Liquid-Gated Membranes Filter Water With Higher Efficiency, Longer Time to Foul
Filtering and treating water, both for human consumption and to clean industrial and municipal wastewater, accounts for about 13 percent of all electricity consumed in…
Materials Science
New Battery Design Extends the Life of Low-Cost, Lightweight Batteries
New battery design could greatly extend the shelf life of single-use metal-air batteries for electric vehicles, off-grid storage, and other applications. Metal-air batteries are one…
Scientists Replicate Surface Structures at the Atomic Scale
Yale researchers have developed a procedure that can replicate surface structures at the atomic scale – a breakthrough that could lead to better catalysts, improved…
Scientists Develop New Material That Cleans and Splits Water
Researchers at EPFL’s Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering have developed a photocatalytic system based on a material in the class of metal-organic frameworks. The…
Novel Surface Design Overcomes Condensation, Offers New Approach to Liquid-Repelling Surfaces
“Omniphobic” might sound like a way to describe someone who is afraid of everything, but it actually refers to a special type of surface that…
Probiotics and Antibiotics Eradicate Drug-Resistant Bacteria
In the fight against drug-resistant bacteria, MIT researchers have enlisted the help of beneficial bacteria known as probiotics. In a new study, the researchers showed…
‘Robotic Skins’ Turn Inanimate Objects Into Multifunctional Robots
Developed in the lab of Yale’s Rebecca Kramer-Bottiglio, NASA-inspired robotic skins enable users to turn soft objects – a stuffed animal or a foam tube,…
New Technique Allows Engineers To 3D Print Colloidal Crystals
MIT engineers have united the principles of self-assembly and 3-D printing using a new technique, which they highlight today in the journal Advanced Materials. By…
Cannibalistic Materials Spontaneously Form New Nanostructures
Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory induced a two-dimensional material to cannibalize itself for atomic “building blocks” from which stable structures…
New Dual-Layer Solar Cell Sets Record for Efficiently Generating Power
Materials scientists from the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering have developed a highly efficient thin-film solar cell that generates more energy from sunlight than typical…
Scientists Uncover Key Element to How Glasses Transition Into Resilient States
Addressing a centuries-old question, researchers have uncovered a key element to how glasses transition into very resilient states. This breakthrough could allow for more reliable…
Engineers Incorporate Optoelectronic Diodes Into Washable Fabrics
The latest development in textiles and fibers is a kind of soft hardware that you can wear: cloth that has electronic devices built right into…
Scientists Reveal The Great Pyramid Of Giza Can Focus Electromagnetic Energy
An international research group applied methods of theoretical physics to investigate the electromagnetic response of the Great Pyramid to radio waves. Scientists predicted that under…
Scientists Toughening Graphene by Integrating Carbon Nanotubes
Rice University researchers have found that fracture-resistant “rebar graphene” is more than twice as tough as pristine graphene. Graphene is a one-atom-thick sheet of carbon….
It May Soon Be Easy And Practical To Use Metals With 3D Printing
In the last several years, 3D printing with plastics has advanced rapidly. Now, a team of researchers have shown that it may soon be as…
Kirigami-Inspired Technique Manipulates Light, Could Enable Microchip-Based 3D Optical Devices
Nanokirigami has taken off as a field of research in the last few years; the approach is based on the ancient arts of origami (making…
Janus Graft Block Copolymers, A Breakthrough in Nanostructured Materials
Block copolymers (BCPs) have been of great interest to researchers in recent years. These nanostructured materials, made from blocks of chemically dissimilar polymers, self-assemble to…
Heat-Conducting Crystals Help High-Power Electronics Keep Their Cool
The inner workings of high-power electronic devices must remain cool to operate reliably. High internal temperatures can make programs run slower, freeze or shut down….