Materials

Improved carbon-fiber- reinforced SiC ceramic-matrix composite (C/SiC CMC) materials, suitable for fabrication of thick-section structural components, are producible by use of a combination of raw materials and processing conditions different from such combinations used in the prior art. In...

A process for coating carbon fibers with platinum has been developed. The process may also be adaptable to coating carbon fibers with other noble and refractory metals, including rhenium and iridium. The coated carbon fibers would be used as ingredients of matrix/fiber composite materials that would resist...

A proposed program of research and development would be devoted to exploitation of nanomaterials in pressuresensitive paints (PSPs), which are used on wind-tunnel models for mapping surface pressures associated with flow fields. Heretofore, some success has been achieved in measuring...

Powerful atomizers are made using high-output rotary discs with output of 20,000 to 24,000 droplets per second, without altering the droplet size and disc parameters. Assembly of several discs in a row on a rotary shaft produces powerful aviation- and ground-based atomizers. The atomizers can be used in agriculture as an orchard...

&A synthesis route has been developed for the commercial manufacture of single- source precursors of chalcopyrite semiconductor absorber layers of thin-film solar photovoltaic cells. The semiconductors in question are denoted by the general formula CuInxGa1–xSySe2–y, where 0 ≤ x...

It has been proposed to fabricate polymer/soil composites primarily from extraterrestrial resources, using relatively lowenergy processes, with the original intended application being that habitat structures constructed from such composites would have sufficient structural integrity and also provide...

University of Illinois scientists have fabricated the world's smallest chain-mail fabric that consists of a network of small rings about 500 microns in diameter and even smaller links about 400 microns long. The rings and links are built upon a planar substrate and then released to create a flexible sheet that can bend along two...

A methodology has been devised for accounting for uncertainties in the strengths of silicon carbide structural components of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). The methodology enables prediction of the probabilistic strengths of complexly shaped MEMS parts using data from tests of...

Lithium dinitramide, LiN(NO2)2 has shown promise as an additive to nonaqueous electrolytes in rechargeable and non-rechargeable lithium-ion-based electrochemical power cells. Such non-aqueous electrolytes consist of lithium salts dissolved in mixtures of organic ethers, esters, carbonates,...

Nanotech Briefs® magazine is accepting nominations for its third annual Nano 50 awards competition. The Nano 50 recognizes the top 50 technologies, innovators, and products with the greatest potential to advance the commercialization of nanotechnology.

A coating that is hard and has a high modulus of elasticity is needed for application to polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) optical films. Excellent coating adhesion and optical transparency are mandatory. The coating must withstand a force greater than 13,000 MpA, and offer a pencil hardness of B or over.To respond to this Tech Need...

A self-biased solar cell is available that provides improved conversion efficiency. Loss of carriers at the back surface of the battery is decreased, and open circuit voltage and quantum efficiency near a long wavelength are increased. View this technology here.

A technology for monitoring protein growth -- developed in part through NASA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) funding from Marshall Space Flight Center -- is noninvasive, nondestructive, rapid, and more cost effective than x-ray analysis. The partner for this SBIR, Photon-X, Inc. (Huntsville, AL), developed spatial-phase...

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have created a new class of gas sensors using a chemical process that converts the silica (silicon dioxide) found in the shells of diatoms into the semiconductor material silicon. Silicon is normally produced from silica at temperatures well above the silicon melting point...

University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers have come one step closer to making fusion energy possible by showing that their magnetic plasma chamber, called a stellarator, can overcome a major barrier in plasma research by retaining the needed temperature for fusion to be possible. Past stellarators lose too much energy to reach the...

Printable Biosensor for On-Site, Online Measurements -- Bioactive Hybrid Materials for Photonic Microsystems It allows samples to be analyzed on site within a few minutes by integrating biotechnology, information technology, electronics, physics, and chemistry to realize small and cost-effective bio-photonic microsystems....