Materials & Manufacturing

Fully Stretchable Fabric-Based Lithium-Ion Battery

The future of wearable technology just got a big boost thanks to a team of University of Houston researchers who designed, developed, and delivered a successful prototype of a fully stretchable fabric-based lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery.

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.

Developing High-Energy-Density Batteries Using Aluminum Foil

A team of researchers is using aluminum foil to create batteries with higher energy density and greater stability. The team’s new battery system could enable EVs to run longer on a single charge and would be cheaper to manufacture – all while having a positive impact on the environment.

The Road to Net-Zero EV Development Labs

As the automotive sector continues to transition to a significant portion of their portfolio being electric, they must either build the needed test facilities to support this transition or update their current facilities.

Emerging Plasma FIB-SEM Techniques Advancing Battery Innovation

PFIB-SEM is a valuable technique that neatly complements other analytical and imaging methods, providing high-resolution 2D and 3D information for larger areas, as compared to traditional gallium FIB-SEM.

Hydrogen: A Potential Green Path to Making Chemicals

A new potential path toward greener ways to make chemicals: By adapting hydrogen fuel cell technologies, which are already used to power some EVs, laptops, and cell phones.

Magnetic Robots Walk, Crawl, and Swim

New soft-bodied robots that can be controlled by a simple magnetic field are well suited to work in confined spaces. The robots, formed from rubbery magnetic spirals, can be programmed to walk, crawl,...

AI and AM: A Powerful Synergy

In the digital-design-engineering world, at the foundation of innovation in advanced manufacturing, AI’s “deep learning” has the potential to transform how the world makes products — in highly positive ways.

A Ferroelectric Transistor That Stores and Computes at Scale

The Big Data revolution has strained the capabilities of state-of-the-art electronic hardware, challenging engineers to rethink almost every aspect of the microchip. With ever...

A Plant-Based Gel That Saves Lives

A hemostatic gel technology that rapidly controls bleeding could transform wound care.

A Stretchable, Fabric-Based Li-ion Battery

Researchers developed a prototype for the Li-ion battery, which could lead to stretchy electronics or even clothes that monitor health.

New Ferroelectric Material Could Give Robots Muscles

A new type of ferroelectric polymer that is exceptionally good at converting electrical energy into mechanical strain holds promise as a high-performance motion controller or...

Print 3D Metal Objects at Room Temperature Using a Conductive Metallic Gel

Professor Michael Dickey, of North Carolina State University, and his team have developed a unique process that allows you to print 3D metal objects that have good electric and thermal conductivity as well as good structural properties.

An Approach to Inexpensively Mass Manufacture Micro-LED Displays

The new method paves the way to creating large-scale arrays of optical components and could be used to rapidly manufacture micro-LED displays.

How Much Do You Know About eVTOLs?

How much do you know about eVTOLs? Test yourself with this quiz.

Product of The Month

See the product of the month: InnoPhase IoT, Inc.'s Talaria TWOTM Ultra-low power (ULP) Wi-Fi optimized market-ready solution for cloud-connected IP video IoT devices.

New on the Market

See the new products on the market, including Clean-in-Place Utilities and Automated Reporting Analytics software, radar-level sensors, power ultrasonic transducers, and more.

Nanoscale 3D Structure to Control Light

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

Strengthening Electron-Triggered Light Emission

A wavelength of visible light is about 1,000 times larger than an electron, so the way the two affect each other is limited by that disparity. Now, researchers have come up with a way to make...

Caterpillar-Inspired Soft Robotics Locomotion

Researchers have demonstrated a caterpillar-like soft robot that can move forward, backward, and even dip under narrow spaces. Its movement is driven by a novel pattern of silver nanowires.

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.

Printing Microchip Patterns on Curvy Surfaces

There’s still more to explore with REFLEX, but this process could open new possibilities for new materials and microstructures across fields from electronics to optics to biomedical engineering.

New Programmable Smart Fabric Responds to Temperature, Electricity

A new smart material is activated by both heat and electricity, making it the first ever to respond to two different stimuli. The work paves the way for a wide variety of potential applications, including clothing that warms up while you walk.

Surgical Sutures Inspired by Human Tendons

Next-generation sutures can deliver drugs, prevent infections, and monitor wounds.

Generative Design Puts Hydrogen Fuel Cell Development in High Gear

Toyota Research Institute of North America has developed a simulation-driven generative design method and applied it to the design of flow field microchannel plates, which direct the movement of fluid reactants in microreactors like hydrogen — oxygen fuel cells.

Six Considerations When Choosing Machine Vision in Collaborative Applications

Machine vision dates back to the beginning of the modern industrial robot age in the 1980s. Augmenting cobots with vision allows them to perform with higher precision, flexibility, and intelligence. However, integration is not a one-size-fits-all process.