Materials & Innovations

Hafnium and zirconium diboride composites for leading edges of hypersonic vehicles

By Eileen De Guire / August 12, 2011

Artist’s rendition of DARPA’s Falcon HTV-2 hypersonic aircraft. Credit: DARPA.   It’s not often that the latest issue of the Journal of the American Ceramic Society to hit the newsstands…

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Defense agency soliciting proposals for materials research for countering WMDs

By / August 9, 2011

Credit: DTRA. We received the following from the DOD Basic and Applied Sciences Directorate, Defense Threat Reduction Agency: DTRA’s mission is to safeguard America and its allies from Weapons of Mass…

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Materials stories that may also be of interest

By / August 5, 2011

Check ’em out: Low-cost system spots failing bridges; new sensor technology helps make bridges safer Rice University researchers ‘armchair’ nanotubes could improve power grid’s efficiency Russia offers Germany help on…

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Improving MgO-containing castable refractories without excessive expansion

By Eileen De Guire / August 5, 2011

Refractory castables paddle mixer. Credit: Refractory and Applications Blog. Much of the research we report on can be compared to thoroughbred racehorses: it’s elegant, confident, stunning and promising. Now and…

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University of Limoges developing composite ceramics for aeronautics applications

By Martin Grolms / August 4, 2011

ZrC-SiC materials from poly(methylvinylsilane) Credit Pizon, et al.; Advanced Engineering Materials. New advanced materials are often drivers of technologies, especially for aeronautics applications. Many materials have been developed to resist severe…

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“Science to Start-ups”—Innovation Corps launched by NSF

By Eileen De Guire / August 1, 2011

The National Science Foundation, Arlington, Va. Credit: NSF. Our nation’s capitol was an interesting place to be last week, but not because of the impossible-to-escape budget politics that dominated the…

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Ceramics from alumina-loaded preceramic paper for lightweight applications

By Martin Grolms / August 1, 2011

Example of sintered alumina turbine, manufactured from alumina paper in previous work by Travitzky, et als. Credit: Paper Technology Foundation (PTS), Munich, Germany. Preceramic paper processing is an interesting novel approach…

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Materials stories that may also be of interest

By / July 29, 2011

Sun-free photovoltaics: Silicon chip micro-reactors contain photonic crystals on both flat faces, with external tubes for injecting fuel and air and ejecting waste products. In use, these reactors would have…

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Metallic conductivity in high-temperature cement

By Eileen De Guire / July 26, 2011

Crystal structure of Mayenite (12CaO-7Al2O3). Credit: Paul Myers, CERAM Research Ltd. on AZoM With the Cements Division meeting wrapping up in Nashville, Tenn. this week, an article in the July…

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Get flexible: Georgia Tech group shows how to ‘draw’ nano-sized ferroelectric structures on plastic substrates

By / July 20, 2011

Georgia Tech researchers display samples of materials on which ferroelectric nanostructures have been fabricated by thermochemical nanolithography. Graduate research assistant Yaser Bastani (left) with silicon, assistant professor Nazanin Bassiri-Gharb with…

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