Materials & Coatings

Is It a Material? Is It a Robot? It's Both!

Engineers have created a type of material that can expand, assume new shapes, move, and follow electromagnetic commands like a remotely controlled robot even though it lacks any motor or internal gears.

How Much Do You Know About Electrical Equipment in Hazardous Locations?

This is critically important knowledge for all engineers and designers. How much do you know about electrical equipment in hazardous locations? Test your knowledge with this quiz.

Self-Growing 3D Objects

Professor Sameh Tawfick and his team at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana have developed a 3D process that grows polymer objects in a controlled manner to achieve a desired shape.

A Lighter, Smarter Magnetoreceptive Electronic Skin

Imagine navigating a virtual reality with contact lenses or operating your smartphone under water — this and more could soon be a reality thanks to innovative e-skins. A research team...

Products of Tomorrow

See the products of tomorrow, including a practical way to make hydrocarbons powered solely by the sun; an air traffic control system for drones that can effectively and accurately track anything in an identified low-altitude airspace; and a robotic system whose primary structural platform, or “orb,” can be injected into a pipe network and perform reconnaissance of piping infrastructure and other interior volumes.

New High-Speed Microscale 3D-Printing Technique

Researchers at Stanford University have introduced a more efficient processing technique that can print up to 1 million highly detailed and customizable microscale particles a day. Read on to learn more about it.

Flexible Lightweight Radiation Shielding

An innovator at NASA Langley Research Center has developed a novel method for making thin, lightweight radiation shielding that can be sprayed or melted onto common textiles used in clothing such as cotton, nylon, polyester, Nomex, and Kevlar. Read on to learn more about it.

Fabricating Ultrastrong Aluminum Alloys for Additive Manufacturing

Purdue University material engineers have created a patent-pending process to develop ultrahigh-strength aluminum alloys that are suitable for additive manufacturing because of their plastic deformability. Read on to learn more.

Gear Motors Help Put the Squeeze on Materials Requiring Dewatering

The applications that require dewatering are too numerous to list in their entirety. Dewatering is a process that — as its name suggests — separates fluids from solids, often converting what would otherwise go down the drain or end up in a landfill into saleable products. Read on to learn more about it and how gear motors come into play.

A Triple-Layer Battery Resistant to Fire and Explosion

The triple-layer solid electrolyte features a robust middle layer that boosts the battery’s mechanical strength, while its soft outer surface ensures an excellent electrode contact, facilitating an easy movement of lithium ions. Read on to learn more.

A Quick and Easy Way to Produce Anode Materials for Sodium-Ion Batteries Using Microwaves

A research team led by Dr. Daeho Kim and Dr. Jong Hwan Park at the Nano Hybrid Technology Research Center of the Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute has developed a groundbreaking process technology that enables ultrafast, 30-second preparation of hard carbon anodes for sodium-ion batteries, using microwave induction heating. Read on to learn more.

How MXenes Can Improve Air Filtration

An interdisciplinary team of researchers has introduced a new way to improve textile-based filters by coating them with a type of two-dimensional nanomaterial called MXene.

Maintaining Quantum Characteristics, Even in 3D Materials

An international team has developed a novel approach to maintain special quantum characteristics, even in 3D materials.

Artificial Muscles Could Lead to Soft, Wiggly Robots

A team has developed a method to grow artificial muscle tissue that twitches and flexes in multiple coordinated directions. As a demonstration, they grew an artificial, muscle-powered structure that pulls both concentrically and radially.

A Better-Performing Sodium-Ion Cathode

A cathode material put forward by the Dincă Group, a layered organic solid called bis-tetraaminobenzoquinone (TAQ), outperforms traditional lithium-ion cathodes in both energy and power densities in a technology that is truly scalable.

How Much Do You Know About Bonded Dissimilar Metals?

Engineers are constantly looking for metals to solve their design dilemmas. Bonded dissimilar metals offer vastly improved performance while minimizing the design trade-offs of single metals. How much do you know about bonded dissimilar metals? Find out with this quiz.

Using MRIs to Detect Metal-Ion Dissolution in Lithium Battery Cathodes

Researchers have been working on a method to detect and investigate the dissolution of the metal ion in a cathode. Using nuclear MRI, they were able to directly observe the dissolution in real time. Read on to learn more.

Breakthrough in High-Performance Oxide-Ion Conductors Using Rubidium

Oxide-ion conductors enable oxide ions (O2-) to be transported in solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs), which can run on diverse fuels beyond hydrogen, including natural gas,...

Power Line Test Bed Energizes Technologies for Increasing Grid Capacity

As population growth and extreme temperatures strain the United States power grid, utilities and equipment manufacturers are looking for ways to increase the amount of...

Reducing Electronic Waste with Biodegradable and Recyclable Luminescent Polymers

Researchers have developed a strategy to design luminescent polymers with high light-emitting efficiencies from the start that are both biodegradable and recyclable. Read on to learn more.

Critical Minerals Recovery from Electronic Waste

A PNNL research team used a simple mixed-salt water-based solution and their knowledge of metal properties to separate valuable minerals in continuously flowing reaction chambers. Read on to learn more.