New aspects of surface wetting revealed

Findings may thus enable developing new strategies for surface processing

16-Nov-2022 - When a surface is getting wet, also the composition of the liquid plays a role in the wetting process. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (MPI-DS) found that phase separation within the wetting liquid directly affects the dynamics of spreading. Their ...

A Sandblaster at the Atomic Level

21-Sep-2021 - From semiconductors to moon rocks: Many materials are treated with ion beams. A research group at TU Wien has now been able to explain how this process depends on the roughness of the surface. If you want to remove a layer of paint from a metal surface, you can use a sandblaster: Countless grains ...

Analysis system enables targeted investigation of antiviral surfaces for material developers

Use of real-time polymerase chain reaction to test antiviral effectiveness

28-Oct-2020 - The need for everyday objects with antiviral surfaces is high due to the COVID 19 pandemic. It is known that the material composition of an object has an influence on the viability of viruses on surfaces. This is where the work of the Fraunhofer IFAM comes in: In cross-disciplinary research ...

Molecular swarm rearranges surface structures atom by atom

Nano-scientists develop a molecular tool to change the structure of a metal surface

09-Oct-2020 - The surface of metals plays a key role in many technologically relevant areas, such as catalysis, sensor technology and battery research. For example, the large-scale production of many chemical compounds takes place on metal surfaces, whose atomic structure determines if and how molecules react ...

Imprinted Color Patterns

Azopolymer material allows light-assisted imprinting of nanostructures for structurally colored surfaces

17-Jan-2020 - Structural colors appear because the imprinted pattern on a surface changes the wavelengths of light. Chinese scientists have introduced an azopolymer that allows the imprinting of nanopatterns in a novel room-temperature lithographic process. A key aspect of the technique is the light-induced ...

Lacquering before polishing

Technical Coatings for Additive Manufacturing

05-Dec-2018 - Additive Manufacturing (AM) has many advantages: custom manufacturing, flexible production and easy customization, for example. Yet many products have a high surface roughness and porosity. The post processing of the thus fabricated parts is time consuming and often a significant cost factor for ...

Joining metals without welding

Prototype for new connection technology

24-Apr-2018 - Welding is still the standard technique for joining metals. However, this laborious process carried out at high temperatures is not suitable for all applications. Now, a research team from the "Functional Nanomaterials" working group at Kiel University, together with the company Phi-Stone AG from ...

Surface modification using accelerated electrons

Fast, gentle, precise, stable and durable

16-Feb-2018 - Surfaces must satisfy a wide range of requirements: they need to be decorative, and even contribute substantially to hygiene. They also play a large role in biomedicine. There are numerous processes for functionalizing surfaces, depending on the application. Many are already well established and ...

New insights into underwater adhesives

18-Jan-2018 - A Korean research team, affiliated with UNIST has presented a new type of underwater adhesives that are tougher than the natural biological glues that mussels normally use to adhere to rocks, ships, and larger sea critters. This has attracted much attention as a technology that surpass the limits ...

Cold plasma: Get started with the Disc Jet

04-Apr-2017 - Plasmas are often found in the center of stars – on Earth, the electrically charged gas mixtures are a rare occurrence, such as in lightning discharges or aurora borealis lights. However, you can provide some help with high heat or high electrical voltages. Fraunhofer researchers have produced ...