Molecules in an egg carton

How water surfaces can be used to produce functional materials

19-Oct-2021 - The production of high-quality monolayers – i.e. only one molecule high - is highly relevant for optoelectronic components such as organic light-emitting diodes used today in modern cell phones: Both lifetime and energy efficiency can be increased. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for ...

Breakthrough in research on production of 2D crystals with excellent optical properties

Flat crystals showing uniform parameters over the entire surface, including - most valuably - excellent optical properties

25-May-2020 - For the first time, monolayers of transition metal dichalcogenides with excellent optical properties were grown. A team of physicists from the University of Warsaw managed to overcome the technical difficulties faced by industry and scientists from around the world, namely the very limited size, ...

New tech delivers high-tech film that blocks electromagnetic interference

05-Nov-2018 - Electromagnetic interference (EMI), which can harm smartphones, tablets, chips, drones, wearables, and evenaircraft and human health, is increasing with the explosive proliferation of devices that generate it. Themarket for EM-blocking solutions, which employ conductive or magnetic materials, is ...

Shedding light on - and through - 2D materials

26-Sep-2018 - The ability of metallic or semiconducting materials to absorb, reflect and act upon light is of primary importance to scientists developing optoelectronics - electronic devices that interact with light to perform tasks. Rice University scientists have now produced a method to determine the ...

The 2-D form of tungsten ditelluride is full of surprises

10-Aug-2018 - The general public might think of the 21st century as an era of revolutionary technological platforms, such as smartphones or social media. But for many scientists, this century is the era of another type of platform: two-dimensional materials, and their unexpected secrets. These 2-D materials ...

Why gold-palladium alloys are better than palladium for hydrogen storage

11-Jul-2018 - Materials that absorb hydrogen are used for hydrogen storage and purification, thus serving as clean energy carriers. The best-known hydrogen absorber, palladium (Pd), can be improved by alloying with gold (Au). New research led by The University of Tokyo Institute of Industrial Science explains ...

Salt boosts creation of 2-D materials

23-Apr-2018 - A dash of salt can simplify the creation of two-dimensional materials, and thanks to Rice University scientists, the reason is becoming clear. Boris Yakobson, a Rice professor of materials science and nanoengineering and of chemistry, was the go-to expert when a group of labs in Singapore, China, ...

The limits of friction

03-Apr-2018 - Friction is created when two surfaces slide one on top of the other. Since this consumes additional energy, this so-called sliding friction is considered an irksome yet inevitable aspect of dynamic processes. However, to set a stationary object in motion, its static friction must be overcome ...

Boron can form a purely honeycomb, graphene-like 2-D structure

16-Mar-2018 - Seeking for low-dimensional boron allotropes has attracted considerable interest in the past decades and tremendous theoretical works predict the existence of monolayer boron. As boron has only three valence electrons, the electron deficiency makes a honeycomb lattice of boron energetically ...

Clear leads to fully transparent devices

05-Dec-2017 - See-through electronic devices, such as transparent displays, smart windows and concealed circuits require completely translucent components if users are to digitally interact with their perceived surroundings and manipulate this information in real time. Now, KAUST researchers have devised a ...