Findings turn previous understanding of ice formation upside down

31-May-2021

Researchers from TU Graz in Austria and the Universities of Cambridge and Surrey succeeded to track down the first step in ice formation at a surface, revealing that additional energy is needed for water before ice can start to form. Water freezes and turns to ice when brought in contact with a ...

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Nanoparticles are often used as catalysts. The chemical reactions on their surface are more complex than previously thought

26-May-2021

Most of commercial chemicals are produced using catalysts. Usually, these catalysts consist of tiny metal nanoparticles that are placed on an oxidic support. Similar to a cut diamond, whose surface consists of different facets oriented in different directions, a catalytic nanoparticle also ...

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A research team came across a surprising form of "quantum criticality". This could lead to a design concept for new materials

26-May-2021

In everyday life, phase transitions usually have to do with temperature changes – for example, when an ice cube gets warmer and melts. But there are also different kinds of phase transitions, depending on other parameters such as magnetic field. In order to understand the quantum properties of ...

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Analysis of particularly complex gas mixtures with unprecedented accuracy

25-May-2021

In an international cooperation with partners from industry and research, physicists from the University of Vienna, together with Thorlabs, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the University of Kansas, have now succeeded for the first time in demonstrating ...

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Green alternatives to fossil raw materials: Bio-based materials are expected to reduce pollution and drive the shift to a more sustainable economy

12-May-2021

As a renewable resource, wood offers great potential in the fight against the climate crisis. First, it sequesters large amounts of carbon (1 ton per cubic meter!). Moreover, it is an environmentally friendly alternative to fossil based resources, which cause the majority of greenhouse gas ...

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Approval of EVBs for a second life

04-May-2021

Studies at TU Graz show that the older an traction battery of electric vehicles (EV) is, the lower the danger it poses. Now the researchers and industry partners want to define parameters for the subsequent use of discarded batteries. As part of the project "SafeBattery", a team from Graz ...

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Precisely understand and improve chemical properties of surfaces

30-Apr-2021

The acidity of molecules can be easily determined, but until now it was not possible to measure this important property for atoms on a surface. With a new microscopy technique from the Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien), this has now been achieved. The degree of acidity or alkalinity of a ...

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In extreme heat or in the vacuum of space: a novel nanomaterial delivers top performance in extreme situations

22-Apr-2021

You can lubricate a bicycle chain with oil, but what do you do with a Mars rover or a red-hot conveyor belt in the steel industry? Very special nanomaterials have now been studied by the TU Wien together with research groups from Saarbrücken (Germany), Purdue University in the USA and the ...

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Converting carbon dioxide into other useful substances, such as synthetic fuels

22-Apr-2021

Which catalyst can be used to convert carbon dioxide into other substances? Scientists at TU Wien have now created a new material, which belongs to the class of perovskites. If the CO2 content of the atmosphere is not to increase any further, carbon dioxide must be converted into something else. ...

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A design principle for the self-assembly of functionalized molecules devised

21-Apr-2021

Using machine learning methods, researchers at TU Graz can predict the structure formation of functionalized molecules at the interfaces of hybrid materials. Now they have also succeeded in looking behind the driving forces of this structure formation. The production of nanomaterials involves ...

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