Materials & Manufacturing

Making High-Performance Parts Inexpensive and Durable

Idaho National Laboratory has developed world-class capabilities to help industry design efficient SPS manufacturing processes. The lab’s newest addition makes it possible to manufacture new materials at industrially relevant scales.

Wavelength-Multiplexed Diffractive Optical Processor Computes Hundreds of Linear Transformations in Parallel

Computing using light can potentially provide lower latency and reduced power consumption, benefiting from the parallelism of optical systems.

Printing High-Fidelity Sensors

Printed radio frequency (RF) surface acoustic wave (SAW) sensor devices are a promising technology for providing highly reconfigurable, cost-effective, and multi-parameter sensing.

Artificial Skin Provides Haptic Feedback

The skin could help rehabilitation and enhance virtual reality by instantaneously adapting to a wearer's movements.

Peeling Back the Layers: Adhesives Testing for Wearables

Trends in wearable technology follow those of the broader biomedical and electronics industries — devices are getting smaller, smarter, and easier to use. Specifically, wearables in...

Crack Image Quality Indicator

Engineers have developed a modeling and manufacturing technique that generates unique verification tools which simulate cracks in metals within X-ray setup part-testing geometries.

3D-Printable Nanocomposite Polymeric Ink Could Replace Epoxies

Researchers have created a way to make a 3D-printable nanocomposite polymeric ink that uses carbon nanotubes — known for their high tensile strength and lightness. This revolutionary ink could replace epoxies.

Cryogenic Selective Surfaces

A new thermal control coating material, developed for use as a coating or rigid tiles, reflects essentially all solar radiation in the space environment.

Robust Synthesis of Vertically Aligned Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes

Researchers are scaling up the production of vertically aligned single-walled carbon nanotubes that could revolutionize diverse commercial products ranging from rechargeable batteries, automotive parts and sporting goods to boat hulls and water filters.

3D Printing Creates High-Performance Metal Alloy

Scientists used a 3D printer to create a high-performance metal alloy with an unusual composition that makes it stronger and lighter than state-of-the-art materials currently used in gas turbine machinery.

Copper Catalyst Converts Carbon Dioxide into Liquid Fuels

A research team has gained new insight by capturing real-time movies of copper nanoparticles as they convert CO2 and water into renewable fuels and chemicals: ethylene, ethanol, and propanol, among others.

Turning Plastic Waste into a Valuable Soil Additive

Researchers have moved a step closer to finding a use for the hundreds of millions of tons of plastic waste produced every year that often winds up clogging streams and rivers and polluting our oceans.

Radiative Cooling and Solar Heat from One System

Researchers have been exploring how to turbocharge a passive cooling technique — known as radiative or sky cooling — with sun-blocking nanomaterials that emit heat away from building rooftops.

Low-Cost Device Can Measure Air Pollution Anywhere

Air pollution is a major public health problem. Now, an MIT research team is rolling out an open-source version of a low-cost, mobile pollution detector that could enable people to track air quality more widely.

New Hydration Sensor Enables “Smart Diapers” and Other Health Monitors

A new sensor — so cheap and simple to produce that it can be hand-drawn with a pencil onto paper treated with sodium chloride — could clear the way for wearable, self-powered health monitors.

Terminator-Style Shape-Shifting Robot

A Terminator-style shape-shifting robot able to LIQUEFY and reform has been developed by engineers inspired by sea cucumbers.

3D-Printer Filaments with Embedded Sensor Particles

Purdue University researchers have developed a method to add particles to filament and disperse them evenly through a traditional fused deposition modeling 3D printer.

New 3D-Printing Technique: A Game Changer for Medical Testing Devices

Researchers have developed a highly specialized 3D-printing technique that allows microfluidic channels to be fabricated on chips at a precise microscale.

Screen-Printing Method Could Reduce Cost of Wearables

New research shows the glittering, serpentine structures that power wearable electronics can be created with the same technology used to print concert t-shirts.

Single-Step 3D-Printing Process to Build Robots

The piezoelectric “meta-bot” is capable of propulsion, movement, sensing, and decision-making.

Microscopic Color Converters May Yield Small Laser-Based Devices

New research suggests that laser-based devices are poised to become a lot smaller.

Nanoscale 3D Structure to Control Light

3D nanometer-scale metamaterial structures hold promise for advanced optical isolators.

New Anode Materials for Fast-Charging Lithium-Ion Batteries

The commercially relevant approach opens a potential pathway to improve charging speeds for electric vehicles.

Developing More Durable Solar Cells

An international research collaboration led by UCLA has developed a way to use perovskite in solar cells while protecting it from the conditions that cause it to deteriorate.

Material Derived from Trees Could Replace Liquid Electrolytes

The material could pave the way for better, safer solid-state batteries.

Inflatable, Shape-Changing Spinal Implants Could Help Treat Severe Pain

The device uses soft robotics, ultra-thin electronics, and microfluidics.

Simplifying the Production of Lithium-ion Batteries

24M Technologies has simplified Li-ion battery production with a new design that requires fewer materials and steps to manufacture each cell.

New Hybrid Electrolyte for High-Performance Lithium-ion Batteries

The polymeric solid electrolyte realized a wide potential window, a high Li-ion conductivity, and a high Li-ion transference number.