Materials & Innovations

DOE keeps 2020 cost-competitive solar target in its crosshairs with new $170M offering

By / April 13, 2011

Credit: NREL Last week the DOE announced $110 million in photovoltaic grants. Most recently, the agency announced it wants to invest another $170 million in specific advanced solar technologies and…

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Bioactive cement plaster: Bioengineering in action

By Martin Grolms / March 29, 2011

Electron micrographs of the cross-section of magnesium phosphate cement-cylinders. (a) MPC-cylinder without bacteria. (b) Macroporous structure within the inner section of freshly prepared MPC with embedded R. ruber bacteria. (c)…

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Materials stories that may also be of interest

By / March 29, 2011

Check them out: Role of parallel reformable bonds in the self-healing of cross-linked nanogel particles (also, Nanomaterials with give survive) Polyelectrolyte functionalized carbon nanotubes as efficient metal-free electrocatalysts for oxygen…

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Monday materials distractomatic: Mass spectacles

By / March 29, 2011

Tried to post this yesterday but got distracted myself. Actually, the student and young professional mixers at materials meetings seem to go pretty well, however it should be noted that…

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Spintronics may get boost from enhanced magnetism in BFO films

By / March 25, 2011

AFM image of a mixed-phase bismuth ferrite sample. The red and green areas indicate phase regions oriented at 90° to each other. Credit: Ramesh Group; Berkeley Lab. Following on the…

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Berkeley area group: Evidence mounts that ‘pseudogap’ is distinct phase in superconducting materials

By / March 25, 2011

New evidence from studies of Bi2201 (crystal structure inset) along the temperature range shown in green strongly supports the idea that the pseudogap is in fact a distinct phase of…

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Two new MgH2-based approaches for hydrogen storage proposed

By / March 23, 2011

Berkeley lab’s schematic of how high-capacity magnesium nanocrystals encapsulated in a gas-barrier polymer matrix provide a new and revolutionary hydrogen storage composite material. Credit: Jeff Urban; DOE. Two separate groups…

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Disordered TiO2 nanocrystal surface yields durable, more efficient photocatalyst

By / March 18, 2011

TEM image of a Ti02 nanocrystal after hydrogenation reveals engineered disorder on the crystal’s surface, a change that enables the photocatalyst to absorb infrared light. Credit S. Mao et al;…

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Denver Art Museum gets techical, too, with CoorsTek porcelain exhibit

By / March 18, 2011

Beakers, such as this, and other porcelain lab equipment will be be part of an art exhibit opening in early June, which highlights the beauty of functional clay products manufactured…

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Analysis of scale of animal trabeculae suggests new materials, structures

By / March 14, 2011

X-ray microtomograms of trabecular bone geometry across six orders of magnitude of animals’ body mass. (a) lesser dwarf shrew, (b) Arctic fox, (c) Przewlaski’s horse and (d) Asian elephant. Credit:…

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