materialsscienceandengineering: Electronic circuits printed...

materialsscienceandengineering:

Electronic circuits printed at one micron resolution

A research team consisting of MANA Independent Scientist Takeo Minari, International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (MANA), NIMS, and Colloidal Ink developed a printing technique for forming electronic circuits and thin-film transistors (TFTs) with line width and line spacing both being 1 μm. Using this technique, the research team formed fully-printed organic TFTs with a channel length of 1 μm on flexible substrates, and confirmed that the TFTs operate at a practical level.

Printed electronics – printing techniques to fabricate electronic devices using functional materials dissolved in ink – is drawing much attention in recent years as a promising new method to create large-area semiconductor devices at low cost. Because these techniques enable the formation of electronic devices even on flexible substrates, they are expected to be applicable to new fields such as wearable devices. In comparison, conventional printing technologies allow the formation of circuits and devices with line widths only as narrow as several dozen micrometers. Accordingly, they are not applicable to the creation of minute devices suitable for practical use. Thus, there were high expectations for developing new printing techniques capable of consistently fabricating circuits with line widths of several micrometers or less.

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This is incredible.

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“I’ve been moving mountains / that I once had to...

“I’ve been moving mountains / that I once had to climb” - Neck Deep

via: https://twitter.com/zackandtherest/status/769508577035726849

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thebeakerblog: nprfreshair: Netherlands-based artists Super A...

thebeakerblog:

nprfreshair:

Netherlands-based artists Super A and Collin van der Sluijs have collaborated to create a dazzling, 137-foot-tall mural of a bird with iridescent blue feathers and a chest composed of glittering gems and vines.

via My Modern Met

Wish I could paint like this. -Patrick

Intense.

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materialsscienceandengineering: Liquid Crystals: Intermediate...

materialsscienceandengineering:

Liquid Crystals: Intermediate phases of matter

The term liquid crystals may sound like an oxymoron, given that liquid matter consists of unaligned atoms or molecules in constant random motion while crystals are defined as solids whose atoms or molecules are arranged in a highly ordered microscopic structure, but this unique phase of matter is very real and quite relevant. Neither true liquids or crystals, liquid crystal phases of matter have many of the physical attributes of liquids but with a certain degree of order to its constituent molecules.

Liquid crystals were discovered in 1888 by an Austrian botanical physiologist who discovered that his cholesterol derivative appeared to have two melting points, first turning into a cloudy liquid at 145° C and then a transparent one at 178° C.  However, it wasn’t until many decades later that scientists truly began to study liquid crystals with interest, including one French physicist Pierre-Gilles de Gennes who would eventually receive a Nobel Prize for his work.

Generally cloudy in appearance, liquid crystals exist in a variety of phases of their own (called mesophases). Two of these such phases are shown above, compared with conventional solid and liquid matter. The nematic (meaning thread like) phase of a liquid crystal consists of molecules all aligned in the same direction even as they are capable of drifting around as in any other liquid. The smectic (meaning soap like) phase consists of molecules arranged in layers that can slip over each other. Other liquid crystal phases include chiral phases, discotic phases, and bowlic phases. 

The most common and perhaps well known use of liquid crystals is in liquid crystal displays, or LCDs, which rely on the changing optical properties of liquid crystals around electric fields.

Sources: ( 1 - images 2 + 3 ) ( 2 - image 1 ) ( 3 )

So important, but so weird.

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materialsscienceandengineering: Promising new cathode...

materialsscienceandengineering:

Promising new cathode material to enhance battery life

Nowadays Li-ion batteries power a wide range of electronic devices: mobile phones, tablets, laptops. They became popular in 90s and subsequently ousted widespread nickel-metal hydride batteries.

However, Li-ion batteries suffer a number of disadvantages. For example, their capacity may drop when temperature falls below zero. The price is also inhibitory due to the use of expensive lithium-containing materials—for example, Li-ion batteries are responsible for about half of the cost of the electric Tesla Model S vehicle. However, Li-ion batteries are compact, easy to use and high capacity, offering long performance from relatively small batteries.

One limiting factor of Li-ion batteries is the cathode, as capacity limits for most cathode materials have been reached. Hence, scientists and engineers are actively searching for new cathode materials capable of recharging completely within minutes, operating under high current densities, and storing more energy.

One of the most promising candidates for next-generation cathode materials is fluoride-phosphates of transition metals.

