[Images above] Credit: NIST
NANOMATERIALS
Tiny metalens snaps outsize images
Tampere University researchers developed hybrid metaoptics consisting of a 4.5-mm thick refractive lens covered with a 500-µm thick quartz metaoptic film coated in square 700-nm tall silicon nitride pillars. The new single-lens device took full-color pictures whose quality was as good or better than ones captured by a commercial Sony camera.
ENERGY
Heat transport in energy materials: Study clarifies fundamental microscopic mechanisms
Researchers from the NOMAD Laboratory at the Fritz Haber Institute advanced the ability to compute a material’s thermal conductivity without experimental input. Their experiments shed light on the temporary formation of defect structures, which massively influences atomic motion for an extremely short period of time.
Microscopic pillars can recycle waste heat as energy
Researchers deposited hundreds of thousands of columns of gallium nitride on top of a silicon wafer and then removed layers of silicon from the wafer’s underside until a 200-nm thick sheet remained. This new design reduced the material’s overall thermal conductivity by 21% while leaving its electrical conductivity unchanged.
Seaweed-based material for heat storage
Researchers at Swansea University and the University of Bath created a material using a seaweed derivative called alginate that offers a big improvement in heat storage capacity. Compared to vermiculite, another carrier material, the alginate-based beads achieved the same heat energy storage capacity in just a quarter of the volume.
A baking soda solution for clean hydrogen storage
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory researchers investigated baking soda as a means of storing hydrogen. With the right mild tweaks in pressure, the bicarbonate–formate cycle can be reversed. That provides an on–off switch for an aqueous solution that can alternately store or release hydrogen.
ENVIRONMENT
Underwater exhibition explores the intersection of art, science, and coastal conservation
The University of Georgia Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant is collaborating with Georgia Southern University to host a special exhibition, “SUBMERGED: An Underwater Exhibition of Bioceramic Artwork,” at the UGA Aquarium. The exhibition will showcase a collection of sculptures made using algal biomass.
Meta’s former CTO has a new $50 million project: ocean-based carbon removal
Additional Ventures, a nonprofit formed by Meta’s former chief technology officer Mike Schroepfer, spun out a new research program called the Carbon to Sea Initiative that is dedicated to accelerating research into ocean alkalinity enhancement—one potential means of using the seas to suck up and store away even more carbon dioxide.
Light-activated concrete scrubs air pollution out of traffic tunnels
Researchers at the Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology developed a photocatalytic concrete coated in titanium dioxide and tested it in a traffic tunnel. Nitrogen oxides dropped by about 18% over 24 hours, and the end products of the reactions were salts that were quickly washed away by rain.
MANUFACTURING
Lasers pave the way to better use of cement
Engineers at Princeton University are deploying lasers to precisely evaluate a major drawback of 3D-printed cement—the material’s resistance to fracture. The researchers hope that progress in this area could lead to a wider use of additive manufacturing in cement-based structures.
Novel 3D glass printing method works without sintering
A 3D glass printing process developed at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology produces nanometer-size quartz glass structures that can be printed directly onto semiconductor chips. A hybrid organic–inorganic polymer resin serves as the starting material. Once formed, the nanostructure is heated in air to a temperature of 650°C.
OTHER STORIES
Physicists discover new state of matter based on bosons
Researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara observed an interesting material behavior within an overlapping arrangement of lattices of tungsten diselenide and tungsten disulfide. When light was shone on the lattice, it created a favorable environment for the particles to form a new state of matter called bosonic correlated insulator.
Exponential relaxation spectrum in glasses
Researchers at the Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences observed exponential relaxation events during the recovery process of glasses. This observation provides solid evidence that nonexponential relaxation peaks in glasses are composed of a series of exponential relaxation units.
Novel ferroelectrics for more efficient microelectronics
Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and The Pennsylvania State University observed and quantified real-time polarization switching of a representative ferroelectric wurtzite (Al0.94B0.06N) at the atomic scale with scanning transmission electron microscopy.
Astronomers downsize proposed Arecibo observatory replacement
Astronomers at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico revised their plans for a telescope to replace the original facility, which dramatically collapsed in 2020, due to a lack of support from the National Science Foundation. Their revision includes a downsized version of the original concept and would consist of 102 dishes, each 13 meters in diameter.