News by Subject Technology & Engineering

Aluminum is one of the most promising materials for aeronautics and automobile industry. Scientists from the National University of Science and Technology 'MISIS' found a simple and efficient way of strengthening aluminum-based composite materials. Doping aluminum melt with nickel and lanthanum, scientists managed to create a material combining benefits of both composite materials and standard alloys: flexibility, strength, lightness. The article on the research is published in Materials Letters.

A team of polymer chemists and engineers from Carnegie Mellon University have developed a new methodology that can be used to create a class of stretchable polymer composites with enhanced electrical and thermal properties. These materials are promising candidates for use in soft robotics, self-healing electronics and medical devices. The results are published in the May 20, 2019 issue of Nature Nanotechnology.

While methane pollution caused by natural gas production in Pennsylvania is underestimated by the US Environmental Protection Agency, natural gas still has half the carbon footprint of underground coal mining, according to an international team of researchers.

Indiana University researchers have synthesized a powerful new molecule to trap chloride salts. The technology has the potential to reduce its seepage into freshwater systems, which is a threat to drinkable water across the globe.

In collaboration with partners at Loughborough University in the United Kingdom, researchers at CSU's National Science Foundation-supported Next Generation Photovoltaics Center have reported a key breakthrough in how the performance of cadmium telluride thin-film solar cells is improved even further by the addition of another material, selenium. Their results were published in the journal Nature Energy earlier this month.

By synthesizing novel material for electrode that facilitates reversing of the chemistry of ions, a group of researchers led by Professor Idemoto from Tokyo University of Science combat the wasteful aspects of energy sources by laying an important foundation for the production of next-generation rechargeable magnesium secondary batteries.