News by Subject Technology & Engineering

Hybrid Au/Fe nanoparticles can grow in an unprecedentedly complex structure with a single-step fabrication method.

New builders' tool by ORNL assesses design performance before construction begins; new pressure technique to manipulate magnetism in thin films could enhance electronic devices; ORNL outlines quantum sensing advances for better airport scanning, other applications.

From Berkeley Lab: groundbreaking study maps out paths to new nitride materials; new framework for artificial photosynthesis; TMDCs don't have to be perfect to shine bright.

Some 9,000 years ago, residents of one of the world's first large farming communities were also among the first humans to experience some of the perils of modern urban living. Scientists studying the ancient ruins of Çatalhöyük, in modern Turkey, found that its inhabitants -- 3,500 to 8,000 people at its peak -- experienced overcrowding, infectious diseases, violence and environmental problems.

Self-cleaning surfaces and laboratories on a chip become even more efficient if we are able to control individual droplets. University of Groningen professor Patrick Onck, together with colleagues from Eindhoven University of Technology, have shown that this is possible by using a technique named mechanowetting. 'We have come up with a way of transporting droplets by using transverse surface waves.'

Japanese researchers are poised to reboot the field of aromatic-fused porphyrin sensitizers for dye-sensitized solar cells, the most efficient solar technology available at present.

Researchers at Osaka University synthesized nanowires made of a single molecule of oligothiophene up to 10 nanometers in length. By forcing the molecular chain to adopt a planar conformation, they were able to significantly enhance its electrical conductivity. The findings have many potential applications for consumer electronics, especially OLED TVs and smartphone screens.

In conventional electron microscopes, performing atomic-resolution observations of magnetic materials is particularly difficult because high magnetic fields are inevitably exerted on samples inside the magnetic objective lens. Newly developed magnetic objective-lens system provides a magnetic-field-free environment at the sample position. This enables direct, atom-resolved imaging of magnetic materials such as silicon steels. This novel electron microscope is expected to be extensively used for the research and development of advanced magnetic materials.