3+ day, 20+ hour ago   (690+ words) Barcode readers excel at quickly identifying groceries and other products. Could a similar idea work at industrial recycling facilities to make sorting different plastics quicker and more cost-effective? The answer, according to a University at Buffalo research team, is yes....

3+ day, 21+ hour ago   (1067+ words) Chinese car manufacturers aren’t the only ones trying to develop new types of batteries. New materials are being tested in Norwegian laboratories to make batteries lighter, cheaper and more environmentally friendly. Lithium-ion batteries have revolutionized our lives since they first…...

4+ day, 19+ hour ago   (238+ words) Metasurfaces are ultrathin optical components engineered with arrays of nanoscale structures that can control light in ways that are difficult for conventional optics. Unlike traditional optical components, which typically rely on their shape and thickness, metasurfaces manipulate light using carefully…...

3+ week, 3+ day ago   (386+ words) Chemists at Brown University have shown the first experimental evidence that carbon buckyballs, which launched the nanotechnology revolution, have a cousin made from 80 atoms of the element boron. The nanoscale world appears to have a new ball to kick around....

4+ week, 1+ day ago   (299+ words) In a study published in Science, researchers used silver nanoparticles to assemble a theorized, but never-before observed crystal metallic structure. Using finely tuned nanoscale building blocks, researchers from Brown University and the University of Michigan College of Engineering have stabilized…...

3+ week, 6+ day ago   (856+ words) Hydrogels are squishy, bio-friendly materials that are made mostly of water and a bit of polymer. The Jell-O-like substance is available in the form of medical patches, sprays, and glues, and can be stuck to the skin or implanted in…...

2+ mon, 1+ week ago   (485+ words) Published in Nature Communications, the study uncovers a series of hidden intermediate stages that appear when molecules are heated to become materials. Capturing these intermediates opens a new way to discover and design materials that aren’t accessible through typical synthetic…...

1+ mon, 3+ week ago   (555+ words) With help from a novel cross-linking molecule, MIT chemists have shown they can substantially improve the ballistic impact resistance of common polymers, including polystyrene and a type of rubber used to make shoe soles. To make the polymer more resistant…...

2+ mon, 2+ day ago   (786+ words) Industrial oxidation chemistry is a cornerstone of modern manufacturing, accounting for nearly one-third of all chemical industrial processes. While essential for making pharmaceuticals, dyes, and many specialty chemicals, industrial oxidation typically relies on high-temperature, high-pressure processes involving toxic oxidizing agents....

2+ mon, 2+ day ago   (364+ words) Alloying is a powerful method for achieving this goal. In this regard, a key challenge is asymmetric alloying, which introduces asymmetry into the metal cluster by selectively placing heterometal atoms at non-equivalent sites, desymmetrizing the cluster and therefore imparting chirality-associated…...