Archive for the ‘materials’ category: Page 234
Apr 28, 2019
China develops unique heat-resistant material for hypersonic aircraft
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in categories: materials, transportation
Chinese scientists have developed a new heat-resistant material for hypersonic aircraft, as it can endure over 3,000 C from friction caused by a Mach 5–20 flight within the atmosphere.
A lead scientist said the material outperforms all similar foreign-made ones with its high melting point, low density and high malleability.
The new material enables a hypersonic aircraft to fly at Mach 5–20 within the atmosphere for several hours, as the high heat resulting from the friction between the aircraft and the air reaches between 2,000 C to 3,000 C, a temperature normal metal would not be able to endure.
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Apr 26, 2019
Researchers develop new class of anti-ice surfaces
Posted by Saúl Morales Rodriguéz in categories: climatology, materials
Scraping an icy windshield can be a seasonal struggle for those that live in colder climates. But engineers from UBC’s Okanagan campus are aiming to ease that winter frustration with a new surface coating that can shed ice from large areas using little effort.
The new anti-ice coating is a new class of surfaces called low interfacial toughness (LIT) materials and were developed by UBC Okanagan researchers in a new study published this week in the journal Science.
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Apr 26, 2019
The Glass Age, Part 1: Flexible, Bendable Glass
Posted by Quinn Sena in categories: innovation, materials
Circa 2014
Be amazed as Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman introduce us to a whole new way of thinking about glass. Learn the history of glass innovation and watch incredible demonstrations of bendable optical fiber and thin, ultra-flexible glass. This is the Glass Age, where materials science is constantly pushing boundaries and creating new possibilities for glass-enabled technology and design. See how glass is shaping the future at www.TheGlassAge.com
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Apr 26, 2019
Researchers discover surprising quantum effect in hard disk drive material
Posted by Quinn Sena in categories: materials, quantum physics
Scientists find surprising way to affect information storage properties in metal alloy.
Sometimes scientific discoveries can be found along well-trodden paths. That proved the case for a cobalt-iron alloy material commonly found in hard disk drives.
As reported in a recent issue of Physical Review Letters, researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, along with Oakland University in Michigan and Fudan University in China, have found a surprising quantum effect in this alloy.
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Apr 26, 2019
Building the smart cities of the future
Posted by Genevieve Klien in categories: futurism, materials
This article is the first part in a series on smart cities. See more from Christine Wong.
Smart cities are coming under siege.
In Songdo, South Korea, clusters of concrete high-rises sit empty, waiting for an influx of foreign workers that hasn’t materialized. The $40 billion smart city, which was to be completed last year, is only 70 percent finished. Just 100,000 people live in Songdo so far, well short of its target population of 300,000.
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Apr 25, 2019
A new way to ‘freeze’ cells promises to transform the common cell-freezing practice
Posted by Paul Battista in categories: biotech/medical, materials
A team of Japanese researchers has—for the first time—demonstrated preserving frozen animal cells without a cryoprotectant agent (CPA), a substance that can protect biological material from freezing damage. To keep cells alive, all the conventional freezing methods needed to add a CPA, which can be potentially toxic and associated with cell damage and death. Their method only relies on ultrarapid cooling—or really fast freezing—for cells and vital biological material during freezing process. A safe freezing without CPA method would not only revolutionize how important research and medical material is stored, but greatly advance any and all research methods within those fields. The study was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) on April 1st, 2019.
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Apr 24, 2019
Study opens a new route to achieving invisibility without using metamaterials
Posted by Quinn Sena in categories: electronics, materials
A pair of researchers at Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) describes a way of making a submicron-sized cylinder disappear without using any specialized coating. Their findings could enable invisibility of natural materials at optical frequency and eventually lead to a simpler way of enhancing optoelectronic devices, including sensing and communication technologies.
Making objects invisible is no longer the stuff of fantasy but a fast-evolving science. ‘Invisibility cloaks’ using metamaterials—engineered materials that can bend rays of light around an object to make it undetectable—now exist, and are beginning to be used to improve the performance of satellite antennas and sensors. Many of the proposed metamaterials however only work at limited wavelength ranges such as microwave frequencies.
Now, Kotaro Kajikawa and Yusuke Kobayashi of Tokyo Tech’s Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering report a way of making a cylinder invisible without a cloak for monochromatic illumination at optical frequency—a broader range of wavelengths, including those visible to the human eye.
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Apr 24, 2019
Modified ‘white graphene’ for eco-friendly energy
Posted by Quinn Sena in categories: biotech/medical, materials
Scientists from Tomsk Polytechnic University (TPU), together with colleagues from the United States and Germany, have found a way to obtain inexpensive catalysts from hexagonal boron nitride or “white graphene.” The technology can be used in the production of environmentally friendly hydrogen fuel.
The researchers have found a new way to functionalize a dielectric, otherwise known as white graphene, i.e. hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), without destroying it or changing its properties. Thanks to the new method, the researchers synthesized a polymer nano carpet with strong covalent bond on the samples.
Prof Raul Rodriguez from the TPU Research School of Chemistry & Applied Biomedical Sciences explains:
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Apr 24, 2019
Polymer reversibly glows white when stretched
Posted by Quinn Sena in categories: chemistry, materials
Researchers at the University of Fribourg’s Adolphe Merkle Institute (AMI) and Hokkaido University in Japan have developed a method to tailor the properties of stress-indicating molecules that can be integrated into polymers and signal damages or excessive mechanical loads with an optical signal.
As part of their research activities within the National Center of Competence in Research Bio-inspired Materials, Professor Christoph Weder, the chair of Polymer Chemistry and Materials at AMI, and his team are investigating polymers that change their color or fluorescence characteristics when placed under mechanical load. The prevailing approach to achieve this function is based on specifically designed sensor molecules that contain weak chemical bonds that break when the applied mechanical force exceeds a certain threshold. This effect can cause a color change or other pre-defined responses. A fundamental limitation of this approach, however, is that the weak bonds can also break upon exposure to light or heat. This lack of specificity reduces the practical usefulness of stress-indicating polymers. It normally also makes the effect irreversible.
Addressing this problem, Weder and Dr. Yoshimitsu Sagara—a Japanese researcher who spent two years in Weder’s group at AMI before joining Hokkaido University as an Assistant Professor—devised a new type of sensor molecule that can only be activated by mechanical force. Unlike in previous force-transducing molecules, no chemical bond breaking takes place. Instead, the new sensor molecules consist of two parts that mechanically interlock. This interconnection prevents the separation of the two parts, while still allowing them to be pushed together or pulled away from each other. Such molecular pushing and pulling causes the molecule’s fluorescence to change from off to on.
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