Researchers from Montana State University, working with colleagues at Columbia University, used nano-optical microscopy to develop a new understanding of how strain controls the light-emitting properties in 2D materials.
University of Colorado Boulder researchers used ultrafast extreme ultraviolet lasers to measure the properties of materials more than 100 times thinner than a human red blood cell. The group’s target, a film just 5 nanometers thick, is the thinnest material that researchers have ever been able to fully probe.
Researchers in Germany created a “smart nanosheet” from a layer of ultrathin molecular carbon that can fish protein complexes out of mixtures, thus allowing molecular biologists to examine protein structures and functions much faster.
A team of researchers at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore report a common industrial coating technique called “thermal co-evaporation” can fabricate solar cell modules of 21 cm2 size with record power conversion efficiencies of 18.1%.
Researchers at Pohang University of Science & Technology used a catalyst that combines platinum and hydrogen tungsten bronze to solve the corrosion in fuel cells that occur when hydrogen cars are shut down.
Researchers in Singapore and China demonstrated a “quasi-solid-state” battery—made from materials somewhere between a liquid and a solid—that can be compressed by as much as 60% while maintaining high energy density and good stability over 10,000 charge–recharge cycles.
Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and California Institute of Technology found copper that was once bound with oxygen is better at converting carbon dioxide into renewable fuels than copper that was never bound to oxygen.
Rice University researchers used an infrared laser cutter to turn adhesive tape into a silicon oxide film that replaces troublesome anodes in lithium metal batteries. The technique may also produce films to support metal nanoparticles, protective coatings, and filters.
The production of conventional fired clay bricks is loaded with environmental problems. Civil engineers Gabriela Medero and Sam Chapman set up the company Kenoteq in 2009, which sells bricks made from construction waste that do not need to be fired in a kiln.
University of Rochester chemical engineers, in collaboration with researchers at the Naval Research Laboratory, the University of Pittsburgh, and OxEon Energy, demonstrated that a potassium-promoted molybdenum carbide catalyst efficiently and reliably converts carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide.
Researchers from ETH Zurich fused 3D printing with casting methods to devise an “eggshell” concrete 3D printing process that allows for the fabrication of nonstandard, structurally optimized concrete structures.
A new set of online, noncredit courses from the University at Buffalo explore fundamental concepts and mechanics of photovoltaic technology. The series is available on the Coursera platform and includes Solar Energy Systems Overview; Solar Energy and Electrical System Design; and Solar Energy Codes, Permitting and Zoning.
Using the components of natural nacre, researchers made a composite material by forming wavy sheets of the mineral aragonite on a patterned chitosan film and filling the space between sheets with silk fibroin. The material was almost twice as strong and four times as tough as previous nacre mimics.
Researchers led by Durham University (U.K.) and Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology IWU (Germany) created a new material made of ceramic spheres encased in a cellular aluminum structure that in tests could not be cut by angle grinders, drills, or high-pressure water jets.
