Materials & Coatings

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.

Engineering Carbon-Based Semiconductors for Next-Gen Electronics

A Duke University team's approach takes a metallic nanotube, which always lets current through, and transforms it into a semiconducting form that can be switched on and off. Read on to learn more.

Leveraging the Plasma Pen for Solving Complex Adhesion Challenges

By leveraging plasma pen technology into inline processes, manufacturers can achieve stronger, more reliable bonds, improved wettability, and enhanced performance across various materials. Read on to learn more about what this means.

Is Advanced Packaging the Next Large Leap for Mission-Critical Microelectronics?

The U.S. government’s microelectronics needs have evolved significantly over the decades. Now, we have entered the era of Advanced Packaging. This is the next microelectronics evolution to enhance and extend the performance of modern military and commercial systems. Read on to learn more about this.

How Much Do You Know About the Engineering Behind Sports?

In the last decade or so, sports engineering has become very popular across the world. How much do you know about it? Take this quiz to test your knowledge.

Mass 3D Printing in Space for the First Time

Auxilium Biotechnologies has successfully deployed its 3D bioprinter aboard the ISS. The platform is the first of its kind, making history by printing eight implantable medical devices simultaneously in just two hours.

Soft, Bioelectronic Sensor Implant

Researchers at the University of California, Irvine and New York’s Columbia University have embedded transistors in a soft, conformable material to create a biocompatible sensor implant that monitors...

MIT Engineers Grow “High-Rise” 3D Chips

The electronics industry is approaching a limit to the number of transistors that can be packed onto the surface of a computer chip. So, chip manufacturers are looking to build up rather than out.