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A new tapered flow channel design for electrodes improves the efficiency of battery-based seawater desalination, potentially reducing energy use compared to reverse osmosis. This breakthrough may benefit other electrochemical devices, but manufacturing challenges need to be addressed.

Engineers have developed a solution to eliminate fluid flow “dead zones” in electrodes used for battery-based seawater desalination. This breakthrough involves a physics-driven tapered flow channel design within the electrodes, enabling faster and more efficient fluid movement. This design has the potential to consume less energy compared to conventional reverse osmosis techniques.

Continue reading “Desalination Breakthrough: Engineers Solve ‘Dead Zone’ Problem” »

Researchers developed a durable, bioinspired ZIF-67 MOF membrane that efficiently separates propylene from propane, offering high performance, long-term stability, and industrial scalability.

Polymer-grade propylene (99.5%) is a vital raw material in the chemical industry. Its production inevitably generates propane as a byproduct in the product stream. A critical step in producing polymer-grade propylene is the separation of propylene from propane—a challenging and energy-intensive process due to the molecules’ nearly identical physical and chemical properties.

Molecular sieve membranes offer an energy-efficient and effective solution for this separation. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs.

Observing the effects of special relativity doesn’t necessarily require objects moving at a significant fraction of the speed of light. In fact, length contraction in special relativity explains how electromagnets work. A magnetic field is just an electric field seen from a different frame of reference.

So, when an electron moves in the electric field of another electron, this special relativistic effect results in the moving electron interacting with a magnetic field, and hence with the electron’s spin angular momentum.

Continue reading “Relativistic spin-orbit coupling may lead to unconventional superconductivity type” »

Scientists and engineers from the University of Bristol and the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) and have successfully created the world’s first carbon-14 diamond battery.

This new type of battery has the potential to power devices for thousands of years, making it an incredibly long-lasting energy source.

The battery leverages the radioactive isotope, carbon-14, known for its use in radiocarbon dating, to produce a diamond battery.

Enhanced Sensitivity and Wave-Structure Interaction in Nonsingular Flat-Band Lattices with Compact Localized States https://arxiv.org/html/2412.05610v1

A team of UConn College of Engineering (CoE) researchers have achieved a major milestone in the field of phononics with the first experimental demonstration of an all-flat phononic band structure (AFB). Phononics concerns the study of sound and heat control.

The breakthrough, detailed in an article just published in Physical Review Letters, introduces a new class of materials capable of uniquely controlling sound and vibrations by trapping energy with unprecedented intensity, offering exciting possibilities for potential applications in acoustics, vibration insulation, energy harvesting, and beyond.

Continue reading “All-flat phononic band structure controls sound and vibrations by trapping energy” »

Since Morinaga proposed more than six decades ago that the excited \(0_2^+\) state in the ¹⁶ O nucleus was deformed¹, a large body of experimental evidence has been collected to demonstrate that atomic nuclei can possess different shapes². Apart from the lightest elements, shape coexistence has been suggested to be present in all nuclei³ and the competition of different configurations can result in several different shapes within the same nucleus⁴. Nevertheless, coexistence of three or more total energy minima near the ground state have been predicted to occur in only few regions in the chart of nuclei⁵, but direct experimental proof remained to be obtained. A notable example to date is the ¹⁸⁶ Pb₁₀₄ nucleus, where the three lowest-energy states are 0⁺ states, each assigned with a different shape – namely spherical, prolate and oblate^6,7. The ¹⁸⁶ Pb nucleus lies at the heart of the neutron-deficient Pb region, which has been a subject for numerous theoretical and experimental investigations^3,8,9,10,11. Within the mean-field picture, the total energy curve along the quadrupole deformation shows spherical, prolate and oblate minima close in energy. These minima are related to the spherical Z = 82 shell gap, and prolate and oblate deformed gaps in the proton and neutron Nilsson orbitals, respectively. From a shell model perspective, the deformed minima (noted as \(\pi (h_9/2⁴)\) for prolate and \(\pi (h_9/2²)\) for oblate in the present work) are expected to have a complex spherical multiparticle-multihole configuration both for protons and neutrons^10,11,12. Similar competition of different configurations is present in neighbouring isotopes around the N = 104 midshell¹³. In ¹⁸⁸ Pb, in addition to low-lying deformed bands associated with predominantly prolate and oblate shapes^14,15,16, three isomeric states assigned with different shapes^17,18 have been proposed.

