Researchers Use Graphene Templates to Make New Metal-Oxide Nanostructures

From Brown University, November 7, 2016: "Researchers from Brown University have found a new method for making ultrathin metal-oxide sheets containing intricate wrinkle and crumple patterns. In a study published in the journal ACS Nano, the researchers show that the textured metal-oxide films have better performance when used as photocatalysts and as battery electrodes."

Source: Brown University 
Image: Brown University and Hurt/Wong Labs

DARPA Researchers Develop Novel Method for Room-Temperature Atomic Layer Deposition

From DARPA, August 31, 2016: "DARPA-supported researchers have developed a new approach for synthesizing ultrathin materials at room temperature-a breakthrough over industrial approaches that have demanded temperatures of 800°C or more. The advance opens a path to creating a host of previously unattainable thin-film microelectronics, whose production by conventional methods has been impossible because many components lose their critical functions when subjected to high temperatures."

Source:DARPA
Image: Courtesy of DARPA

Stressed Out Coatings

From A*STAR Research (Singapore), October 7, 2016: "Hard materials like chromium nitride are used as wear and corrosion protection coatings in a wide range of applications, including metal cutting. Now, A*STAR researchers have discovered exactly how such materials behave when used in high-stress situations, paving the way to producing even better coatings."

Source: A*STAR Research 
Image: With permission from AIP Publishing

Robot for Controlled Deposition of Multilayer Film Structures

From NASA Tech Briefs, Goddard Space Flight Center, September 1, 2016: "A robot was developed at Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland to ensure consistent thin film morphology over the entire surface area while utilizing shadow masking techniques. The two main figures of merit on the thin film consistency are density and refractive index. The robot allows for this by using masks that move during the deposition of the thin film."

Source: NASA Tech Briefs
Image: NASA/Goddard

Stacked Perovskite/CIGS Solar Module Achieves Unprecedented Efficiency at 17.8%

From imec (Belgium), September 27, 2017: "Scientists from imec, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT, Germany), and Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research (ZSW, Germany) announced that they have fabricated a thin-film solar module stack made up of perovskite and copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) with a conversion efficiency of 17.8%. For the first time, this tandem module surpasses the highest efficiencies of separate perovskite and CIGS modules."

Source: Imec
Image: Imec

New Multiferroic Materials From Building Blocks

From National Institute for Material Science (NIMS, Japan), September 23, 2016: "A research group at the International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (MANA), NIMS, successfully developed room temperature multiferroic materials by a layer-by-layer assembly of nanosheet building blocks. The design of new multiferroics, or materials that display both ferroelectricity and ferromagnetism, is of fundamental importance for new electronic technologies. However, the co-existence of ferroelectricity and magnetic order at room temperature in single compounds is rare, and heterostructures with such multiferroic properties have only been made with complex techniques (such as pulsed-laser deposition and molecular beam epitaxy)."

Source: NIMS
Image: NIMS

Magnetic Sensors Custom Made

From Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY, Germany), September 13, 2016: "Scientists at DESY have discovered a method that paves the way for a new generation of magnetic sensors. Magnetoresistive sensors are made up of microscopic stacks of alternating magnetic and non-magnetic layers, each just a few nanometers thick. The electrical resistance changes when an external magnetic field is applied to the multilayer stack. Although this giant magnetoresistive effect has revolutionized sensor technology, one problem has persisted: the magnetic field strength at which the resistor switches is largely fixed."

Source: Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron
Image: Courtesy of Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron/Kai Schlage

Sprinkling of Neural Dust Opens Door to "Electroceuticals"

From University of California, Berkeley, August 3, 2016 by Robert Sanders: "UC Berkeley engineers have built the first dust-sized, wireless sensors that can be implanted in the body. Because these battery-less sensors could also be used to stimulate nerves and muscles, the technology also opens the door to 'electroceuticals' to treat disorders such as epilepsy or to stimulate the immune system or tamp down inflammation."

Source: University of California, Berkeley
Image: University of California, Berkeley/Ryan Neely

Anisotropic Fabry-Perot Resonators for Anti-counterfeiting Applications

From SPIE Newsroom (DOI: 10.1117/2.1201608.006676), August 25, 2016, by In-Ho Lee, et.al: "Much effort has been made in the development of smart security labels for anti-counterfeiting applications. In contrast to conventional labels, these smart security labels are designed to hide information in normal conditions and reveal it in specific viewing conditions. Such viewing conditions arise under specific viewing angles and polarization states, or upon application of external stimuli (e.g., an electric field, a magnetic field, or mechanical stress)."

Source: SPIE Newsroom 
Image: SPIE Newsroom

Panasonic Develops Bendable, Twistable, Flexible Lithium-ion Battery

From Panasonic Corp., September 29, 2016: "Panasonic Corporation announced that it has developed a flexible lithium-ion battery with a thickness of only 0.55 mm. Suitable for use in card-type and wearable devices, this rechargeable battery can retain its characteristics even after repeatedly bent into a radius of 25 mm or twisted to an angle of 25 °."

Source: Panasonic Corp.
Image: Panasonic Corp.

Dry Adhesive Holds in Extreme Cold, Strengthens in Extreme Heat

From Case Western Reserve University, November 16, 2016: "Researchers from Case Western Reserve University, Dayton Air Force Research Laboratory and China have developed a new dry adhesive that bonds in extreme temperatures-a quality that could make the product ideal for space exploration and beyond."

Source: Case Western Reserve University
Image: Case Western Reserve University