[Images above] Credit: NIST
NANOMATERIALS
Stress test reveals graphene won’t crack under pressure
University of Toronto researchers showed graphene is highly resistant to fatigue, able to withstand more than a billion cycles of high stress before it breaks. They also tested graphene oxide and its fatigue behaviour was more like traditional materials.
It’s closeness that counts: How proximity affects the resistance of graphene
Researchers from the University of Göttingen, Chemnitz University of Technology, and Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt Braunschweig investigated the underlying crystal’s influence on the electrical resistance of graphene. Contrary to previous assumptions, the new results show the “proximity effect” process varies considerably at a nanometer scale.
ENERGY
For cheaper solar cells, thinner really is better
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and National Renewable Energy Laboratory outlined a pathway to slashing costs further for solar cells by slimming down the silicon cells themselves. They say the thickness could potentially be reduced to as little as 15 micrometers in the future.
Getting the right module temperature with thermography
Researchers from Hungary’s Szent István University conducted an analysis of the thermal behavior of PV modules under outdoor operating conditions through thermography, which they claim shows the most used software for temperature predictions may not be as precise as expected.
New research could aid cleaner energy technologies
A team from Binghamton University, Brookhaven National Laboratory, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology studied how gas molecules affect the atoms beneath the surface of cupric oxide. They hope the results can lead to better catalysts, improved batteries, longer-lasting vehicles, and other higher-quality products.
New electrode design may lead to more powerful batteries
Engineers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology came up with a new electrode concept that, in addition to lithium metal, uses two additional classes of solids, “mixed ionic-electronic conductors” and “electron and Li-ion insulators,” so that the whole solid battery can remain mechanically and chemically stable as it goes through its cycles of use.
BIOMATERIALS
Nanoparticle chomps away plaques that cause heart attacks
Michigan State University and Stanford University scientists developed a macrophage-specific nanotherapy based on single-walled carbon nanotubes that eats away—from the inside out—portions of plaques that cause heart attacks.
OTHER STORIES
A nanoscale lattice of palladium and yttrium makes for a superlative carbon-linking catalyst
Researchers at Tokyo Institute of Technology showed a palladium-based intermetallic electride, Y3Pd2, can improve efficiency of carbon-carbon cross-coupling reactions, which are among most widely used reactions for formation of carbon-carbon bonds in organic and medicinal chemistry.
Making high-temperature superconductivity disappear to understand its origin
Brookhaven National Laboratory researchers doped a cuprate containing layers of bismuth oxide, strontium oxide, calcium, and copper oxide so much that superconductivity eventually disappeared, which enabled them to identify that purely electronic interactions likely lead to high-temperature superconductivity.
A new open access journal for materials science
The Royal Society of Chemistry announced the launch of Materials Advances, sister to Journal of Materials Chemistry A, B, and C. The new journal will be free to read and free to publish in for two years.