[Images above] Credit: NIST


NANOMATERIALS

Researchers create nanoscale sensors to better see how high pressure affects materials

Researchers fit a series of nanoscale sensors into diamonds used to exert high pressures on tiny material samples, which allowed them to image, measure, and calculate six different stresses and also measure changes in a material’s magnetism.

Machine learning could reveal graphene oxide’s real structure

Researchers led by Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation revisited the structure of graphene oxide using a new clustering algorithm developed in their laboratory and predicted centroid structures that are truly representative of the material.


ENERGY

Tests measure solar panel performance beyond established standards

To address the knowledge gap in degradation mechanisms for various photovoltaic types, researchers performed tests over five years in which they collected weather data and panel performance information. The study finds that applying an irradiance mask might add bias to the data without decreasing the spread.

Supercharging tomorrow: Australia first to test new lithium batteries

Monash University researchers in Australia are close to commercializing a lithium-sulphur battery that could outperform current market leaders by more than four times. The researchers have an approved filed patent for their manufacturing process, and prototype cells were fabricated by Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology.


OTHER STORIES

Chemists find path to ‘new blue’ in meteorite minerals

An Oregon State University scientist who made history a decade ago with the accidental discovery of first new blue inorganic pigment in more than two centuries has now analyzed the crystal structure of pigments based on hibonite, a mineral found in meteorites, which paves the way for more pigments with vivid hues that are stable, durable, and nontoxic.

Exploring the ​“dark side” of a single-crystal complex oxide thin film

Researchers led by Argonne National Laboratory used scanning probe microscopy to reveal insights about freestanding complex oxides that could eventually create an entirely new research field: complex oxide microelectronics.

Semiconductive properties see subvalent silver oxide contravene textbook rules

Chemists in Germany isolated a silver-rich oxide with an electron count in conflict with its physical properties. The team rationalized its observations by attributing them to an unusual bonding scenario featuring an extra stabilizing interaction between silver atoms.

Diamond defect takes 3D image of 27-atom cluster

Researchers at QuTech of Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands and Element Six in the U.K. created a new atomic-scale spectroscopy technique that uses a defect in the crystal structure of a diamond to produce 3D images of a 27-atom cluster with a spatial precision of less than 0.1 nm.

Moving domain walls induce losses in superconductor/ferromagnet hybrid systems

Physicists showed that the motion of domain walls can be detected by monitoring voltage generated in superconducting devices. This finding can facilitate magnetic racetrack memory applications.

Author

Lisa McDonald

CTT Categories

  • Weekly Column: “Other materials”