New tech delivers high-tech film that blocks electromagnetic interference

05-Nov-2018 - Electromagnetic interference (EMI), which can harm smartphones, tablets, chips, drones, wearables, and evenaircraft and human health, is increasing with the explosive proliferation of devices that generate it. Themarket for EM-blocking solutions, which employ conductive or magnetic materials, is ...

Unmasking corrosion to design better protective thin films for metals

Analyzing oxide films at atomic level

08-Oct-2018 - Corrosion is an age-old problem that is estimated to cost about $1 trillion a year, or about 5 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product. Corrosion of metals can be particularly bad, but fortunately they are normally protected from catastrophic damage by naturally forming, super-thin oxide ...

Using gold nanoparticles to trigger sequential unfolding of 3D structures

21-Jun-2018 - Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a new technique that takes advantage of gold nanoparticles to trigger the sequential unfolding of three-dimensional structures using different wavelengths of light. Specifically, the technique makes use of the fact that different ...

TNT could be headed for retirement after 116 years on the job

18-Jun-2018 - Scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory and the U.S. Army Research Laboratory in Aberdeen, Maryland have developed a novel “melt-cast” explosive material that could be a suitable replacement for Trinitrotoluene, more commonly known as TNT. “The Army and the Laboratory, through the Joint ...

Sculpting with graphene foam

18-Jun-2018 - Rice University scientists have developed a simple way to produce conductive, three-dimensional objects made of graphene foam. The squishy solids look and feel something like a child's toy but offer new possibilities for energy storage and flexible electronic sensor applications, according to ...

ChemMaps lets researchers navigate the chemical universe

06-Jun-2018 - Researchers from North Carolina State University have created a new online service - ChemMaps - that allows users to interactively navigate the chemical space of over 8,000 drugs and 47,000 environmental compounds in 3D and real time. ChemMaps is designed to be a central resource for students and ...

Flexible, highly efficient multimodal energy harvesting

23-May-2018 - A 10-fold increase in the ability to harvest mechanical and thermal energy over standard piezoelectric composites may be possible using a piezoelectric ceramic foam supported by a flexible polymer support, according to Penn State researchers. In the search for ways to harvest small amounts of ...

Making carbon nanotubes as usable as common plastics

17-May-2018 - Northwestern University's Jiaxing Huang is ready to reignite carbon nanotube research. And he's doing so with a common chemical that was once used in household cleaners. By using an inexpensive, already mass produced, simple solvent called cresol, Huang has discovered a way to make disperse ...

Speeding up material discovery

Algorithm take months, not years, to find material for improved energy conversion

27-Apr-2018 - In even the most fuel-efficient cars, about 60 percent of the total energy of gasoline is lost through heat in the exhaust pipe and radiator. To combat this, researchers are developing new thermoelectic materials that can convert heat into electricity. These semiconducting materials could ...

New technology could wean the battery world off cobalt

13-Apr-2018 - Lithium-based batteries use more than 50 percent of all cobalt produced in the world. These batteries are in your cell phone, laptop and maybe even your car. About 50 percent of the world's cobalt comes from the Congo, where it's largely mined by hand, in some instances by children. But now, a ...