Materials Sciences

Stronger or tougher? For designers of advanced materials, this tradeoff may complicate efforts to devise efficient methods for assembling nanometer-scale building blocks into exotic ceramics, glasses and other types of customized materials.

“Not all properties may benefit from microstructural refinement, so due caution needs to be exercised in materials design,” writes the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Brian Lawn in the January issue of Journal of Materials Researc

A waste product from rice has been used by Japanese scientists to produce surfacing materials that make for quieter, more resilient roads, reports Richard Butler in this issue of Chemistry & Industry Magazine.

Roads made using this method absorb noise better, drain faster and are less susceptible to extremes of temperature than traditional based road surfaces, according to Minebea, of Nagano, Japan. They may even be able to help traffic management.

The new traffic surfaces contain r

Purdue University researchers have shown that extremely thin carbon fibers called “nanotubes” might be used to create brain probes and implants to study and treat neurological damage and disorders.

Probes made of silicon currently are used to study brain function and disease but may one day be used to apply electrical signals that restore damaged areas of the brain. A major drawback to these probes, however, is that they cause the body to produce scar tissue that eventually accumulates and p

The discovery of carbon nanotubes heralded a new era of scientific discovery that included the promise of ultra-sensitive bomb detectors and super-fast computer memory chips. But finding a way to incorporate nanomaterials into a working nanoelectronic system has been a frustratingly elusive achievement – until now.

In an important milestone in the fields of nanosciences and nanoengineering, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley and Stanford University are announcing that th

Researchers of the Moscow State Textile University have invented the way to impart a stable fragrance to fabrics and polymeric fibers. The smell of rose, hyacinth or lily of the valley does not disappear even after washing.

The application of aromatic rugs, polymeric fiber napkins or fragrant fabrics will be driven by fantasy that can be put to life thanks to the development by the Moscow scientists from the State Textile University. They have learned to process fabrics with special substanc

Even without noticing this, everyday we all make use of many magnetic gadgets and devices, both at home and at work. There are dozens of magnets working in our cars and household appliances and billions of tiny magnets keep records on computer hard disks. These are just a few examples of the importance of magnetic materials in supporting our modern lifestyle.

Whether a particular material can be used in a simple appliance, such as an electric bell, or can be a part of a sophisticated electr