PETRA III shines a light on efficient production technique for a novel ‘green’ fertiliser

Advanced milling technique produces slow-release soil nutrient crystals

13-May-2022 - A purely mechanical method can produce a novel, more sustainable fertiliser in a less polluting way. That is the result of a method optimised at DESY's light source PETRA III. An international team used PETRA III to optimise the production method that is an adaptation of an ancient technique: by ...

Beyond lithium: A systematic search for candidate materials for calcium-ion batteries

Scientists conduct quantum mechanics simulations to identify a promising class of materials for new types of rechargeable battery

09-Feb-2022 - Electric cars are the future; they will help reduce air pollution and end our dependence on fossil fuels. However, there is one glaring problem with this potentially disruptive technology: the availability of sufficient lithium (Li) to produce all these car batteries. The best rechargeable ...

Monitoring the corrosion of bioresorbable magnesium

Better prediction of degradation rate of magnesium implants

28-Oct-2019 - ETH researchers have recently been able to monitor the corrosion of bioresorbable magnesium alloys at the nanoscale over a time scale of a few seconds to many hours. This is an important step towards accurately predicting how fast implants are resorbed by the body to enable the development of ...

Physicists create world's smallest engine

23-Aug-2019 - Theoretical physicists at Trinity College Dublin are among an international collaboration that has built the world's smallest engine - which, as a single calcium ion, is approximately ten billion times smaller than a car engine. Work performed by Professor John Goold's QuSys group in Trinity's ...

Examining puzzling sizes of extremely light calcium isotopes

13-Feb-2019 - Michigan State University researchers have measured for the first time the nuclei of three proton-rich calcium isotopes. One of the most fundamental properties of the nucleus is its size. The nuclear radius generally increases with the number of proton and neutron constituents. However, when ...

Indented cement shows unique properties

21-Jul-2017 - Rice University scientists have determined that no matter how large or small a piece of tobermorite is, it will respond to loading forces in precisely the same way. But poking it with a sharp point will change its strength. Tobermorite is a naturally occurring crystalline analog to the ...

A recipe for concrete that can withstand road salt deterioration

22-May-2017 - Road salt, used in copious helpings each winter to protect them from ice and preserve safe driving conditions, is slowly degrading the concrete they're made of. Engineers have known for some time that calcium chloride salt, commonly used as deicer, reacts with the calcium hydroxide in concrete to ...

Calcium isotope holds the secret to the mass of neutrinos

14-Apr-2016 - Scientists around the world are being kept in suspense by the negligible mass of neutrinos, subatomic particles that could be matter and antimatter at the same time. Now, researchers from the University of Tokyo, in collaboration with a Spanish physicist, have used one of the world's most ...

New chemistries found for liquid batteries

24-Mar-2016 - Liquid metal batteries, invented by MIT professor Donald Sadoway and his students a decade ago, are a promising candidate for making renewable energy more practical. The batteries, which can store large amounts of energy and thus even out the ups and downs of power production and power use, are ...

Graphene becomes superconductive

Electrons with 'no mass' flow with 'no resistance'

18-Feb-2016 - Graphene is a single-atomic carbon sheet with a hexagonal honeycomb network. Electrons in graphene take a special electronic state called Dirac-cone where they behave as if they have no mass. This allows them to flow at very high speed, giving graphene a very high level of electrical ...