Entries with tag materials research.

University of California, Los Angeles scientists have created a material they say could be used to create powerful supercapacitors. The material, a synthesized form of niobium oxide, could be used to rapidly store and release energy. The technology could be used to rapidly charge many devices, including mobile electronics and industrial equipment. The scientists have developed electrodes using the material, but must undertake more research to create entire quick-charging devices. Cornell University and the Université Paul Sabatier researchers contributed to the work, which was published in the journal Nature Materials. (EurekAlert)(University of California Los Angeles)(Nature Materials)
 

An international team of researchers led by scientists from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation and RMIT University have developed a new two-dimensional material they say “could revolutionize the electronics market.” The material consists of molybdenum oxide layers in sheets about 11 nanometers thick that are similar to graphite layers. The material’s structural properties, which are also semiconducting, allow electrons to freely flow at ultra-high speeds, which could enable smaller devices to be created that are able to transfer data at high speed. The researchers made nanoscale transistors with the material but say additional research is needed before devices can be made using the material. Other research collaborators included scientists from Monash University, University of California at Los Angeles, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The researchers published their work in Advanced Materials. (EurekAlert)(The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation)

University at Buffalo researchers have discovered a form of vanadium oxide bronze with unusual electrical properties that has the potential to increase the speed at which information is transferred and stored. It could eventually be used in lieu of silicon. The researchers made nanowires about 180 nanometers wide from vanadium oxide and lead that  transform from insulators to metals that more readily conduct electricity when exposed to an applied voltage near room temperature. The researchers say each of these states could represent a binary 0 or 1, which means they could be used to make calculations. More work is needed before the material can be used, primarily to determine its potential health affects since it contains lead. The researchers published their findings in Advanced Functional Materials. (PhysOrg)(University of Buffalo)(Advanced Functional Materials)

A team of US scientists says that flaws in materials might hold the key to their superconductive properties. Although researchers continually strive for purity and perfection in materials, Purdue University and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers say imperfections may play an important role in a material’s high-temperature superconductivity properties. They studied patterns of electrons on copper-oxygen based superconducting crystals known as cuprates, attempting to determine the effect impurities could have. “We want to move beyond trying to get rid of disorder, striving for unattainable purity in the materials we examine, and instead take the disorder into account and use it to our advantage,” said Purdue University associate professor Erica Carlson. “These little patches of imperfection where things aren’t lined up in a perfect crystal lattice are important.” The material, say researchers, should not be conductive, but in the right conditions, could be because of these electrons. The research could help scientists design better superconductors because they will be able to better use the material based on a fuller understanding of its properties. The researchers published their work in Nature Communications. (PhysOrg)(Purdue University)(Nature Communications)

Researchers have created a flexible substrate in which they embedded single-molecule-thick electronic components. The Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, Seoul University, and Rice University scientists say their test polyimide substrate holds up to bending and twisting that would typically destroy other electronic devices. They created more than 500, 3-centimeter-square devices that connected through their terminals to a DC power source to determine whether they lost conductivity during the process of repeated bending. The researchers, who say there were no failures, note that they will continue their testing and that they hope their work will lead to a foldable cellular telephone. They published their work in Nature Nanotechnology. (PhysOrg)(Nature Nanotechnology)
 

University of Miami researchers have developed a new theory that could make high-temperature superconductivity possible. “Understanding how superconductivity works at higher temperatures will make it easier to know how to look for such superconductors, how to engineer them, and then how to integrate them into new technologies,” stated associate professor of physics Josef Ashkenazi, the study’s lead author. Superconductivity typically occurs at very low temperatures. The researchers found that when heated slightly above the critical temperature, an effect occurs that makes a cuprate, a material created primarily from copper and oxygen, a superconductor again. This could also occur with materials such as iron pnictides, known as iron-based superconductors, and chalcogenides. The researchers say their work will let them recreate the phenomenon in different materials and in a wider temperature range, ultimately enabling smaller, more powerful and energy efficient technologies. The specific types of technologies were not described. They are slated to publish their work in Europhysics Letters. (PhysOrg)(EurekAlert)(arXiv)