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Heavy Elements and State-of-the-Art Instruments Help Scientists to Map Uncharted Paths

Heavy elements known as the actinides are important materials for medicine, energy, and national defense. But even though the first actinides were discovered by scientists at Berkeley Lab more than 50 years ago, we still don't know much about their chemical properties because only small amounts of these highly radioactive elements (or isotopes) are produced every year; they're expensive; and their radioactivity makes them challenging to handle and store safely.

25 Mar 2021

Research Opens the Door to Fast Charging of Lithium-Ion Batteries

Perhaps the most frustrating limitation of owning an all-electric car is how long it takes to fully charge the battery. For a Tesla, for example, it takes about 40 minutes to charge it to 80% capacity using the most powerful charging station.

25 Mar 2021

Electrochemical CO2 Reduction to Formate Using a Sn/Reduced Graphene Oxide Catalyst

Decreasing the emission and efficient utilization (fixation) of carbon dioxide (CO2) are worldwide issues to prevent global warming. Promotion of the use of renewable energy is effective in reducing CO2 emissions.

25 Mar 2021

Fluorine and Fluoroalkyl Groups can Increase the Efficiency of Catalysts in Metathesis Reactions

Chemists from RUDN University found out that fluorine and fluoroalkyl groups increase the efficiency of catalysts in metathesis reactions that are used in the pharmaceutical industry and polymer chemistry. The team also identified fluorine-containing compounds that can simplify the purification of the catalyst from the reaction product, making it reusable. The results of the study were published in the Russian Chemical Reviews journal.

25 Mar 2021

Researchers Find an Easy Way to Make Patterned Materials

Nature produces a startling array of patterned materials, from the sensitive ridges on a person's fingertip to a cheetah's camouflaging spots. Although nature's patterns arise spontaneously during development, creating patterns on synthetic materials is more laborious. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Central Science have found an easy way to make patterned materials having complex microstructures with variations in mechanical, thermal and optical properties -- without the need for masks, molds or printers.

25 Mar 2021

An Efficient Metallic Nanowire Foam for Particulate Filtration

During the COVID-19 pandemic, people have grown accustomed to wearing facemasks, but many coverings are fragile and not easily disinfected. Metal foams are durable, and their small pores and large surface areas suggest they could effectively filter out microbes. Now, researchers reporting in ACS' Nano Letters have transformed copper nanowires into metal foams that could be used in facemasks and air filtration systems. The foams filter efficiently, decontaminate easily for reuse and are recyclable.

25 Mar 2021

Novel Thermal Power Generator Converts Thermal Energy into Electric Energy

Researchers from China have come up with a highly reliable thermal power generator that integrates triboelectric effect and thermoacoustic effect.

25 Mar 2021

Stratasys to Offer SAF Technology for Production-Scale 3D Printing

Stratasys Ltd., a leader in polymer 3D printing solutions, today shared the first details about its upcoming line of powder bed fusion-based 3D printers.

From Stratasys Ltd. 25 Mar 2021

FLIR Systems and Neurala Make Deep Learning Inspection for the Production Line More Accessible

To empower those with no AI expertise and to reduce the complexity and cost of implementing deep learning inspection on the production line, FLIR Systems has collaborated with Neurala to develop a fully supported software and hardware solution.

24 Mar 2021

Liquid Instruments Introduces Moku:Go

Liquid Instruments, an innovator in precision software-defined instrumentation, has launched Moku:Go, a complete, portable platform designed to bring the engineering lab anywhere and usher in a new era of scientific and engineering education at universities around the world.

From Liquid Instruments 24 Mar 2021

Scientists Observe Helical Magnetic Ordering in a Topological Compound

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory have observed novel helical magnetic ordering in the topological compound EuIn2As2 which supports exotic electrical conduction tunable by a magnetic field. The discovery has significant implications for basic research into functional topological properties and may one day find use in a number of advanced technology applications.

24 Mar 2021

Tiny Rotations of 2D Layers can Significantly Change the Material Properties

The discovery of the material graphene, which consists of only one layer of carbon atoms, was the starting signal for a global race: Today, so-called "2D materials" are produced, made of different types of atoms. Atomically thin layers that often have very special material properties not found in conventional, thicker materials.

24 Mar 2021

New Chemical Compound may be Used to Develop Cheaper, Safer Near-Infrared Semiconductors

NIMS and the Tokyo Institute of Technology have jointly discovered that the chemical compound Ca3SiO is a direct transition semiconductor, making it a potentially promising infrared LED and infrared detector component.

24 Mar 2021

Developing High-Performance LEDs from Quasi-2D Perovskite Materials

Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are changing the lighting and display industry and have obtained significant advances than traditional lighting sources. The traditional materials LEDs, e.g., III-V semiconductor LEDs, organic LEDs (OLEDs) and quantum-dot LEDs (QLEDs), have achieved great success and gradually realized commercialization, but still face some challenges.

24 Mar 2021

Analysis Reveals a Dramatic Price Drop in Lithium-Ion Batteries

The cost of the rechargeable lithium-ion batteries used for phones, laptops, and cars has fallen dramatically over the last three decades, and has been a major driver of the rapid growth of those technologies. But attempting to quantify that cost decline has produced ambiguous and conflicting results that have hampered attempts to project the technology's future or devise useful policies and research priorities.

24 Mar 2021