Materials • advanced

Researchers from Drexel University and Trinity College in Ireland, have created ink for an inkjet printer from a highly conductive type of two-dimensional material called MXene. Recent findings, published in Nature Communications, suggest that the ink can be used to print flexible energy storage components, such as supercapacitors, in any size or shape. Conductive inks have…

A new coating for textile fibers shows promise for efficiently capturing toxic industrial chemicals and chemical warfare agents under real-world conditions, including high humidity. The research could lead to improved masks and personal protective equipment for soldiers and others at risk of exposure. Researchers at North Carolina State University and the U.S. Army’s Combat Capabilities…

Every year thousands of turtles come ashore along the beaches of the south Pacific coast of Nicaragua to lay their eggs. The female turtles return to the beaches on which they were born to lay an average of 100 ping-pong ball shaped eggs into nest holes dug out of the sand. The beaches in this…

Tiny, individual, flexible ribbons of crystalline phosphorus have been made by UCL researchers in a world first, and they could revolutionise electronics and fast-charging battery technology. Since the isolation of 2-dimensional phosphorene, which is the phosphorus equivalent of graphene, in 2014, more than 100 theoretical studies have predicted that new and exciting properties could emerge by producing…

Tiny bacteria could soon be chipping in to keep roads from chipping away in the winter, according to Drexel University researchers who are looking into new ways to make our infrastructure more resilient. Chemicals, like calcium chloride—commonly called “road salts—are used to prevent the ice formation and snow accumulation that can lead to dangerous travel conditions.…

Concrete pillars may be able to take comfort from stick-on wraps in order to prevent further cracking and extend a structure’s lifespan. Developed by the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU), and JTC, these ready-to-stick wraps help repair concrete structures. The new technology could be fundamental for urban cities to rehabilitate their older structures, such as…

PTFE – known widely by the popular brand Teflon – has been around for decades. Now an EU-funded project has developed a stretchable tape version, making a high-tech product fit for the space age. The Horizon 2020-funded ProPApp project improved and streamlined the production of an old and widely used polymer, bringing the technology into the…

A team of engineers at Tufts University has developed a series of 3D printed metamaterials with unique microwave or optical properties that go beyond what is possible using conventional optical or electronic materials. The fabrication methods developed by the researchers demonstrate the potential, both present and future, of 3D printing to expand the range of…

Sticking things together underwater is no easy feat; water is often a glue’s worst enemy. Now, scientists from Wageningen University and Research have created an injectable adhesive that can bond to surfaces underwater. Often, water weakens the mechanical properties of an adhesive and prohibits any good, solid contact with the surface. This has been a…

The color of a material can often tell you something about how it handles heat. Think of wearing a black shirt on a sweltering summer’s day — the darker the pigment, the warmer you’re likely to feel. Likewise, the more transparent a glass window, the more heat it can let through. A material’s responses to…

Tufts University engineers have developed a novel fabrication method to create dyed threads that change color when they detect a variety of gases. The researchers demonstrated that the threads can be read visually, or even more precisely by use of a smartphone camera, to detect changes of color due to analytes as low as 50…

Scientists at the Laboratory of Organic Electronics have developed an ultra-sensitive heat sensor that is flexible, transparent and printable. The results have potential for a wide range of applications – from wound healing and electronic skin to smart buildings. The ultra-sensitive heat sensor is based on the fact that certain materials are thermoelectric. The electrons in a…

Honey bees spend hours each day collecting pollen and packing it into tidy bundles attached to their hind legs. But all of that hard work could instantly be undone during a sudden rainstorm were it not for two substances the insect uses to keep the pollen firmly stuck in place: bee spit and flower oil.…

The potential for wearable electronics goes far beyond smart watches, but our current options for battery packs and circuit boards don’t make for the most comfortable E-socks. One solution, being developed by scientists in China, is to simply print flexible fibers on to transitional textiles or clothes. For example, they printed patterns that can harvest…

A recent University of Cambridge spin-out company, Paragraf, has started producing graphene—a sheet of carbon just one atomic layer thick—at up to eight inches in diameter, large enough for commercial electronic devices. Paragraf is producing graphene ‘wafers’ and graphene-based electronic devices, which could be used in transistors, where graphene-based chips could deliver speeds more than ten…

Spider silk, already known as one of the strongest materials for its weight, turns out to have another unusual property that might lead to new kinds of artificial muscles or robotic actuators, researchers have found. The resilient fibers, the team discovered, respond very strongly to changes in humidity. Above a certain level of relative humidity…

Materials that are hybrid constructions (combining organic and inorganic precursors) and quasi-two-dimensional (with malleable and highly compactable molecular structures) are on the rise in several technological applications, such as the fabrication of ever-smaller optoelectronic devices. An article published in the journal Physical Review B describes a study in this field resulting from the doctoral research of Diana Meneses Gustin and Luís…

Hiding an object from heat-sensing cameras could be useful for military and technology applications as well as for research. Efforts to develop such a method have been underway for decades with varying degrees of success. Now, researchers report in ACS Nano that they have fabricated an inexpensive, easy-to-produce film that makes objects completely invisible to infrared detectors.…

As computers advance, encryption methods currently used to keep everything from financial transactions to military secrets secure might soon be useless, technology experts warn. Reporting today in the journal Nature, a team of physicists and engineers led by University of Texas at Austin physics professor Xiaoqin Elaine Li report they have created a material with light-emitting…

Piezeolectric materials are used in many consumer products such as mobile phones, watches, and instruments. Now, scientists at Virginia Tech have found a way to 3D print piezoelectric materials so they are not restricted by shape or size. Xiaoyu ‘Rayne’ Zheng, assistant professor of mechanical engineering in the College of Engineering, and a member of the…

Three-dimensional (3D) weaving of composite fabrics can produce complex, single-piece structures that are strong and lightweight. Compared to traditional two-dimensional (2D) fabrics, 3D weaving reduces weight, eliminates the delamination often experienced with 2D fabrics, reduces crack risks, and lowers production time. 3D fabrics also offer direct and indirect manufacturing and operational cost reductions. What is…

A recent study, affiliated with UNIST has developed a system that produces electricity and hydrogen (H2) while eliminating carbon dioxide (CO2), which is the main contributor of global warming. Published This breakthrough has been led by Professor Guntae Kim in the School of Energy and Chemical Engineering at UNIST in collaboration with Professor Jaephil Cho…

The primary component of natural gas, methane, is itself a potent greenhouse gas. A recent study, affiliated with UNIST has unveiled a high performance catalyst for methane conversion to formaldehyde. This breakthrough has been led by Professor Kwang-jin Ahn and his team in the School of Energy and Chemical Engineering at UNIST in collaboration with…

You may have seen a kid play with a feather, or you may have played with one yourself: Running a hand along a feather’s barbs and watching as the feather unzips and zips, seeming to miraculously pull itself back together. That “magical” zipping mechanism could provide a model for new adhesives and new aerospace materials,…

It would be hard to imagine a happier success story than silicon-based electronics. In the six decades since Morris Tanenbaum built the first silicon transistor at Bell Labs, engineers have been able to shrink the size of the transistors they put on a silicon chip from microns to nanometers, and increase the density of circuit…