Graphene: Perfection is futile

This is good news for the global graphene community

30-Aug-2023 - The carbon material graphene has excellent electronic properties. But are they also stable enough to be useful in practice? Calculations from TU Wien say: Yes. Nothing in the world is perfect. This is also true in materials research. In computer simulations, one often represents a system in a ...

How to fire projectiles through materials without breaking anything

It sounds a bit like a magic trick

29-Nov-2022 - When charged particles are being shot through ultra-thin layers of material, sometimes spectacular micro-explosions occur, sometimes the material remains almost intact. This has now been explained at the TU Wien. It sounds a bit like a magic trick: Some materials can be shot through with fast, ...

Ceramic coatings do not fatigue

What determines the durability of high-performance coatings? Surprising results show: It is not material fatigue

18-Nov-2022 - Extremely thin ceramic coatings can completely change the properties of technical components. Coatings are used, for example, to increase the resistance of metals to heat or corrosion. Coating processes play a role for large turbine blades as well as for extremely stressed tools in production ...

"Hot" graphene reveals migration of carbon atoms

The study is an example of serendipity in research

27-Jun-2022 - The migration of carbon atoms on the surface of the nanomaterial graphene was recently measured for the first time. Although the atoms move too swiftly to be directly observed with an electron microscope, their effect on the stability of the material can now be determined indirectly while the ...

Electronic skin: multisensory hybrid material

Even more sensitive than a human fingertip

18-May-2022 - The “smart skin” developed by Anna Maria Coclite is very similar to human skin. It senses pressure, humidity and temperature simultaneously and produces electronic signals. More sensitive robots or more intelligent prostheses are thus conceivable. The skin is the largest sensory organ and at the ...

New State of Matter: Crystalline and Flowing at the Same Time

Particles with pompom-like structure

13-Dec-2021 - The predictions of researchers that certain particles of matter with sufficiently high density would form a new state - crystalline and flowing at the same time - could be confirmed in the laboratory. More than 20 years ago, researchers predicted that with sufficiently high density certain ...

Heat conduction record with tantalum nitride

"For the chip industry, tantalum nitride is a highly promising material"

07-Apr-2021 - How can we remove heat from computer chips as fast as possible? At TU Wien, a metal compound has now been identified that is particularly well suited for this purpose. A thermos bottle has the task of preserving the temperature – but sometimes you want to achieve the opposite: Computer chips ...

Moiré effect: How to twist material properties

2D materials have triggered a boom in materials research. Now it turns out that exciting effects occur when two such layered materials are stacked and slightly twisted

24-Mar-2021 - 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 ...

Old Mystery Solved: a "New Kind of Electrons"

Why do certain materials emit electrons with a very specific energy?

20-Nov-2020 - It is something quite common in physics: electrons leave a certain material, they fly away and then they are measured. Some materials emit electrons, when they are irradiated with light. These electrons are then called "photoelectrons". In materials research, so-called "Auger electrons" also play ...

How to Freeze Heat Conduction

25-Feb-2019 - Physicists have discovered a new effect, which makes it possible to create excellent thermal insulators which conduct electricity. Such materials can be used to convert waste heat into electrical energy. Every day we lose valuable energy in the form of waste heat - in technical devices at home, ...