Intruding structures built on different configurations have also been observed in nuclei in the region around ¹⁸⁶ Pb. In fact, the shape staggering of Hg isotopes observed in an isotopic shift experiment was a groundbreaking discovery in the 1970’s¹⁹ that triggered multiple investigations into shape coexistence. Laser spectroscopic measurements have examined the onset of ground-state deformation also in the even-mass Po and Pt isotopes^20,21. Since the neutron-deficient Pb isotopes are spherical in their ground states^22,23,24, the onset of deformation in the Pb isotopes can be assessed by investigating the \(2_1^+\) states. It is proposed that the heaviest Pb nucleus exhibiting collectivity associated with deformation is ¹⁹⁴ Pb²⁵, whereas in heavier Pb isotopes the underlying configurations of the lowest excited states arise from single-nucleon excitations in the seniority scheme leading to a spherical interpretation²⁶.

Since the invention of the laser in 1960, nonlinear optics has aimed to broaden light’s spectral range and create new frequency components. Among the various techniques, supercontinuum (SC) generation stands out for its ability to produce light across a wide portion of the visible and infrared spectrum.

However, traditional SC sources rely on weak third-order optical nonlinearity, requiring long interaction lengths for broad spectral output. In contrast, second-order optical nonlinearity offers far greater efficiency and lower power requirements, though phase mismatching in bulk crystals has historically limited its spectral coverage and overall efficiency.

In a study published in Light: Science & Applications, a collaborative research team from Aalto University, Tampere University, and Peking University, led by Professor Zhipei Sun, has demonstrated a revolutionary method for generating octave-spanning coherent light at the deep-subwavelength scale (100 nm). Their innovative approach employs phase-matching-free second-order nonlinear optical frequency down-conversion in ultrathin gallium selenide (GaSe) and niobium oxide diiodide (NbOI₂) crystals.

In a significant step toward creating a sustainable and circular economy, Rice University researchers have published a study in the journal Carbon demonstrating that carbon nanotube (CNT) fibers can be fully recycled without any loss in their structure or properties. This discovery positions CNT fibers as a sustainable alternative to traditional materials like metals, polymers and the much larger carbon fibers, which are notoriously difficult to recycle.

“Recycling has long been a challenge in the materials industry—metals recycling is often inefficient and energy-intensive, polymers tend to lose their properties after reprocessing and carbon fibers cannot be recycled at all, only downcycled by chopping them up into short pieces,” said corresponding author Matteo Pasquali, director of Rice’s Carbon Hub and the A.J. Hartsook Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Materials Science and NanoEngineering and Chemistry.

Continue reading “Fully recyclable carbon nanotube fibers have far-reaching implications for manufacturing across sectors” »

Fuel-cell technology is set to take a step forward as chemists have created a triple-headed metallic nanoparticle, FePtAu, which generates higher current per unit of mass than any other nanoparticle catalyst tested. In tests, researchers from Brown University found that the FePtAu catalyst reached 2809.9 mA/mg Pt and after 13 hours has a mass activity of 2600mA/mg Pt, or 93 percent of its original performance value.

Advances in fuel-cell technology have been stymied by the inadequacy of metals studied as catalysts. The drawback to platinum, other than cost, is that it absorbs carbon monoxide in reactions involving fuel cells powered by organic materials like formic acid.

Any substance that when dissolved in water, gives a pH less than 7.0, or donates a hydrogen ion.