[Images above] Credit: NIST
NANOMATERIALS
Making high quality, uniform nanodiamonds without the explosions
University of North Texas researchers succeeded in making high quality, uniform nanodiamonds without resorting to explosions by designing a chemical process to mimic the environment found beneath Earth’s surface.
When a band falls flat: Searching for flatness in materials
An international collaboration curated the world’s first catalog of flat band materials to help reduce the serendipity in the search for new materials with exotic quantum properties.
Graphene gets enhanced by flashing
Rice University researchers modified their flash Joule heating process to produce doped graphene that tailors the atom-thick material’s structures and electronic states to make them more suitable for optical and electronic nanodevices.
‘Quantum brakes’ slow water flow through carbon nanotubes
Researchers at the École Normale Supérieure in France and the Flatiron Institute in New York found that quantum effects at a carbon nanotube wall’s carbon–water interface produce friction by allowing the flowing liquid to dissipate energy by scattering electrons in the carbon.
Schwinger effect seen in graphene
Researchers at the National Graphene Institute at the University of Manchester observed the so-called Schwinger effect in a device based on graphene superlattices.
ENERGY
Scientists achieve record efficiency for ultrathin solar panels
A team co-led by the University of Surrey successfully increased the levels of energy absorbed by wafer-thin photovoltaic panels by 25%. They used characteristics of sunlight to design a disordered honeycomb layer that lies on top of the silicon wafer.
Let the sun shine: Argonne technology enhances solar option during outages
Argonne National Laboratory’s novel building-solar controller is an algorithm and framework that coordinates multiple grid-interactive buildings, solar energy, and other energy resources in one integrated network.
ENVIRONMENT
Driving ethically: Understanding the sustainability of electric cars
A resource guide by AutoTrader looks at the history of electric vehicles, how they impact the planet, future challenges for electric car uptake, and tips for buying and owning an electric car responsibly.
Modeling carbon capture with quantum computing
Quantinuum and TotalEnergies developed a quantum algorithm that accurately models carbon capture in metal organic frameworks.
Volcano monitoring at Mount Etna using fiber optic cables
An international team of researchers used distributed acoustic sensing to determine the volcanic signature of the Sicilian volcano Etna very precisely.
OTHER STORIES
How glass learns to illuminate itself and create heat
Researchers at Fraunhofer IKTS in Dresden transferred their experience with ceramic processes to glass manufacturing to create functionalized and precision-molded glasses.
DNA computer using glass beads increases parallel processing power
Researchers at Emory University found a way to speed up parallel processing in a DNA computer by applying DNA as a coating on glass beads. The researchers note that their simple computer was able to perform the Boolean operations AND, OR, NOT, and YES.
New approach needed for forecasting corrosion within bridges, concrete structures
Researchers from Switzerland, the U.S., Canada, and Norway advocate for a paradigm change in the science of forecasting corrosion damage within reinforced concrete structures. To achieve this change, a multiscale, multidisciplinary approach is needed.
Improving asphalt road pavement using engineered nano mineral composites
Researchers at Swansea University and Technical University of Braunschweig developed an eco-friendly nano asphalt binder using engineered clay/fumed silica nanocomposites.
The future of 5G+ infrastructure could be built tile by tile
Georgia Institute of Technology researchers developed an additively manufactured tile-based approach to construct on-demand, massively scalable arrays of 5G+ enabled smart skins with the potential to enable intelligence on nearly any surface or object.
Study shows gaps in how STEM organizations collect demographic information
Researchers from the University of California, Davis surveyed 164 U.S.-based STEM organizations and found that while most organizations (80%) collected some demographic data, exactly what they collected varied. The researchers suggested several models for guiding survey design.