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Researchers Develop a New, Highly Functional Desalination Membrane

Professor MATSUYAMA Hideto's research group at Kobe University's Research Center for Membrane and Film Technology has successfully developed a new desalination membrane. They achieved this by laminating a two-dimensional carbon material (*1) on to the surface of a porous polymer membrane (*2).

25 Jan 2021

Degradable, Sugar-Based Polymers for Cargo Delivery

Degradable, bio-based polymers offer options for chemical recycling, and they can be a tool to store and release useful molecules. Scientists have developed a class of sugar-based polymers that are degradable through acid hydrolysis.

25 Jan 2021

Reducing Unwanted Trap States Improves Performance of Organic Photodetectors

Organic photodetectors (OPDs) have a huge potential for applications in low-cost imaging, health monitoring and near infrared sensing. Yet, before industrially realizing these applications, the performance of these devices still needs to be improved.

25 Jan 2021

4D Printing Extended to Nanophotonics

The Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) and its research collaborators have successfully demonstrated the four-dimensional (4D) printing of shape memory polymers in submicron dimensions which are comparable to the wavelength of visible light. This novel development has allowed researchers to now explore new applications in the field of nanophotonics.

25 Jan 2021

Targeted Coating Modification Improves Graphene Oxide Nanofiltration Membrane

Nanofiltration (NF) is an advanced technology for treating wastewater containing organic micropollutants (OMPs).

25 Jan 2021

A New Approach for Highly Efficient, Affordable Grid-Scale Electricity Storage

Researchers in WMG at the University of Warwick, in collaboration with Imperial College London, have found a way to enhance hybrid flow batteries and their commercial use. The new approach can store electricity in these batteries for very long durations for about a fifth the price of current technologies, with minimal location restraints and zero emissions.

25 Jan 2021

Single-Atom Catalysts Based on Cheaper Materials may be More Effective

Metals such as gold or platinum are often used as catalysts. In the catalytic converters of vehicles, for example, platinum nanoparticles convert poisonous carbon monoxide into non-toxic CO2. Because platinum and other catalytically active metals are expensive and rare, the nanoparticles involved have been made smaller and smaller over time.

25 Jan 2021

OHIO Researcher Wins $1 Million in Grants to Develop Sustainable Construction Materials

The U.S. Department of Energy recently announced $8.7 million in awards to "Develop Emerging Carbon-Based Building and Construction Materials," with OHIO's Jason Trembly receiving two $500,000 grants for two separate projects focused on addressing climate change and sustainability issues surrounding construction and infrastructure.

25 Jan 2021

Filming Crystal Structure Transformation in Slow Motion

Laser beams can be used to change the properties of materials in an extremely precise way. This principle is already widely used in technologies such as rewritable DVDs. However, the underlying processes generally take place at such unimaginably fast speeds and at such a small scale that they have so far eluded direct observation.

25 Jan 2021

New Method for Smashing Metal Nanoclusters to Form Super-Hard Metals

Metallurgists have all kinds of ways to make a chunk of metal harder. They can bend it, twist it, run it between two rollers or pound it with a hammer. These methods work by breaking up the metal's grain structure -- the microscopic crystalline domains that form a bulk piece of metal. Smaller grains make for harder metals.

25 Jan 2021

New Dibenzophenazine-Based Liquid Crystals for Use in Optoelectronics, Solar Panels

New dibenzophenazine-based liquid crystals synthesized and studied by a professor from RUDN University together with his Indian collaborators could be utilized in solar panels and optoelectronics.

25 Jan 2021

Rapid and Reliable Oxygen / Nitrogen / Hydrogen Analysis in Solid Samples

With the new ELEMENTRAC ONH-p 2, ELTRA presents a powerful and robust elemental analyzer for measuring oxygen, nitrogen, and hydrogen concentrations in inorganic samples such as steel, iron, copper, or ceramics.

From ELTRA GmbH 25 Jan 2021

Electric Fields can Play a Decisive Role in Diamond Formation

Diamond, like graphite, is a special form of carbon. Its cubic crystal structure and its strong chemical bonds give it its unique hardness. For thousands of years, it has also been sought after as both a tool and as a thing of beauty. Only in the 1950s did it become possible to produce diamonds artificially for the first time.

22 Jan 2021

New Mixed Oxide Holds Promise as a Cathode Material for Sodium-Ion Batteries

Skoltech researchers and their collaborators from France, the US, Switzerland, and Australia were able to create and describe a mixed oxide Na(Li1/3Mn2/3)O2 that holds promise as a cathode material for sodium-ion batteries, which can take one day complement or even replace lithium-ion batteries. The paper was published in the journal Nature Materials.

22 Jan 2021

Electron Transfer Discovery is a Step Toward Efficient Storage of Renewable Energy

The liquid electrolytes in flow batteries provide a bridge to help carry electrons into electrodes, and that changes how chemical engineers think about efficiency.

22 Jan 2021