Materials
New fatigue model could lead to more durable, efficient ships
April 23, 2013 11:14 am | News | Comments
An engineer in Finland has designed a new evaluation model that allows developers to determine how fatigue sets in with various welded steel materials. By considering the differences between traditional welds and structural joining technologies and newer more advanced methods, he model allows for the development of lighter structures, and as a consequence, more energy-efficient ships.
Safer, eco-friendly flame retardant has first-of-its-kind dual effects
May 15, 2013 11:13 am | News | Comments
Amid concerns over the potential health effects of existing flame retardants for home...
New fatigue model could lead to more durable, efficient ships
April 23, 2013 11:14 am | News | Comments
An engineer in Finland has designed a new evaluation model that allows developers to...
High temperature alloy may be perfect solder for well electronics
April 17, 2013 9:01 am | by Meg Marquardt, Materials 360 Online | News | Comments
Technology used in downhole applications—such as geothermal or oil-well monitoring—...
One order of steel; hold the greenhouse gases
May 8, 2013 2:52 pm | by David L. Chandler, MIT News Office | News | CommentsAnyone who has seen pictures of the giant, red-hot cauldrons in which steel is made—fed by vast amounts of carbon, and belching flame and smoke—would not be surprised to learn that steelmaking is one of the world’s leading industrial sources of greenhouse gases. But remarkably, a new process developed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers could change all that.
Teijin enhances heat and impact resistance of its bioplastic
April 3, 2013 3:11 pm | News | CommentsJapan-based Teijin Limited has developed technology to significantly enhance the heat and impact resistance of PLANEXT, the company’s high-performance bioplastic. The technology modifies the molecular design of PLANEXT to achieve greatly improved heat resistance with a glass-transition temperature of 120 C, as well as superior resistance to impact.
Open Photonics, VTT collaborate on spectral engine technologies
April 3, 2013 3:09 pm | News | CommentsOrlando-based photonics technology acceleration company Open Photonics Inc. and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland have announced a partnership to accelerate the commercialization of VTT’s advanced Fabry-Perot visible and infrared spectroscopy and spectral imaging technologies.
Carbon dioxide could help produce valuable chemical cheaply
March 21, 2013 5:09 pm | News | CommentsChemical companies each year churn out billions of tons of acrylate, a valuable commodity chemical involved in the manufacture of everything from polyester cloth to disposable diapers. It is usually made by heating propylene, a compound derived from crude oil. Researchers at Brown and Yale universities have demonstrated a new “enabling technology” that could instead use excess carbon dioxide to produce acrylate.
Peratech working on “nose in clothes" for wearable electronics
March 18, 2013 10:49 am | News | CommentsTouch technology company is working with the London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London to develop wearable electronics that use Peratech's QTC sensors. This years-long research project is exploring the needs base and applications for wearable technology bringing together the expertise of industry and academe in a highly creative way.
Take a tour of the world’s most colorful factory
January 9, 2013 10:38 am | News | CommentsA new video released by the American Chemical Society provides a behind-the-scenes-look at the DayGlo Color Corp. factory, producer of the fluorescent paints that light up traffic cones, black light posters, hula-hoops, and other products. The factory is a “chemical landmark”, according to ACS, that is noted for its expertise in creating these glowing colors.
Suspend the crystals, and they grow better
December 21, 2012 12:47 pm | News | CommentsCrystals growing near the bottom of a beaker are subject to convection, but it is much quieter near the top of the beaker. In that case, why not just let them grow hanging in the beaker? A researcher in The Netherlands who had already tried growing crystals in space has used magnets to grow suspended crystals that form more perfectly, allowing better X-ray diffraction.
Inspiration from a porcupine’s quills
December 10, 2012 5:46 pm | by Anne Trafton, MIT News Office | News | CommentsAnyone unfortunate enough to encounter a porcupine’s quills knows that once they go in, they are extremely difficult to remove. Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Brigham and Women’s Hospital now hope to exploit the porcupine quill’s unique properties to develop new types of adhesives, needles and other medical devices.
Predicting material fatigue
November 29, 2012 1:51 pm | News | CommentsDetection of material failure is a difficult task for engineers, because cracks inside a material block can’t readily be identified from the outside. Researchers in Germany have now developed so-called self-reporting composite materials that can communicate their internal condition. The concept utilizes zinc oxide tetrapod crystals as a filler material for composites which at the same time reveals material failure by a visual signal under UV light.
Study offers new insights into catalytic activity of copper
November 9, 2012 12:38 pm | News | CommentsCatalysis is an incredibly valuable tool in the field of chemistry, but it typically requires precious metals that are both expensive and potentially harmful to the environment. Researchers in Sweden say they have discovered that copper, which is not typically known for its catalytic properties, had unexpectedly been responsible for catalytic activity as part of research into iron catalysts.
Autoclave aerated concrete: Building material for new millenium?
November 8, 2012 11:34 am | News | CommentsAlthough widespread rebuilding in the hard-hit New York metro region from Super Storm Sandy has not yet begun, New Jersey Institute of Technology professor Mohamed Mahgoub says when the hammers start swinging, it's time to look at autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC). A combination of finely ground sand, cement, quick lime, gypsum, aluminum, and water, AAC offers light weight, strength, and environmental friendliness, but has yet to catch on widely in the U.S.
Complex composite study to use MSC Nastran, Marc sim tools
October 30, 2012 4:37 pm | News | CommentsMSC Software Corporation this week announced that Stanford University is using its MSC Nastran and Marc simulation tools to conduct a new study on the testing and analysis of complex composite materials. The goals of the study are to reduce extensive and expensive testing programs, optimize the design of testing configurations and redefine structural deformation and failure processes.
