-time observation of azo-polymer films. Expanding our scientific understanding often comes down to getting as close a look as possible at what is happening. Now researchers from Japan have observed the nanoscale behavior of azo-polymer films while triggering them with laser light. In a study published last month in Nano Letters the researchers from Osaka University used tip-scan high-speed atomic force microscopy (HS-AFM) combined with…

Lubricants for wire drawing based on polymers. Metals can be processed into wires by cold forming – an extremely complex process. However, the lubricants needed for this often do not meet the requirements of the end processors. As part of the KMU-innovativ project “Polyschmierung”, five partners from industry and research have developed a new class of polymer lubricants that make the process significantly more environmentally friendly and economical. They are already being used successfully by industry. The project was funded…