SciFi Insight

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – In a recent study, University of Arkansas physics researchers found evidence of an inverse transition in ferroelectric ultrathin films, which could lead to advances in development of data storage, microelectronics and sensors. “We found that a disordered labyrinthine phase transforms into the more ordered parallel-stripe structure upon raising the temperature,” said Yousra Nahas,

IMAGE: Zheng received two honors – an AOCS Honored Student Award and the Manuchehr Eijadi Award, which recognizes the outstanding merit and performance of an honored student. view more  Credit: UMass Amherst Five food science Ph.D. students at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have been honored with 2020 student awards from the American Oil Chemists’ Society

IMAGE: a Artistic representation of the HgTe QD layer coated above the laser-printed Au nanobump array. b Side-view (view angle of 45°) SEM image showing the Au nanobump array printed at… view more  Credit: FEFU press office Scientists from Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU, Vladivostok, Russia), together with colleagues from FEB RAS, China, Hong Kong, and

Materials called perovskites show strong potential for a new generation of solar cells, but they’ve had trouble gaining traction in a market dominated by silicon-based solar cells. Now, a study by researchers at MIT and elsewhere outlines a roadmap for how this promising technology could move from the laboratory to a significant place in the

IMAGE: Calculated localized field (left) and temperature distribution (right) of the nano-butterfly structure. view more  Credit: Fujiwara H., et al, Nano Letters. December 23, 2019. A nanoscale gold butterfly provides a more precise route for growing/synthesizing nanosized semiconductors that can be used in nano-lasers and other applications. Hokkaido University researchers have devised a unique approach for

IMAGE: Viscosity is closely guarded within the cell, though at present we don’t know who the guardians are. view more  Credit: IPC PAS, Grzegorz Krzyzewski The only thing that appears to be unchanging in living cells is that they are constantly changing. However, scientists from the IPC PAS have managed to show that there is a

IMAGE: Army scientist Dr. Kang Xu specializes in electrochemistry and materials science to develops innovative solutions for tomorrow’s Soldiers at the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command’s Army Research Laboratory at… view more  Credit: U.S. Army photo by Jhi Scott ADELPHI, Md. (Feb. 5, 2020) – Scientists are closer to understanding exactly what happens inside batteries

IMAGE: Suggested structure of two Au230 nanoclusters linked by 5,5?-bis(mercaptomethyl)-2,2?-bipyridine (BMM-BPy) dithiols. view more  Credit: The University of Jyväskylä/Karolina Sokolowska Manufacture of chemical sensors and catalysts based on gold nanoclusters gained new light from recent cutting-edge research. Chemists at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland and the University of California succeeded in determining the atomic precise structure

Generating electricity from raindrops efficiently has gone one step further. A research team led by scientists from the City University of Hong Kong (CityU) has recently developed a droplet-based electricity generator (DEG), featured with a field-effect transistor (FET)-like structure that allows for high energy-conversion efficiency and instantaneous power density increased by thousands times compared to

When metal atoms form small clusters of a particular size, they show interesting and potentially useful electromagnetic characteristics, which are different from those of the actual bulk metal. To fully explore the potential of these properties, it is necessary to find ways to assemble precise macroscopic structures out of these clusters. But, how do these

IMAGE: Ekaterina Goncharova, a Master Degree student from ITMO University’s International Research Center SCAMT, a co-author of the research. view more  Credit: ITMO.NEWS (https://news.itmo.ru/en/) A group of researchers from ITMO University has come up with the concept of a new drug against cancer: a nanorobot made of DNA fragments, which can potentially be used not only

Diamond is prized by scientists and jewellers alike, largely for a range of extraordinary properties including exceptional hardness. Now a team of Australian scientists has discovered diamond can be bent and deformed, at the nanoscale at least. The discovery opens up a range of possibilities for the design and engineering of new nanoscale devices in

IMAGE: A visual comparison of 2D (above) and 1D (below) vdWs. view more  Credit: © 2020 Maruyama et al. For decades, carbon nanotubes held great promise of developments in the field of electronics and more. But one drawback to realizing these innovations has been the difficulty of incorporating additional materials into nanotubes. For the first time,

The University of Rochester research lab that recently used lasers to create unsinkable metallic structures has now demonstrated how the same technology could be used to create highly efficient solar power generators. In a paper in Light: Science & Applications, the lab of Chunlei Guo, professor of optics also affiliated with Physics and the Material

Tokyo, Japan – Researchers at The University of Tokyo have used computational methods and analysis of recent experimental data to demonstrate that water molecules take two distinct structures in the liquid state. The team investigated the scattering of X-ray photons through water samples and showed a bimodal distribution hidden under the first diffraction peak that

IMAGE: This is a comparison between a biological retina (Top) and an artificial photo-sensitive neuromorphic device. view more  Credit: Tae-Woo Lee Researchers at Seoul National University and Inha University in South Korea developed photo-sensitive artificial nerves that emulated functions of a retina by using 2-dimensional carbon nitride (C3N4) nanodot materials. Further, through the photo-sensitive artificial nerves