[Images above] Credit: NIST
NANOMATERIALS
Unlocking radiation-free quantum technology with graphene
Researchers at Paul Scherrer Institute and Aalto University showed how it is possible to use graphene to create heavy fermions. While heavy fermion superconductors have been known for decades, making usable quantum technologies out of them has remained a critically open challenge.
A graphene cloak keeps artworks’ colors ageless
Researchers showed that a layer of carbon atoms can preserve a painting’s vibrant hues—and can be applied and removed without damage.
ENERGY
Mixing it up: A low-cost way to make efficient, stable perovskite solar cells
Monash University researchers identified a way to create nickel oxide films of sufficient quality in solution and at relatively low temperatures of less than 150 degrees Celsius. Nickel oxide is used as an inexpensive hole-transport layer in perovskite solar cells because of its favourable optical properties and long-term stability.
Cutting through noise for better solar cells
Physicists from the University of Utah and Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin used cross-correlation noise spectroscopy to measure miniscule fluctuations in electrical current flowing between materials inside silicon solar cells, which often results in a loss of energy and lower efficiency.
ENVIRONMENT
Giving a ‘tandem’ boost to solar-powered water splitting
Nagoya Institute of Technology researchers combined titanium oxide and p-type cubic silicon carbide into a tandem structure that makes for a highly durable and efficient water splitting cell. Each material absorbs solar energy at different frequency bands, allowing more of the incoming light to excite charge carriers and generate the necessary currents.
Collective battery storage beneficial for decarbonized world
Researchers led by University of Otago found the benefits of batteries are even greater when shared across communities. They considered both load smoothing around the average and peak shaving, where the battery ensures grid power demand does not exceed a set threshold.
MANUFACTURING
3D printing opens DOD to unnecessary cyber risk
Even as 3D printing is gaining momentum in the military, unless the systems are properly secured, they can be vulnerable to unauthorized changes to designs and open up the Defense Department’s networks to unnecessary cybersecurity risk, DOD’s inspector general said in a July 7 report.
OTHER STORIES
Soft shell makes hard ceramic less likely to shatter
Rice University researchers, along with colleagues in Hungary, Canada, and India, found a thin shell of soft polymer can help keep 3D-printed ceramic structures called schwarzites from shattering.
First study of nickelate’s magnetism finds a strong kinship with cuprate superconductors
Researchers at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Stanford University , and Diamond Light Source made the first measurements of magnetic excitations that spread through nickelate like ripples in a pond. The results reveal both important similarities and subtle differences between nickelates and cuprates.
The pressure is off and high temperature superconductivity remains
University of Houston researchers developed a new pressure quenching technique at high temperatures to induce superconductivity in iron selenide crystals; superconductivity was achieved—and sustained—without pressure.
New electronic paper displays brilliant colors
Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology developed a new type of reflective screen that offers optimal colour display while using ambient light to keep energy consumption to a minimum. The screen uses a previously researched, porous, and nanostructured material that contains tungsten trioxide, gold, and platinum.
Researchers trace dust grain’s journey through newborn solar system
A research team led by University of Arizona reconstructed the history of a dust grain that formed during the birth of the solar system more than 4.5 billion years ago. The grain is one of several inclusions known as calcium-aluminum rich inclusions, discovered in the Allende meteorite, which landed in the Mexican state of Chihuahua in 1969.