The work, directed by Prof. Evgeny Antipov, was conducted by a team of MSU research scientists together with their Russian and Belgian colleagues. It was devoted to the creation of a new, high-power cathode material based on a fluoride-phosphate of vanadium and potassium for Li-ion batteries. The results were published in Chemistry of Materials.

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Yay, battery chemistry!

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New bandage fights main cause of burn-related deaths

materialsscienceandengineering: Scientists achieve perfect...

materialsscienceandengineering:

Scientists achieve perfect efficiency for water-splitting half-reaction

Splitting water is a two-step process, and in a new study, researchers have performed one of these steps (reduction) with 100% efficiency. The results shatter the previous record of 60% for hydrogen production with visible light, and emphasize that future research should focus on the other step (oxidation) in order to realize practical overall water splitting. The main application of splitting water into its components of oxygen and hydrogen is that the hydrogen can then be used to deliver energy to fuel cells for powering vehicles and electronic devices.

The researchers, Philip Kalisman, Yifat Nakibli, and Lilac Amirav at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel, have published a paper on the perfect efficiency for the water reduction half-reaction in a recent issue of Nano Letters.

“I strongly believe that the search for clean and renewable energy sources is crucial,” Amirav told Phys.org. “With the looming energy crisis on one hand, and environmental aspects, mainly global warming, on the other, I think this is our duty to try and amend the problem for the next generation.

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Perfect efficiency? Crazy.

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materialsscienceandengineering: Pentanuclear iron catalyst...

fuckyeahphysica: On Heat hazesWhen viewing objects through the...

materialsscienceandengineering: Scientists prove feasibility...

materialsscienceandengineering:

Scientists prove feasibility of ‘printing’ replacement tissue

Using a sophisticated, custom-designed 3D printer, regenerative medicine scientists at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center have proved that it is feasible to print living tissue structures to replace injured or diseased tissue in patients.

Reporting in Nature Biotechnology, the scientists said they printed ear, bone and muscle structures. When implanted in animals, the structures matured into functional tissue and developed a system of blood vessels. Most importantly, these early results indicate that the structures have the right size, strength and function for use in humans.

“This novel tissue and organ printer is an important advance in our quest to make replacement tissue for patients,” said Anthony Atala, M.D., director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM) and senior author on the study. “It can fabricate stable, human-scale tissue of any shape. With further development, this technology could potentially be used to print living tissue and organ structures for surgical implantation.”

With funding from the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine, a federally funded effort to apply regenerative medicine to battlefield injuries, Atala’s team aims to implant bioprinted muscle, cartilage and bone in patients in the future.

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This will be huge.

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blazepress: Chemical flames. Art

blazepress:

Chemical flames.

Art

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fuckyeahphysica: Through the Looking Glass Sony’s Vaio logo...

materialsscienceandengineering: New material lights up when...

materialsscienceandengineering:

New material lights up when detecting explosives

Scientists have created a material which turns fluorescent if there are molecules from explosives in the vicinity. The discovery could improve, for example, airport security – and also it gives us an insight into a rather chaotic micro-world where molecules and atoms constantly are responding to their surroundings.

Unlike humans, dogs’ noses are so sensitive that they can smell explosives in the vicinity. They can detect single molecules in the air, and thus they may be valuable helpers when it comes to detecting explosives.

Inspired by such talents, science is devoting many resources on developing electronic or chemical “noses” which similarly can detect explosives molecules and thus warn that explosives may be hiding in the vicinity.

Researchers from University of Southern Denmark now report the creation of a new material, consisting of a set of molecules which react when encountering explosives molecules in their vicinity. The set consists of the molecules TTF-C[4]P and TNDCF.

TNDCF has the special talent that it becomes fluorescent when an explosives molecule is introduced to the set of molecules.

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This is cool and pretty useful.

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Researchers turn waste paper into oil cleaning aerogel

casadelsoulman: Tilt-shift photo of the space shuttle...

casadelsoulman:

Tilt-shift photo of the space shuttle Endeavour by NASA

Woah. This is crazy cool.

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rudescience: Sand and Polydimethylsiloxane: Dry Wet-Sand What...

materialsscienceandengineering: Highly efficient heavy metal...

materialsscienceandengineering:

Highly efficient heavy metal ions filter

In November 2015, Brazil experienced an unparalleled environmental disaster. When two dams broke at an iron ore mine, a poisonous cocktail of heavy metals was sent pouring into the Rio Doce, reaching the Atlantic some days later. The consequences were devastating for nature and humans alike: countless fish, birds and animals died, and a quarter of a million people were left without drinking water.

