[Images above] Credit: NIST
NANOMATERIALS
Solving the mystery of the Alhambra’s purple gold
Sections of the gold decorations in the Alhambra palace and fortress are turning purple. University of Granada researchers found that nanoparticles are forming in the gold surfaces due to a two-step corrosion process, creating a purple shimmer.
Discovery of a law of friction may lead to 2D materials that minimize energy loss
Researchers at New York University Tandon School of Engineering discovered a fundamental friction law that may lead to design of 2D materials capable of minimizing energy loss. Their experiments on carbon structures showed a general reciprocal relationship between friction force per unit contact area and interfacial shear modulus.
New blue quantum dot technology could lead to more energy-efficient displays
Researchers led by University of Tokyo used a bottom-up, self-organizing strategy to create blue quantum dots that, when exposed to ultraviolet light, produce nearly perfect blue light. However, the quantum dots are short lived, and the researchers are now aiming to improve stability with the aid of industrial collaboration.
ENERGY
Israeli scientists make breakthrough on producing ‘green’ hydrogen fuel
Researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and Technion-Israel Institute of Technology created a splitting process assisted by solar energy that lowers the amount of the invested electrical energy needed to break the chemical bonds in the water molecule to generate hydrogen and oxygen.
BIOMATERIALS
New materials could enable longer-lasting implantable batteries
Using a new liquid fluorinated compound, Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers found that they could combine some of the functions of the cathode and the electrolyte in one compound, called a catholyte. This design allows for saving much of the weight of typical primary batteries.
ENVIRONMENT
This simple material could scrub carbon dioxide from power plant smokestacks
Researchers found aluminum formate has a talent for separating carbon dioxide from the other gases that commonly fly out of the smokestacks of coal-fired power plants. It also does not have the shortcomings of other proposed carbon filtration materials.
Ceramics that breathe oxygen at lower temperatures help us breathe cleaner air
Tohoku University researchers developed cerium-zirconium-based oxides with excellent oxygen storage capacity at 400ºC by controlling its crystal structure. Key to their success was introducing a tiny amount of transition metals, such as iron, into the oxides.
Terracotta system uses water to cool indoor spaces without electricity
Industrial designer and illustrator Yael Issacharov designed an air conditioning system whose terracotta tile structure is inspired by desert environments. Titled “Nave,” the system takes references from the traditional Palestinian technique of hanging terracotta water containers from ceilings to provide drinking water and space cooling.
MANUFACTURING
New study introduces the best graphite films
Researchers proposed a strategy to synthesize single-crystalline graphite films up to inch scale. Instead of a gas-phase carbon source, they use solid carbon materials to feed the graphite growth.
NIST technique simultaneously locates multiple defects on microchip circuits
By modifying an existing technique for identifying defects, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology developed a method that can simultaneously locate individual electrical flaws in multiple microcircuits on the same chip.
OTHER STORIES
Physicists detect surface melting in glasses
University of Konstanz physicists demonstrated the process of surface melting in a disordered material consisting of colloidal glass because the particles near the surface move much faster compared to the solid below.
New quantum phase discovered for developing hybrid materials
Osaka Metropolitan University researchers discovered an unprecedented phase transition in the dielectric compound Ba1-xSrxAl2O4, during which crystals achieve amorphous characteristics while retaining their crystalline properties.
Artificial intelligence deciphers detector ‘clouds’ to accelerate materials research
Researchers accelerated an X-ray probing technique by using machine learning to directly extract fluctuation information from the raw detector image of scattered photons. They say the technique can be applied to a variety of materials, including colloids, alloys, and glasses.
A novel multi-modal image retrieval system
Researchers from the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology developed a bimodal image retrieval system that takes both image and text as the input query to extract the desired image from a database.
“Smart glass” windows could alter sunlight to replace Wi-Fi
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology researchers created a system that uses “smart glass” elements called dual-cell liquid crystal shutters to rapidly alter polarity of sunlight passing through them. The polarity changes serve the same purpose as 1s and 0s in binary code, and could transmit data in lieu of traditional wi-fi routers.