December 3, 2019. Our use of battery-operated devices and appliances has been increasing steadily, bringing with it the need for safe, efficient, and high-performing power sources. To this end, a type of electrical energy storage device called the supercapacitor has recently begun to be considered as an alternative to conventional energy-storage devices such as Li-ion batteries. In a recent study, Dr. Takeshi Kondo and group from the Tokyo University of Science and Daicel Corporation in Japan explored the possibility of using a novel material, the boron-doped nanodiamond, as electrode in the supercapacitors.

December 6, 2019. Gels are a soft elastic material consisting of a three-dimensional polymer network with nanometer-sized pores and are used in a variety of applications. However, gel networks typically have a substantial level of defects because the network formation reaction proceeds stochastically. In a new study, a general scheme to fabricate gels with extremely low levels of defects by applying geometric constraints into pregel solution based on the “bond percolation” concept is presented.

December 11, 2019. Elemental kinds, composition ratios, effective atomic number (Z_eff), and spatial distributions are the most basic information on materials and determine the physical and chemical properties of materials. X-ray fluorescence analysis has conventionally been used for elemental mapping, however maps on deep internal areas cannot be obtained because the escape depth of fluorescence X-rays is limited to a few mm from the surface of samples. Here, a novel Z_eff imaging method that uses back-scattered X-rays is presented.

December 11, 2019. Plastic electronic materials and related science and technology was the topic of discussion at Tokyo Institute of Technology last month during the third such exchange workshop between the Plastic Electronics Centre for Doctoral Training at Imperial College London and Tokyo Institute of Technology.

December 17, 2019. Simulating the conditions 2,700 kilometers deep underground, scientists have studied an important transformation of the most abundant mineral on Earth, bridgmanite. The results from the Extreme Conditions Beamline at DESY's X-ray light source PETRA III reveal how bridgmanite turns into a structure known as post-perovskite, a transformation that affects the dynamics of Earth's lower mantle, including the spreading of seismic waves.

December 17, 2019. Understanding the behavior of materials at their interfaces — where they connect to and interact with other materials — is central to engineering a variety of devices used to process, store and transfer information. Devices such as transistors, magnetic memory and lasers could all improve as researchers delve into the nature of these bonds, which affect the materials' properties of conductivity and magnetism. In this effort, Steven May, PhD, and his colleagues from Drexel University's College of Engineering, along with researchers from the University of Saskatchewan and Lawrence Berkeley, Brookhaven and Argonne National Labs have recently demonstrated a new approach for examining — with atomic-layer precision — changes in the behavior of electrons at the interfaces between two materials.

December 17, 2019. Additive manufacturing (AM) — sometimes referred to as '3D printing' — applied to metals opens up new possibilities for the fabrication of alloys with tailored properties. Yet, alloys made by AM have characteristic microstructural features that are usually different from those of metallic compounds manufactured by traditional methods ('subtractive manufacturing'). A thorough understanding of the microstructures of AM-processed alloys, and how they influence their mechanical properties, is therefore needed. A 2017 review by Stéphane Gorsse and colleagues published in Science and Technology of Advanced Materials offers a comprehensive overview of structure–property relationships for three important types of alloys has now been awarded the 2019 STAM Journal's Best Paper Award.

December 18, 2019. Researchers at the National Institute for Materials Science in Japan are leading a study today to create machines capable of thinking like a human brain. According to the research, published in the journal Scientific Reports, the device built, made of a tangle of silver nanowires, exhibited characteristics analogous to certain behaviors of the brain – learning, memorization, forgetting, wakefulness and sleep.

December 18, 2019. Ultrafast X-ray Optics Scientists have demonstrated a new micro-electro-mechanical-system (MEMS) resonator. MEMS devices combine tiny electronic and mechanical components. By using this device with a hard (higher energy) X-ray, scientists can now control how long the X-ray pulses are, down to 300 picoseconds long. Picoseconds are one trillionth of a second long. Typical synchrotrons – a type of particle accelerator – produce X-rays that are about 100 picoseconds long, but don't have the ability to have fine control over the pulse length.

December 19, 2019. IBM and the University of Tokyo announced an agreement to partner to advance quantum computing and make it practical for the benefit of industry, science and society. IBM and the University will form the Japan – IBM Quantum Partnership, a broad national partnership framework in which other universities, industry, and government can engage.

December 19, 2019. The so-called topological insulators are those materials that are insulators in bulk, i.e., those that do not allow electric currents in their volume, but that are conductors on their surfaces. So far, magnetic topological insulators had only been created by the so-called extrinsic route, which consists of doping nonmagnetic topological insulators with magnetic atoms. However, thanks to the efforts of a group of researchers from the Materials Physics Center (CFM, CSIC-UPV/EHU joint centre), Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC) and the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), it is now possible to grow an intrinsic magnetic topological insulator, that is, one that has magnetic properties by its own very nature.

December 19, 2019. The smuggling of contraband, such as explosives and drugs, is a major threat in airport security. These risks have increased in modern times with the uptick in parcel delivery. Researchers at Tongji University and Zhejiang University City College propose a new technique for the efficient security detection of contraband items.

December 20, 2019. Researchers have shown mechanical force can start chemical reactions, making them cheaper, more broadly applicable, and more environmentally friendly than conventional methods.