Materials & Coatings

Coatings & Adhesives

Browse the latest news and technical briefs that explore coatings and adhesives. Access the coatings and adhesive applications used in military, aerospace, medical devices, and automotive.

NASA Spinoff: Materials
NASA’s Emissive Material Adapted for High-Tech Fabrics
A coating material developed by NASA for protecting spaceplanes’ heat shields is now being used in high-tech fibers and fabrics.
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Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Alternative Transparent Coating Suitable for Optics with Vacuum Deposition Layer
Researchers have developed a viable dust, water, and ice mitigation optical coating for space flight, aeronautical, and ground applications. The innovation of the LOTUS coating prevents contamination on sensitive surfaces.
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Special Reports: Power
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EV Battery Innovation - November 2023

Read about the latest advances in EV battery testing, fast-charging, materials technology, and much more in this new report brought to you by Battery & Electrification Technology and Automotive...

Blog: Sensors/Data Acquisition
DNA Combined with Glass Results in a Stronger, Lighter Material
Researchers say that by building a structure out of DNA and then coating it with glass, they have created a very strong material with very low density.
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Briefs: Materials
New Priming Method for Improving Battery Lifecycle
Scientists at Rice University’s George R. Brown School of Engineering have developed a readily scalable method to optimize prelithiation, a process that helps mitigate lithium loss and improves battery life cycles by coating silicon anodes with stabilized lithium metal particles.
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Articles: Materials
Products of Tomorrow
See the products of tomorrow, including microscale robots, LOTUS coating, and a wearable e-tattoo.
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Briefs: Materials
Nanomaterial Promises Big Benefits for Bendable Electronics
An international team of scientists is developing an inkable nanomaterial that they say could one day become a spray-on electronic component for ultra-thin, lightweight, and bendable displays and devices.
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Briefs: Materials
New Polymer Coating Could Boost EV Batteries
Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have developed a conductive polymer coating – called HOS-PFM – that could enable longer lasting, more powerful lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles.
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Cohesive Circuit Protection for Wearable Electronics
The cellulose nanofiber coating counters bending damage and retains electrode function under water.
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Special Reports: Physical Sciences
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Advanced Materials & Coatings - May 2023

Breakthroughs in plastics, composites, metals, and other materials technologies are enabling exciting new applications in industries ranging from aerospace to automotive to medical. Read more in this...

Briefs: Materials
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.
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Briefs: Materials
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...

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Special Reports: Robotics, Automation & Control
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Aerospace & Defense Sensing - April 2023

NASA is applying sensor technologies to create a state-of-the-art dexterous humanoid robot, to monitor the structural health of inflatable habitats designed for Mars, and to test the first...

Quiz: Materials
The Rise of Electric Vehicles
Did you know that electric vehicles have been around for over a century? Test your knowledge about the history of EVs in this quiz.
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On-Demand Webinars: Materials
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Optics & Coating Innovations

Precision optics are used in a variety of aerospace, industrial, scientific, medical, astronomical, and military applications. In addition to material selection and rigorous design specifications, optical...

Special Reports: Medical
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Medical Manufacturing & Outsourcing - March 2023

The first 3D-printed nano-alloy...plasma treatment increases plastic part value 10x...light-powered catalysts aid drug manufacturing...how to build better "soft" robots. Those are just a few...

Videos of the Month: Green Design & Manufacturing
Videos of the Month
Videos of the month for March 2023.
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On-Demand Webinars: Electronics & Computers
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Conformal Coatings for Product Reliability and Long-term Performance

Conformal coatings play an integral role in the protection of many consumer and industrial electronics, medical device, aerospace, defense, and automotive...

Quiz: Power
Can EV Batteries Be Recycled?
Many companies and universities are partnering to develop EV battery-recycling technologies. But can EV batteries be recycled?
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5 Ws: Aerospace
5 Ws of Ice-Shedding Coating
A team of researchers at University of Houston have developed a deicing spray in which detachment can be accurately controlled and accelerated.
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Briefs: Manned Systems
New Coatings Reduce Impact Ice Adhesion Strength
Researchers at NASA Langley are developing polymer coatings that reduce impact ice adhesion strength.
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Blog: Materials
Adding Vibrations to Electronics to Reduce Vibrations
A counterintuitive way to protect atomically thin electronics: adding vibrations to reduce vibration issues.
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Application Briefs: Materials
Inflatable Space Habitats Use Sensors Embedded in Webbing for Structural Health Monitoring
A novel approach is moving away from conventional structural health monitoring testing methods for inflatable space habitats in favor of using sensors embedded in the flexible structural restraint webbing layers.
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Blog: Green Design & Manufacturing
Self-Folding Origami Honeycombs Perfect for Protective Packaging
A research team has demonstrated a promising method to easily manufacture self-folding origami honeycomb structures.
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INSIDER: Materials
UV-to-Red-Light Converting Films Accelerate Plant Growth

An interdisciplinary team from Hokkaido University’s Engineering and Agriculture departments and the Institute for Chemical Reaction Design and Discovery (WPI-ICReDD) has...

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Facility Focus: Materials
Florida Tech College of Engineering and Science
The Florida Institute of Technology is a private research university in Melbourne, FL. The university was founded in 1958 as Brevard Engineering College to support NASA in providing advanced education for professionals working in the space program.
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Articles: Materials
2022 Create the Future Design Contest: Manufacturing/Robotics/Automation Winner - Large-Scale 3D Printing with Tubes
The 3D printing industry has grown quickly over the last decade with average compound annual growth rates of around 27 percent leading to a market size of $17.7 billion in 2022.
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Briefs: Materials
High Atomic Number Coatings for Fabrics
This new approach is useful for building radiation shields via the Z-grading method, the process of layering metal materials with different atomic numbers to provide radiation protection for protons, electrons, and x-rays.
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Top Stories

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Quiz: RF & Microwave Electronics

How Much Do You Know About Radar?

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Blog: Medical

VR Therapy Aims to Help Those with Hoarding Disorder

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Quiz: Green Design & Manufacturing

How Much Do You Know About Sustainability?

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Blog: Robotics, Automation & Control

Plant-Based Soft Robots Take on the Medical Industry

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Videos: Power

Hand-Built Electric Racing Car Breaks World Record for Acceleration

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Blog: Defense

Top Prizes Awarded in 2023 Create the Future Design Contest

Webcasts

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Upcoming Webinars: Medical

What Really Changed: A Look at the Updated FDA Guidance Document...

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Upcoming Webinars: Automotive

Electrifying Off-Highway Drivetrains

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Upcoming Webinars: Electronics & Computers

NVH Prediction in Electric Powertrains: Considering Inverter and...

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Podcasts: Sensors/Data Acquisition

Here's an Idea: Powerful Sensors for the Eye

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On-Demand Webinars: Materials

The Smaller the Part, the Bigger the Advantages of Miniature Aluminum Extrusions

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Podcasts: AR/AI

Here's an Idea: How AI is Changing Military Aircraft Maintenance and More

Videos