Online modeling tool helps engineers find best sealant
October 30, 2012 4:31 pm | News | CommentsDuPont Packaging & Industrial Polymers’ latest online modeling tool helps packaging engineers and designers identify the most appropriate sealant. Used in combination with the DuPont SaVE (Sealant Value Estimator) tool, the new tool helps packaging engineers and designers quickly identify the “critical few” potential sealant resin options from the vast array of possible choices.
Research on nanocrystals to move from lab to market
October 29, 2012 10:33 am | by Iqbal Pittalwala | News | CommentsThe University of California, Riverside has granted an exclusive license to The Idea Zoo, Inc., to commercialize nanotechnology research developed in the lab of Yadong Yin, an associate professor of chemistry. The Idea Zoo was granted exclusive rights to seven patents that cover various aspects of advanced superparamagnetic colloidal nanocrystals. Specifically, the patents focus on magnetically tunable photonic crystals and the ability to commercialize them.
Fragile forests of nanotubes strengthened for MEMS applications
October 29, 2012 10:00 am | News | CommentsConventional microelectromechanical systems tend to be made out of silicon-based materials familiar to the micro-electronics industry, but this ignores a suite of useful materials such as other semiconductors, ceramics, and metals. By using a variety of materials not commonly associated with MEMS technology, a team from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, has created stronger microstructures that can form precise, tall and narrow 3D shapes.
Glass, characterized with precision and efficiency
October 26, 2012 1:54 pm | News | CommentsGlass can possess a quite diverse array of characteristics, depending on what ingredients one uses to modify it. A new process developed at the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany now makes the analysis of glass characteristics up to five times faster than previous methods, and uses only 20% of the material. This system consists of an oven and a CMOS camera that enables researchers to observe the glass during the entire heating process.
Study is first to observe oscillatory cracking behavior of materials
October 25, 2012 3:08 pm | by Anne Ju, Cornell University | News | Comments"Avalanches"—the crackling behavior of materials under slowly increasing stress, like crumpling paper or earthquakes—may have a novel facet previously unknown, say Cornell University researchers. Their study employs both theory and experiment to describe never-before-seen oscillatory behavior of microcrystal plastic bursts at very small scales, under highly controlled conditions.
China rare earths producer suspends output
October 25, 2012 2:50 pm | by Joe McDonald, AP Business Writer | News | CommentsChina's biggest rare earths producer, state-owned Baotou Steel Rare Earth (Group) Hi-tech Co., in an effort to shore up plunging prices of the materials used by makers of mobile phones and other high-tech products. Beijing is tightening control over rare earths mining and exports to capture more of the profits that flow to Western makers of lightweight batteries and other products made of rare earths.
Reclaiming rare earths
October 25, 2012 8:59 am | News | CommentsThe prices for rare earths increased ten-fold between 2009 and 2011, prompting researchers at Ames Laboratory to revisit a rare earth recovery process once employed to make high-strength alloy. Now, they are working to more effectively remove neodymium, a rare earth element, from the mix of other materials in a rare earth magnet.
Team finds Midas touch, changes the color of gold
October 24, 2012 12:20 pm | News | CommentsA University of Southampton team have discovered that by embossing tiny raised or indented patterns onto the metal’s surface they can change the way it absorbs and reflects light—ensuring our eyes don’t see it as “golden” in color at all. Equally applicable to other metals such as silver and aluminium, this breakthrough opens up the prospect of coloring metals without having to coat or chemically treat them.
Chemists pioneer new technique for nanostructure assembly
October 19, 2012 8:51 am | by Donna Hesterman, University of Florida | News | CommentsEngineered nanostructures are typically challenging to create with any sort of sophisticated. However, a new technique for growing new materials from nanorods has been developed the could represent a major breakthrough in the field. It shows how thermodynamic forces can be used to manipulate growth of nanoparticles.
Complex 3D metallic structures manufactured at the nanoscale
October 18, 2012 11:58 am | News | CommentsBy combining ion processing and nanolithography, scientists from Aalto University in Finland and the University of Washington have managed to create complex 3D structures at nanoscale. The breakthrough was made while studying the irregular folding of metallic thin films after they were processed by reactive ion etching. After determining the cause, the researchers realized they could control the bending activity with an ion beam.
New paper reveals fundamental chemistry of plasma-liquid interactions
October 17, 2012 11:56 am | News | CommentsThough not often considered beyond the plasma television, developers have begun to capitalize on how these small-scale microplasmas interact with liquids to kill bacteria or synthesize nanoparticles. An interdisciplinary collaboration has revealed a critical interaction that is occurring at this plasma-liquid interface in that the electrons in plasma actually serve to separate water, producing hydrogen gas.
Physicists crack another piece of the glass puzzle
October 16, 2012 12:24 pm | by Carol Clark, Emory University | News | CommentsWhen it comes to physics, glass lacks transparency. No one has been able to see what’s happening at the molecular level as a super-cooled liquid approaches the glass state—until now. Emory University physicists have made a movie of particle motion during this mysterious transition.
Enzymatic pretreatment eliminates infectious bacteria from medical textiles
October 16, 2012 8:52 am | News | CommentsResearchers in Spain have improved the antimicrobial properties of medical textiles using an enzymatic pre-treatment combined with simultaneous deposition of nanoparticles and biopolymers under ultrasonic irradiation. The technique is used to create completely sterile antimicrobial textiles that help prevent hospital-acquired infections.