This case demonstrates that water pollution is one of today’s most serious global problems. No satisfactory technical solution has been found for the treatment of water contaminated with heavy metals or radioactive substances. Existing methods used to remove water from heavy metals, for example, have several disadvantages: either they are too targeted at a specific element or their filter capacity is too small; additionally, they are often too expensive.

Effective filtration of heavy metals

Now, a solution may have been found in a new type of hybrid filter membrane developed in the laboratory of Raffaele Mezzenga, Professor of Food and Soft Materials at ETH Zurich. This technology not only has an extremely simple structure, but also comprises low-cost raw materials, such as whey protein fibres and activated charcoal. Heavy metal ions can be almost completely removed from water in just a single pass through the filter membrane.

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Flint?

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materialsscienceandengineering: Carbon dioxide captured from...

materialsscienceandengineering:

Carbon dioxide captured from air can be directly converted into methanol fuel

For the first time, researchers have demonstrated that CO₂ captured from the air can be directly converted into methanol (CH₃OH) using a homogeneous catalyst. The benefits are two-fold: The process removes harmful CO₂ from the atmosphere, and the methanol can be used as an alternative fuel to gasoline. The work represents an important step that could one day lead to a future “methanol economy,” in which fuel and energy storage are primarily based on methanol.

The study was led by G. K. Surya Prakash, a chemistry professor at the University of Southern California, along with the Nobel laureate George A. Olah, a distinguished professor at the University of Southern California. The researchers have published their paper on the CO₂-to-methanol conversion process in a recent issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

“Direct CO₂ capture and conversion to methanol using molecular hydrogen in the same pot was never achieved before. We have now done it!” Prakash told Phys.org.

Over the past several years, chemists have been investigating various ways of recycling CO₂ into useful products. For example, treating CO₂ with hydrogen gas (H₂) can produce methanol, methane (CH₄), or formic acid (HCOOH). Among these products, methanol is especially attractive because of its use as an alternative fuel, in fuel cells, and for hydrogen storage.

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Cool!

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materialsscienceandengineering: It’s a 3-D printer, but not as we know it3D printing techniques...

materialsscienceandengineering:

It’s a 3-D printer, but not as we know it

3D printing techniques have quickly become some of the most widely used tools to rapidly design and build new components. A team of engineers at the University of Bristol has developed a new type of 3D printing that can print composite materials, which are used in many high performance products such as tennis rackets, golf clubs and aeroplanes. This technology will soon enable a much greater range of things to be 3D printed at home and at low-cost.

The study published in Smart Materials and Structures creates and demonstrates a novel method in which ultrasonic waves are used to carefully position millions of tiny reinforcement fibres as part of the 3D printing process. The fibres are formed into a microscopic reinforcement framework that gives the material strength. This microstructure is then set in place using a focused laser beam, which locally cures the epoxy resin and then prints the object.

To achieve this the research team mounted a switchable, focused laser module on the carriage of a standard three-axis 3D printing stage, above the new ultrasonic alignment apparatus.

Tom Llewellyn-Jones, a PhD student in advanced composites who developed the system, said: “We have demonstrated that our ultrasonic system can be added cheaply to an off-the-shelf 3D printer, which then turns it into a composite printer.”

Read more.

Weird

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materialsscienceandengineering: Graphene composite may keep...

materialsscienceandengineering:

Graphene composite may keep wings ice-free

Conductive material heats surfaces, simplifies ice removal

A thin coating of graphene nanoribbons in epoxy developed at Rice University has proven effective at melting ice on a helicopter blade.

The coating by the Rice lab of chemist James Tour may be an effective real-time de-icer for aircraft, wind turbines, transmission lines and other surfaces exposed to winter weather, according to a new paper in the American Chemical Society journal ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces.

In tests, the lab melted centimeter-thick ice from a static helicopter rotor blade in a minus-4-degree Fahrenheit environment. When a small voltage was applied, the coating delivered electrothermal heat – called Joule heating – to the surface, which melted the ice.

The nanoribbons produced commercially by unzipping nanotubes, a process also invented at Rice, are highly conductive. Rather than trying to produce large sheets of expensive graphene, the lab determined years ago that nanoribbons in composites would interconnect and conduct electricity across the material with much lower loadings than traditionally needed.

Read more.

Let’s fly through all the blizzards!

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