Category Chemistry/Nanotechnology

A simple, energy-efficient 3D-printing process takes its cues from trees to manufacture polymers quickly and inexpensively. Charging forward at top speed, a garden snail slimes up 1 millimeter of pavement per second. By this logic, Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology researchers’ new 3D printing process speeds past existing methods — at a snail’s pace.

Researchers in Beckman’s Autonomous Materials Systems Group created “growth printing,” which mimics tree trunks’ outward expansion to print polymer parts quickly and efficiently without the molds and expensive equipment typically associated with 3D printing. Their work appears in the journal Advanced Materials.

“Humans are incredibly talented at making things...

Graphyne is a crystalline form of carbon that is distinct from both diamond and graphite. Unlike diamond, where each atom possesses four immediate neighbors, or graphite, where each atom has three, graphyne’s structure combines two-coordinate and three-coordinate carbons.

Computational models suggest that graphyne has highly compelling electronic, mechanical and optical properties...

Researchers have developed a reactor that pulls carbon dioxide directly from the air and converts it into sustainable fuel, using sunlight as the power source.

The researchers, from the University of Cambridge, say their solar-powered reactor could be used to make fuel to power cars and planes, or the many chemical and pharmaceutical products we rely on. It could also be used to generate fuel in remote or off-grid locations.

Unlike most carbon capture technologies, the reactor developed by the Cambridge researchers does not require fossil-fuel-based power, or the transport and storage of car...