The food industry generates enormous amounts of waste and by-​products, including from poultry production. Each year, some 40 million tonnes of chicken feathers are incinerated. This not only releases large amounts of CO2, but also produces toxic gases such as sulphur dioxide. Researchers at ETH Zurich and Nanyang Technological University Singapore (NTU) have now found a way to put these feathers to good use. Using a simple and environmentally friendly process, they extract the protein keratin from the feathers and…

A team of researchers led by the University of California San Diego has developed soft yet durable materials that glow in response to mechanical stress, such as compression, stretching or twisting. The materials derive their luminescence from single-celled algae known as dinoflagellates. The work, inspired by the bioluminescent waves observed during red tide events at San Diego’s beaches, was published Oct. 20 in Science Advances. “An exciting feature of these materials is their inherent simplicity—they need no electronics, no external…

Kiel University and Trinity College Dublin receive €2.5 million EU funding to develop particularly reliable and sustainable transformers. When power fails in data centres, the damage is often great: not only is the operation of companies or institutions interrupted, but important data can also be lost. In addition, the facilities are known for their high energy consumption. The goal of the research project “Super-HEART” is a power supply that can reliably use several sustainable energy sources such as hydrogen and…

Bio-machine hybrid robots (BHRs) represent a new generation of micro-aerial vehicles that be controlled by building an interface between biological and artificial systems. In contrast to conventional bionic robots, they are free of complex mechanical structures, and due to the direct adoption of the animal body, they have superior moving characteristics and lower energy demand. Thus, the BHRs can be applied in many important scenarios, such as urban and wilderness rescue operations, environmental monitoring and hazardous area surveys. To accomplish…

Jena researchers develop new method for manufacturing tailor-made semiconductor thin films. Organic semiconductor materials are promising key technologies for the development of state-of-the-art optoelectronic components and are used in photovoltaics as well as in sensor technology and microelectronics. In order to produce thin organic semiconductor films automatically and with well-defined properties, researchers – led by Leibniz IPHT in Jena, Germany – have developed a new technological approach for depositing thin films with high molecular precision. The method for manufacturing thin…

Researchers have discovered a way to make ceramics tougher and more resistant to cracking. By building these materials using a blend of metal atoms possessing more electrons in their outer shell, a team led by engineers at the University of California San Diego has unlocked the potential to enable ceramics to handle higher levels of force and stress than before. Ceramics offer many advantages due to their remarkable properties, including their ability to withstand extremely high temperatures, resist corrosion and…

Researchers have invented an experimental wearable device that generates power from a user’s bending finger and can create and store memories, in a promising step towards health monitoring and other technologies. The innovation features a single nanomaterial incorporated into a stretchable casing fitted to a person’s finger. The nanomaterial enabled the device to generate power with the user bending their finger. The super-thin material also allows the device to perform memory tasks, as outlined below. Multifunctional devices normally require several…

The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is looking for materials that “revolutionize and engineer our future.” Researchers at Iowa State University and the University of California, Santa Barbara think they can do just that by fundamentally changing Digital Light Processing – a type of 3D printing that users light rather than heat to quickly cure and harden liquid resin into plastic layers – to enable multi-material printing. “We want to produce two material properties with the same resin,” said Adarsh…

Novel ferroelectric material enables smaller and better semiconductors for microelectronics. Materials scientists at Kiel University and the Fraunhofer Institute for Silicon Technology (ISIT) in Itzehoe have cleared another hurdle in the development and structuring of new materials for next-generation semiconductor devices, such as novel memory cells. They have shown that ferroelectric aluminium scandium nitride can be scaled down to a few nanometres and can store different states, making it suitable as a nanoswitch. They have also shown that aluminium scandium…

Transition metal dichalcogenide nanotubes promise leap beyond carbon nanotubes. Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have engineered a range of new single-walled transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) nanotubes with different compositions, chirality, and diameters by templating off boron-nitride nanotubes. They also realized ultra-thin nanotubes grown inside the template, and successfully tailored compositions to create a family of new nanotubes. The ability to synthesize a diverse range of structures offers unique insights into their growth mechanism and novel optical properties. The carbon nanotube…

Lithium batteries power our phones, computers, many of our cars and so much more — even the drill and weedwhacker. But as technology advances, can they keep up in their current format? No, but there is a way forward, according to a new review paper from researchers at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, by further developing the electrolytes that allow for energy storage and discharge. The team published their work in Energy Materials and Devices on September 18, 2023. “Lithium batteries…

… boost photo-induced superconductivity in K₃C₆₀. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD) in Hamburg, Germany, have long been exploring the effect of using tailored laser drives to manipulate the properties of quantum materials away from equilibrium. One of the most striking demonstrations of these physics has been in unconventional superconductors, where signatures of enhanced electronic coherences and super-transport have been documented in the resulting non-equilibrium states. However, these phenomena have not yet…

In addition to helping combat antimicrobial resistance, the bioparticle developed at the Federal University of São Paulo avoids the waste and pollution created by excessive amounts of drugs in water bodies. A novel biomaterial developed at the Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP) in Brazil can help solve two problems at once. As a bioparticle, it can act as a drug carrier, delivering medication directly to the gastrointestinal tract of fish in order to circumvent resistance to conventional antibiotics, for…

… replaces per- and polyfluorinated chemicals (PFAS) on everyday products. Fluorine-free into the future Whether it is pans, cutlery or packaging, per- and polyfluorinated chemicals (PFAS) have been used for coating in a wide variety of everyday products and processes for many years. Due to known risks of these substances to humans and the environment, at least a partial ban on the production and use of PFAS is expected to be implemented soon. The use of comparable alternatives is therefore…

Ex-Fusion and Tokyo Tech establish collaborative research cluster. EX-Fusion Inc. (CEO: Kazuki Matsuo, hereinafter referred to as “EX-Fusion”) has established a Collaborative Research Cluster focused on advancing liquid metal devices (Terminology 1) for the realization of commercial laser fusion reactors (Figure1, Terminology 2) in collaboration with Tokyo Institute of Technology (President: Kazuya Masu, hereinafter referred to as “Tokyo Tech”). The signing ceremony to formalize this partnership was held on October 11, marking the official commencement of their joint efforts. The…

Self-healing crystals could improve materials used in today’s electronics. In a surprising new study, researchers at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities have found that the electron beam radiation that they previously thought degraded crystals can actually repair cracks in these nanostructures. The groundbreaking discovery provides a new pathway to create more perfect crystal nanostructures, a process that is critical to improving the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of materials that are used in virtually all electronic devices we use every day….