Materials & Coatings

Access our comprehensive library of technical briefs on materials and coatings, from engineering experts at NASA and government, university, and commercial laboratories.

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Briefs: Photonics/Optics
An international team of researchers reports on a compact high-brightness mid-IR-driven source combining a gas-filled anti-resonant-ring photonic crystal fiber with a novel nonlinear-crystal. The tabletop source provides a seven-octave coherent spectrum from 340 nm–40,000 nm with spectral brightness 2–5 orders of magnitude higher than one of the brightest synchrotron facilities.
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Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Using kirigami, the ancient Japanese art of folding and cutting paper, MIT researchers have now manufactured a type of high-performance architected material known as a plate lattice, on a much larger scale than scientists have previously been able to achieve by additive fabrication.
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Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
A new method for metal 3D printing aims to make more efficient use of resources by allowing structural modifications to be “programmed” into metal alloys during 3D printing, fine-tuning their properties without the “heating and beating” process that’s been in use for thousands of years.
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Briefs: Aerospace
NASA’s Langley Research Center has developed a simplified, tool-less automated tow/tape placement (ATP) system. This invention enables several benefits that mitigate limitations associated with conventional ATP systems. Read on to learn more.
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Briefs: Materials
Scientists at the Columbia University, University of Connecticut, and the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory were able to fabricate a pure form of glass and coat specialized pieces of DNA with it to create a material that was not only stronger than steel, but incredibly lightweight.
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Briefs: Materials
A series of buzzing “loop-currents” could explain a recently discovered, never-before-seen phenomenon in a type of quantum material. The quantum material is known by the chemical formula Mn 3Si2Te6, but it’s safe to call it “honeycomb.” Read on to learn more.
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Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Developed by a team led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, a self-assembling nanosheet could significantly extend the shelf life of consumer products. And because the new material is recyclable, it could also enable a sustainable manufacturing approach that keeps single-use packaging and electronics out of landfills.
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Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Researchers have unveiled a remarkable new material with potential to impact the world of material science: amorphous silicon carbide (a-SiC). Beyond its exceptional strength, this material demonstrates mechanical properties crucial for vibration isolation on a microchip. It is therefore particularly suitable for making ultra-sensitive microchip sensors.
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Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory have developed an autonomous, or self-driving, microscopy technique. It uses AI to selectively target points of interest for scanning. Read on to learn more.
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Briefs: Energy
A research team from the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory reports that the flow battery, a design optimized for electrical grid energy storage, maintained its capacity to store and release energy for more than a year of continuous charge and discharge.
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Briefs: Physical Sciences
A team from Chalmers University of Technology has succeeded in observing how the lithium metal in the cell behaves as it charges and discharges. The new method may contribute to batteries with higher capacity and increased safety in our future cars and devices.
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Briefs: Energy
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory are researching solutions to these Li-ion battery issues by testing new materials in battery construction. One such material is sulfur.
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Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
A stretchable system that can harvest energy from human breathing and motion for use in wearable health-monitoring devices may be possible, according to an international team of researchers.
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Briefs: Materials
The optical concentration sensor has been demonstrated to effectively measure pretreat concentrations in both still and flowing liquid conditions and is resistant to contamination issues as necessitated by the UWMS.
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Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
A Molecular-Sized, More Efficient Electronic Sensor
Australian researchers have developed a molecular-sized, more efficient version of a widely used electronic sensor, in a breakthrough that could bring widespread benefits.
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Researchers at Boston University recently developed a novel deblurring algorithm that improves the resolution of images with photon intensity conservation and local linearity.
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Briefs: Photonics/Optics
With this new capability, researchers can potentially use frequency combs to better understand the split-second intermediate steps in fast-moving processes ranging from the workings of hypersonic jet engines to the chemical reactions between enzymes that regulate cell growth.
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Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Macquarie University engineers have developed a new technique to make the manufacturing of nanosensors far less carbon-intensive, much cheaper, more efficient, and more versatile — substantially improving a key process in this trillion-dollar global industry.
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Briefs: Materials
Using a new type of dual-polymer material capable of responding dynamically to its environment, researchers have developed a set of modular hydrogel components that could be useful in a variety of soft robotic and biomedical applications.
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Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
A team at ETH Zurich has developed an ultrasonically actuated glass needle that can be attached to a robotic arm. This lets them pump and mix minuscule amounts of liquid and trap particles.
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Briefs: Green Design & Manufacturing
The system harnesses the sun's heat to directly split water and generate hydrogen — a clean fuel that can power long-distance trucks, ships, and planes, while in the process emitting no greenhouse gas emissions.
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Briefs: Green Design & Manufacturing
Scientists at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed an affordable add-on technology that removes more than 99.9 percent of acidic gases and other emissions to produce an ultraclean natural gas furnace.
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Briefs: Green Design & Manufacturing
Recent discoveries by MIT engineers have revealed that introducing new materials into existing concrete manufacturing processes could significantly reduce their carbon footprint without altering concrete's bulk mechanical properties.
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Briefs: Materials
To further shrink electronic devices and to lower energy consumption, the semiconductor industry is interested in using 2D materials but manufacturers need a quick and accurate method for detecting defects in these materials to determine if the material is suitable for device manufacture.
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Briefs: Energy
To improve battery performance and production, Penn State researchers and collaborators have developed a new fabrication approach that could make for more efficient batteries that maintain energy and power levels.
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Briefs: Green Design & Manufacturing
Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, have created a new and efficient way to recycle metals from spent electric vehicle (EV) batteries. The method allows recovery of 100 percent of the aluminum and 98 percent of the lithium in EV batteries.
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Briefs: Energy
A team developed a framework for designing solid-state batteries (SSBs) with mechanics in mind. Their paper, published in Science, reviewed how these factors change SSBs during their cycling.
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Briefs: Materials
A collaborative research team has achieved a groundbreaking milestone in battery technology. Their remarkable achievement in developing a non-flammable gel polymer electrolyte is set to revolutionize the safety of Li-ion batteries by mitigating the risks of thermal runaway and fire incidents.
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Briefs: Materials
Dr. Song Kahye along with Professor Lee, Dae-Young have jointly developed a soft gripper with a woven structure that can grip objects weighing more than 100 kg with 130 g of material. To increase the loading capacity of the soft robot gripper, the team applied a new structure inspired by textiles.
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