Material Science and Tech and Wild Speculation

[brilligtove]

I find the science and technology of new material fascinating. Graphene and nanoscale electrodes and metamaterials and tuneable coloured glass and... Well, I think it's all pretty cool, and love imagining what could be cone with this new stuff. If you find it interesting too, post links to new materials and new uses of them, and we can all speculate wildly.

Today, I've seen two fun articles:

Penn Researchers Make Thinnest Plates That Can Be Picked Up by Hand

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have now created the thinnest plates that can be picked up and manipulated by hand. Despite being thousands of times thinner than a sheet of paper and hundreds of times thinner than household cling wrap or aluminum foil, their corrugated plates of aluminum oxide spring back to their original shape after being bent and twisted.

I wonder if a composite with graphene would be possible, giving a super thin, untearable, flexible material.

Nanoscale drawbridges open path to color displays

Rice develops first method for reversible color changes with metal nanoparticles. A new method for building “drawbridges” between metal nanoparticles may allow electronics makers to build full-color displays using light-scattering nanoparticles that are similar to the gold materials that medieval artisans used to create red stained-glass.

I would love to see the gorilla glass be the display surface one day, with the battery and electronics in a thin bezel around the edge of a phone.

[brilligtove]

Here's one about making more effective use of existing batteries.

Electric Cars: Batteries with brains

Date: December 4, 2015
Source: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft
Key Concepts: Existing batteries in cars are expensive for a few reasons. One is that all the individual cells have to have essentially the same capacity. This is because the cells are connected in series, so if one drains early the entire battery is dead, no matter how much power is still available in the rest of the cells. The new smart cells know when they are tapped out and bridge neighbouring cells together - removing a performance barrier. This reduces costs by eliminating the need to sort through and match cell capacities, and results in a small but significant boost in overall available power in a battery. these cells can also be designed to be replaceable, so when they fall below a performance threshold the whole battery can be reconditioned by removing and replacing only the cells that are in the worst condition.

[Dr Havoc]

Improved energy storage technologies will revolutionize our lives in the near future.

[Anders]

Internet porn already has.

[Dr Havoc]

Internet porn already has.

I would hardly call give your more options for "self-indulgence", revolutionizing our lives.

[Anders]

Internet porn already has.

I would hardly call give your more options for "self-indulgence", revolutionizing our lives.

Clearly we have different priorities.  :pervert: :pervert:

[Dr Havoc]

Internet porn already has.

I would hardly call give your more options for "self-indulgence", revolutionizing our lives.

Clearly we have different priorities.  :pervert: :pervert:

If my wife saw this, I would be forbidden from visiting this site every again. I am sure that would make you very unhappy

[brilligtove]

Transparent metal films for smart phone, tablet and TV displays
A new material that is both highly transparent and electrically conductive could make large screen displays, smart windows and even touch screens and solar cells more affordable and efficient, according to materials scientists and engineers at Penn State who have discovered just such a material.

New ceramic firefighting foam becomes stronger when temperature increases
A team of chemists from ITMO University, in collaboration with research company SOPOT, has developed a novel type of firefighting foam based on inorganic silica nanoparticles. The new foam beats existing analogues in fire extinguishing capacity, thermal and mechanical stability and biocompatibility. The results of the study were published in ACS Advanced Materials & Interfaces

[brilligtove]

Tooth fillings of the future may incorporate bioactive glass

12/22/2015

CORVALLIS, Ore. – A few years from now millions of people around the world might be walking around with an unusual kind of glass in their mouth, and using it every time they eat.

Engineers at Oregon State University have made some promising findings about the ability of “bioactive” glass to help reduce the ability of bacteria to attack composite tooth fillings – and perhaps even provide some of the minerals needed to replace those lost to tooth decay.

[snip]

If this laboratory result is confirmed by clinical research, it should be very easy to incorporate bioactive glass into existing formulations for composite tooth fillings, Kruzic said.

[brilligtove]

There were a bunch in the last month that I haven't posted, but this one is really neat.

Metal Glue

Experts in nanotechnology have developed a glue that binds metal to metal to glass to you-name-it, sets at room temperature, and requires little pressure to set.

Edited to link to original press release.

[brilligtove]

Since I'm getting into 3D printing this year, here's a fun one:

https://blog.adafruit.com/2016/01/11/a-new-type-of-3d-printed-ceramic-could-revolutionize-how-spacecraft-are-built/

They've figured out how to use stereo lithography to polymerize a new material. The amazing part is that the new material turns into a real ceramic when fired.

[EvilNick]

Internet porn already has.

I would hardly call give your more options for "self-indulgence", revolutionizing our lives.

Self-indulgence regularly revolutionizes our lives.  For instance, the strength of the porn industry is one of the things that helped VHS topple Betamax.  Wanting to keep your food cold evolved design of the refrigerator.  Self-indulgence in television changed and evolved how we acquire news and information (Fox News notwithstanding). 

What necessity doesn't invent, laziness and self-indulgence does.

[Billzbub]

Internet porn already has.

I would hardly call give your more options for "self-indulgence", revolutionizing our lives.

Self-indulgence regularly revolutionizes our lives.  For instance, the strength of the porn industry is one of the things that helped VHS topple Betamax.  Wanting to keep your food cold evolved design of the refrigerator.  Self-indulgence in television changed and evolved how we acquire news and information (Fox News notwithstanding). 

What necessity doesn't invent, laziness and self-indulgence does.

F yeah!

[brilligtove]

First all-antiferromagnetic memory device could get digital data storage in a spin

If you haven’t already heard of antiferromagnetic spintronics it won’t be long before you do. This relatively unused class of magnetic materials could be about to transform our digital lives. They have the potential to make our devices smaller, faster, more robust and increase their energy efficiency.

Spintronics have been around for a long time. I think I first read bout them in Scientific American two decades ago. This may be a step to practical devices.

[brilligtove]

I guess this falls into this category.

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2016-01/18/nuclear-fusion-energy-monitoring