How can unused home construction materials be recycled for additional use? This is what a recent study published in Journal of Cleaner Production hopes to | Technology
Category: materials – Page 2
Scientists forge “superalloy” that refuses to melt
Scientists have developed a chromium-molybdenum-silicon alloy that withstands extreme heat while remaining ductile and oxidation-resistant. It could replace nickel-based superalloys, which are limited to about 1,100°C. The new material might make turbines and engines significantly more efficient, marking a major step toward cleaner, more powerful energy systems.
Old tires find new life: Rubber particles strengthen superhydrophobic coatings against corrosion
Superhydrophobic materials offer a strategy for developing marine anti-corrosion materials due to their low solid-liquid contact area and low surface energy. However, existing superhydrophobic anti-corrosion materials often suffer from poor mechanical stability and inadequate long-term protection, limiting their practical application in real-world environments.
A reusable, washable nanofiber membrane can filter water sustainably
The antimicrobial triclosan is widely used in personal hygiene products, textiles and plastics, but when it enters the environment via wastewater, it poses a significant threat to aquatic organisms.
A Cornell research group has developed a cyclodextrin-based fibrous membrane that in lab testing removed approximately 90% of triclosan from water. Their washable and reusable nanofiber material, fabricated via electrospinning—a process that uses an electric field to draw ultra-thin fibers from a liquid—also effectively removed other micropollutants.
“The electrospinning produces a very thin fiber, less than 1 micron in diameter (a human hair is approximately 75 microns), which gives us high surface area and excellent adsorption,” said Mahmoud Aboelkheir, doctoral student in human centered design and lead author of the work.
New study uncovers surprising physics of ‘marine snow’
The deep ocean can often look like a real-life snow globe. As organic particles from plant and animal matter on the surface sink downward, they combine with dust and other material to create “marine snow,” a beautiful display of ocean weather that plays a crucial role in cycling carbon and other nutrients through the world’s oceans.
Now, researchers from Brown University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have found surprising new insights into how particles sink in stratified fluids like oceans, where the density of the fluid changes with depth. In a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they show that the speed at which particles sink is determined not only by resistive drag forces from the fluid, but by the rate at which they can absorb salt relative to their volume.
“It basically means that smaller particles can sink faster than bigger ones,” said Robert Hunt, a postdoctoral researcher in Brown’s School of Engineering who led the work. “That’s exactly the opposite of what you’d expect in a fluid that has uniform density.”
Solid electrolyte’s unique atomic structure helps next-generation batteries keep their cool
A team of UC Riverside engineers has discovered why a key solid-state battery material stays remarkably cool during operation—a breakthrough that could help make the next generation of lithium batteries safer and more powerful.
The study, published in PRX Energy, focused on a ceramic material known as LLZTO—short for lithium lanthanum zirconium tantalum oxide. The substance is a promising solid electrolyte for solid-state rechargeable batteries, which could deliver higher energy density than today’s lithium-ion batteries while reducing overheating and fire risks.
The study’s title is “Origin of Intrinsically Low Thermal Conductivity in a Garnet-Type Solid Electrolyte: Linking Lattice and Ionic Dynamics with Thermal Transport.”
Secret QR codes and hidden warnings: 3D printing technique allows precise control of material properties, point by point
3D printing is extremely practical when you want to produce small quantities of customized components. However, this technology has always had one major problem: 3D printers can only process a single material at a time. Until now, objects with different material properties in different areas could only be 3D-printed at great expense, if at all.
Researchers at TU Wien have now developed methods for giving a 3D-printed object not only the desired shape, but also the desired material properties, point by point.
The versatility of this technology has been demonstrated in several applications: for example, it is possible to print an invisible QR code that only becomes visible at certain temperatures.
Magnetically guided streamer funneling star-building material into newborn system in Perseus
A team of astronomers led by Paulo Cortes, a scientist with the U.S. National Science Foundation National Radio Astronomy Observatory and the Joint ALMA Observatory, have made a groundbreaking discovery about how young star systems grow.
Using the powerful Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), their team observed— for the first time ever— a narrow, spiral-shaped streamer of gas guided by magnetic fields, channeling matter from the surrounding cloud of a star-forming region in Perseus, directly onto a newborn binary star system.
The work is published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
A ‘seating chart’ for atoms helps locate their positions in materials
If you think of a single atom as a grain of sand, then a wavelength of visible light—which is a thousand times larger than the atom’s width—is comparable to an ocean wave. The light wave can dwarf an atom, missing it entirely as it passes by. This gulf in size has long made it impossible for scientists to see and resolve individual atoms using optical microscopes alone.
Only recently have scientists found ways to break this “diffraction limit,” to see features that are smaller than the wavelength of light. With new techniques known as super-resolution microscopy, scientists can see down to the scale of a single molecule.
And yet, individual atoms have still been too small for optical microscopes —which are much simpler and less expensive than super-resolution techniques—to distinguish, until now.