A new study has shown water can serve a previously undiscovered role to help micelles coalesce to spontaneously form long fibers. The study could help scientists to understand how light-harvesting molecules are incorporated into the micelle fiber as it assembles, which would be a key step to understanding some forms of artificial photosynthesis.
Sep 13th, 2016
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A research laboratory has improved its method to turn plain asphalt into a porous material that can capture greenhouse gases from natural gas.
Sep 13th, 2016
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Researchers, who began exploring thin-film tunable dielectrics using sputtered material nearly two decades ago, are now trying to leverage advanced and scalable materials deposition techniques like molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) to create tunable, high-frequency integrated circuits and devices with high-quality materials that are comparable to modern semiconductor technology.
Sep 13th, 2016
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Scientists found a way to compress ultrashort laser pulses, increasing its peak power to half a terawatt - which is equivalent to the output of hundreds of nuclear reactors.
Sep 13th, 2016
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Researchers have discovered a method that paves the way for a new generation of magnetic sensors. Their procedure can be used to greatly extend the functionality of such sensors, which is limited when conventional production methods are used, so that sensors can now be individually tailored to a wide variety of new applications.
Sep 13th, 2016
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Dubbed Crystalium, this new open-source database can help researchers design new materials for technologies in which surfaces and interfaces play an important role, such as fuel cells, catalytic converters in cars, computer microchips, nanomaterials and solid-state batteries.
Sep 13th, 2016
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Materials researchers have developed a technique that allows them to integrate graphene, graphene oxide and reduced graphene oxide onto silicon substrates at room temperature by using nanosecond pulsed laser annealing. The advance raises the possibility of creating new electronic devices, and the researchers are already planning to use the technique to create smart biomedical sensors.
Sep 13th, 2016
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A team of chemists has developed a method to yield highly detailed, three-dimensional images of the insides of batteries. The technique, based on magnetic resonance imaging, offers an enhanced approach to monitor the condition of these power sources in real time.
Sep 13th, 2016
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Liquid crystals are strange substances, both fish and fowl. They can flow like a liquid, but have the orderly molecular structure of a crystalline solid. And that internal structure can be changed by small cues from outside.
Sep 13th, 2016
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On-surface chemical Reactions can lead to novel chemical compounds not yet synthesized by solution chemistry.
Sep 13th, 2016
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As the breathalyzer does for alcohol, this experimental 'potalyzer' could provide a practical field test for determining whether a driver might be impaired from smoking marijuana.
Sep 13th, 2016
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Scientists have developed a method of allowing materials, commonly used in aircraft and satellites, to self-heal cracks at temperatures well below freezing.
Sep 13th, 2016
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Researchers receive two million euros to apply techniques from silicon solar cell processing to revolutionize the design of thin-film solar cells, improving their efficiency, cost and stability.
Sep 13th, 2016
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The electronic energy states allowed by quantum mechanics determine whether a solid is an insulator or whether it conducts electric current as a metal. Researchers have now theoretically predicted a novel material whose energy states exhibit a hitherto unknown peculiarity.
Sep 13th, 2016
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For the first time, scientists know what happens to a virus' shape when it invades a host cell. Understanding how the virus shape specifically changes could lead to more effective anti-viral therapies.
Sep 13th, 2016
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Fuel cells have long held promise as power sources, but low efficiency has created obstacles to realizing that promise. Researchers have identified the active form of an iron-containing catalyst for the trickiest part of the process: reducing oxygen gas, which has two oxygen atoms, so that it can break apart and combine with ionized hydrogen to make water.
Sep 12th, 2016
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