Materials Science News

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Work on Electrical Output of Thermoelectric Materials Results in Award

Jeremiah T. Abiade, assistant professor in materials science and engineering and in mechanical engineering at Virginia Tech, has received a Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award for his research to increase the electrical output of thermoelectric (TE) materials and devices.

16 Jun 2009

Gold Just became More Valuable to Biophysicists

Biophysicists at JILA have made gold more precious than ever-at least as a research tool-by creating nonstick gold surfaces and laser-safe gold nanoposts, a potential boon to laser trapping of biomolecules.

16 Jun 2009

The Shape of Nanoparticles can Drastically Affect their Behavior

Shape is turning out to be a particularly important feature of some commercially important nanoparticles-but in subtle ways. New studies by scientists at the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) show that changing the shape of cobalt nanoparticles from spherical to cubic can fundamentally change their behavior.

16 Jun 2009

Method Found to Improve the Performance of High Temperature Superconductors

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have discovered that a reduction in mechanical strain at the boundaries of crystal grains can significantly improve the performance of high-temperature superconductors (HTS).

16 Jun 2009

New Understanding of How Materials Fail

Better predictions of how many valuable materials behave under stress could be on the way from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), where scientists have recently found evidence of an important similarity between the behavior of polycrystalline materials-such as metals and ceramics-and glasses.

16 Jun 2009

Biofriendly Nanocrystal Shed Light on Behavior within Cells

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have created bright, stable and bio-friendly nanocrystals that act as individual investigators of activity within a cell.

16 Jun 2009

Natural and Synthetic Materials Combined to Repair Severed Nerves

In the clothing industry it's common to mix natural and synthetic fibers. Take cotton and add polyester to make clothing that's soft, breathable and wrinkle free. Now researchers at the University of Washington are using the same principle for biomedical applications.

16 Jun 2009