Engineers develop flexible skin that traps radar waves, cloaks objects

08-Mar-2016 - Iowa State University engineers have developed a new flexible, stretchable and tunable "meta-skin" that uses rows of small, liquid-metal devices to cloak an object from the sharp eyes of radar. The meta-skin takes its name from metamaterials, which are composites that have properties not found in ...

Researchers double down on heat to break up cellulose, produce fuels and power

24-Oct-2012 - Nicholas Creager recently pointed to the nuts and bolts of one of Iowa State University's latest biofuel machines. The 6-inch diameter, stainless steel pipe is the pressure vessel, which is essential for the system's operation, said Creager, a doctoral student in mechanical engineering and ...

Iowa State, Ames Lab researchers find new properties of the carbon material graphene

Findings could have applications in high-speed communications fields

04-Jun-2012 - Graphene has caused a lot of excitement among scientists since the extremely strong and thin carbon material was discovered in 2004. Just one atom thick, the honeycomb-shaped material has several remarkable properties combining mechanical toughness with superior electrical and thermal ...

Iowa State chemist designs new polymer structures for use as 'plastic electronics'

02-May-2011 - Iowa State University's Malika Jeffries-EL says she's studying doing structure-property studies so she can teach old polymers new tricks. Those tricks improve the properties of certain organic polymers that mimic the properties of traditional inorganic semiconductors and could make the polymers ...

ISU researcher develops green, bio-based process for producing fuel additive

28-Jun-2010 - A new green, bio-based method for producing a much-used fuel additive and industrial chemical that is currently made from petroleum products has been developed by an Iowa State University researcher. Thomas Bobik, professor of biochemistry, biophysics and molecular biology, invented a process ...

Iowa State, Ames Lab engineer works to develop better batteries for energy alternatives

28-Jan-2010 - Steve Martin, an Anson Marston Distinguished Professor in Engineering in Iowa State University's department of materials science and engineering and an associate of the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory, is working on the electrochemical reactions that make batteries work and how new ...

Iowa State researchers part of $78 million national effort to develop advanced biofuels

19-Jan-2010 - Two teams of Iowa State University researchers will receive a total of $8 million over three years from a $78 million U.S. Department of Energy program to research and develop advanced biofuels. Victor Lin – professor of chemistry, director of the Institute for Physical Research and Technology's ...

Iowa State physicists beginning to see data from the Large Hadron Collider

11-Jan-2010 - Three Iowa State University physicists who took winter trips to the Large Hadron Collider for meetings and experimental work are starting to see real data from the planet's biggest science experiment. Finally. The multibillion-dollar collider made international news on Sept. 10, 2008, when it ...

Iowa State researchers looking for catalyst that allows plants to produce hydrocarbons

05-Oct-2009 - Plants and algae may be a source of green, renewable hydrocarbons that could replace the ancient, finite hydrocarbons in fossil fuels, according to a team of researchers led by Iowa State University's Jackie Shanks. Shanks, Iowa State's Manley R. Hoppe Professor of Chemical Engineering, said ...

Building with pentagons

02-Jun-2009 - Achim Müller and co-workers from Bielefeld University and Marshall Luban with his co-workers from the Departments of Physics and Astronomy at both Francis Marion University and Iowa State University worked on synthesising a Keplerate using pentagonal tungsten-oxide based units and studied its ...