[Images above] Credit: NIST


NANOMATERIALS

New technique allows researchers to scrape beyond the surface of nanomaterials

Researchers from Drexel University, Warsaw Institute of Technology, and Institute of Microelectronics and Photonics reported a new way to look at the atoms that make up MXenes and their precursor materials, MAX phases, using a technique called secondary ion mass spectrometry.


ENERGY

Research consortium hits 30.1% efficiency on perovskite/silicon tandem solar cell

The Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research, Delft University of Technology, Eindhoven University of Technology, and Belgian research institute Imec achieved a 30.1% power conversion efficiency with a semi-transparent perovskite solar cell, combined with a crystalline silicon solar cell in a four-terminal tandem configuration.


BIOMATERIALS

Researchers prove that COVID-19 disinfectant works in latest research paper

University of Central Florida researchers proved the efficacy of nano yttrium silicate to kill several serious viruses, including SARS and Zika. Their test of yttrium silicate in white light disinfected surfaces with high viral loads in approximately 30 minutes.


ENVIRONMENT

Rare diamonds suggest water lurks much deeper in Earth’s interior than scientists thought

Researchers found that a diamond contained inclusions that can hold more water and seem to have existed on the boundary between the upper and lower mantle. The results suggest that there may be water deeper in the Earth than scientists thought, which could affect our understanding of the deep water cycle and plate tectonics.

Life on Earth may have started with clay

In a paper written to commemorate the work of Ned Seeman, inventor of the field of DNA nanotechnology, UC Santa Barbara biophysicist emerita Helen Hansma outlines her longstanding idea that primitive life, in precellular arrangements that evolved into our lipid and protein-based cells, may have gotten its start in micaceous clay.


MANUFACTURING

Low-cost and sustainable battery production enabled by new cathode fabrication process

Advanced materials technology company Sylvatex announced a new production method for electric vehicle-grade cathode active materials with a 25% reduction in cost, 40% reduction in plant capital requirements, and up to 80% reduction in energy usage.


OTHER STORIES

Tamed explosion: Physicists find way to control detonation wave in new type of engine

Researchers at Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology theoretically predicted synchronization—a kind of self-regulation—in detonation waves. The discovery could help tame this chaotic process to stabilize combustion in a rotating detonation engine.

Electronic laboratory notebook offers a lossless materials data management platform

Researchers led by Waseda University developed a laboratory data management platform that describes the relations between properties, structures, and experimental processes in electronic laboratory notebooks. In this electronic laboratory notebook, experimental events and related environmental parameters are represented as knowledge graphs.

Fundamental research improves understanding of new optical materials

Researchers from Ames National Laboratory and Iowa State University developed a colloidal synthesis method for alkaline earth chalcogenides. This method allows them to control the size of the nanocrystals in the material.

Researchers show that chiral oxide catalysts align electron spin

Researchers from Germany and the United States examined catalysts consisting of thin, chiral copper oxide layers on a thin film of gold. The data showed that the spin polarization of the electrons depends on which layer the electrons come from.

This multilayer film constricts under an electric field

Researchers discovered electrostriction properties in gadolinium-​doped cerium oxide. Many of the current highest-performing electrostrictors contain lead. Increasing the number of interfaces allowed them to make films with electrostriction coefficients 1,000 times as high as commercial lead-based electrostrictors.

Webinar: The role of engineering to address climate change

The Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable, an initiative of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, will convene a webinar to discuss a recent report on the role of engineering to address climate change by the Engineering Research Visioning Alliance. The webinar takes place September 29 at 1 p.m. ET.

Author

Lisa McDonald

CTT Categories

  • Weekly Column: “Other materials”