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Category: engineering – Page 8

Tiny thermal sensor shows how molecules can mute heat like music

Imagine you are playing the guitar—each pluck of a string creates a sound wave that vibrates and interacts with other waves. Now shrink that idea down to a small single molecule, and instead of sound waves, picture vibrations that carry heat.

A team of engineers and at the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering at CU Boulder has recently discovered that these tiny thermal vibrations, otherwise known as phonons, can interfere with each other just like musical notes—either amplifying or canceling each other, depending on how a molecule is “strung” together.

The research is published in the journal Nature Materials.

Vapor-deposited perovskite semiconductors power next-generation circuits

A research team led by Professor Yong-Young Noh and Dr. Youjin Reo from the Department of Chemical Engineering at POSTECH (Pohang University of Science and Technology) has developed a technology poised to transform next-generation displays and electronic devices.

The project was a collaborative effort with Professors Ao Liu and Huihui Zhu from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC), and the findings were published in Nature Electronics.

Every time we stream videos or play games on our smartphones, thousands of transistors operate tirelessly behind the scenes. These microscopic components function like , regulating electric currents to display images and ensure smooth app operation.

New hydrogel semiconductor could lead to better tissue-interfaced bioelectronics

The ideal material for interfacing electronics with living tissue is soft, stretchable, and just as water-loving as the tissue itself—in short, a hydrogel. Semiconductors, the key materials for bioelectronics such as pacemakers, biosensors, and drug delivery devices, on the other hand, are rigid, brittle, and water-hating, impossible to dissolve in the way hydrogels have traditionally been built.

A paper published today in Science from the UChicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME) has solved this challenge that has long stymied researchers, reimagining the process of creating hydrogels to build a powerful semiconductor in form. Led by Asst. Prof. Sihong Wang’s research group, the result is a bluish gel that flutters like a sea jelly in water but retains the immense semiconductive ability needed to transmit information between living tissue and machine.

The material demonstrated tissue-level moduli as soft as 81 kPa, stretchability of 150% strain, and charge-carrier mobility up to 1.4 cm2 V-1 s-1. This means their material—both semiconductor and hydrogel at the same time—ticks all the boxes for an ideal bioelectronic interface.

From action movies to urban planning, new method for creating large 3D models of urban areas is faster and cheaper

A research team led by Waterloo Engineering has developed a faster, cheaper way to create large-scale, three-dimensional (3D) computer models of urban areas, technology that could impact fields including urban planning, architectural design and filmmaking.

Programmable double-network gels: Interspecies interactions dictate structure, resilience and adaptability

A new study uncovers how fine-tuning the interactions between two distinct network-forming species within a soft gel enables programmable control over its structure and mechanical properties. The findings reveal a powerful framework for engineering next-generation soft materials with customizable behaviors, inspired by the complexity of biological tissues.

The study, titled “Inter-Species Interactions in Dual, Fibrous Gels Enable Control of Gel Structure and Rheology,” is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The study uses simulations to investigate how varying the strength and geometry of interactions between two colloidal species impacts network formation and rheological performance. By controlling separately interspecies stickiness and tendency to bundle, researchers discovered that tuning these inter-species interactions allows over whether the networks that they form remain separate, overlap, or intertwine.

Semiconducting polymer design strategies point way to reducing scar tissue around implants

Over time, scar tissue slows or stops implanted bioelectronics. But new interdisciplinary research could help pacemakers, sensors and other implantable devices keep people healthier for longer.

In a paper published in Nature Materials, a group of researchers led by University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering Asst. Prof. Sihong Wang has outlined a suite of design strategies for the used in , all aimed at reducing the foreign-body response triggered by implants.

The immune system is primed to detect and respond to foreign objects. In some cases, the immune system might reject lifesaving devices such as pacemakers or drug delivery systems. But in all cases, the immune system will encase the devices in over time, hurting the devices’ ability to help patients.

One timed-release capsule could replace taking multiple pills

Managing complex medication schedules could soon become as simple as taking a single capsule each day. Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed a capsule that can be packed with multiple medications and release them at designated times throughout the day.

The advance, published in Matter, could help improve and by eliminating the need for patients to remember taking multiple drugs or doses at various times each day. It could potentially reduce the risk of missed doses or accidental overdoses.

“We want to simplify medication management with a single that is smart enough to deliver the right drug at the right dose at the right time,” said study first author Amal Abbas, who recently earned her Ph.D. in chemical engineering at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering. She spearheaded this work with Joseph Wang, a professor in the Aiiso Yufeng Li Family Department of Chemical and Nano Engineering at UC San Diego.

Discovery shows that even neutral molecules take sides when it comes to biochemistry

A new study led by a pair of researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst turns long-held conventional wisdom about a certain type of polymer on its head, greatly expanding understanding of how some of biochemistry’s fundamental forces work. The study, released recently in Nature Communications, opens the door for new biomedical research running the gamut from analyzing and identifying proteins and carbohydrates to drug delivery.

The work involves a kind of polymer made up of neutral polyzwitterions. Because they have a neutral electrical charge, polyzwitterions are not expected to respond to an electric field. However, the team found not only that certain neutral polyzwitterions behave as if they were charged, but also that the electric field surrounding polyzwitterions, once thought to be uniform, varies in strength.

“My interest is in the proteins and , which are the building blocks for protein, inside our body’s cells,” says Yeseul Lee, lead author and graduate student in polymer science and engineering at UMass Amherst.