Materials

Researchers at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities have synthesized a thin film of a unique topological semimetal material with the potential to generate more computing power and memory storage using less energy. Their work is published…

Washington State University researchers created a way to 3D-print two types of steel in the same circular layer using two welding machines. The bimetallic material is 33% to 42% stronger than either metal alone. The method uses common,…

MIT and Duke University chemists discovered a novel way to strengthen polymers—throw a few weaker bonds into the material. For polyacrylate elastomers, researchers increased materials' resistance to tearing by 10x just by using a weaker…

Regardless of your feelings about disposable diapers, whether they're a curse or a blessing or both, I think we can all agree that they do their job - absorbing - pretty well. This is due to the hydrogel material imbued into them.…

No, I’m not talking about the Beach Boys (yes, I’m an old); I’m talking about harvesting energy from vibrations in our surroundings. Researchers have developed an energy-generating device of piezoelectric composites and carbon…

AI apps need denser, more powerful computer chips. However, today’s semiconductor chips are made with boxy 3D structures, making stacking multiple layers of transistors to create dense integrations challenging. By using ultrathin 2D…

A new quantum material with magnetic properties may pave the way for ultra-fast and considerably more energy-efficient computers and mobile devices. While these materials tend to work only in cold temperatures, a research team at Chalmers…

Phase change inks could transform how we heat and cool buildings, homes, and cars, reducing energy use and global greenhouse gas emissions. Research led by Dr. Mohamad Taha and published in The Royal Society of Chemistry’s Journal of…

Refractive lenses have been around forever—800 years, in fact. The basic architecture of lenses, however, may be changing. Metamaterials could revolutionize lensing systems. Conventional lenses rely on refraction at interfaces to focus…

In a study published in Nature Physics, Rice University physicists and collaborators presented an array of experimental evidence showing their charge density wave discovery was rarer than first thought--a case where the magnetic and…