Category Chemistry/Nanotechnology

A film deflects from a magnetic field when exposed to light.
Credit: SilkLab, Tufts University

Elastomeric composites can flex, grip, release, or rotate when exposed to lasers, diffuse light or sunlight. Researchers at Tufts University School of Engineering have developed magnetic elastomeric composites that move in different ways when exposed to light, raising the possibility that these materials could enable a wide range of products that perform simple to complex movements, from tiny engines and valves to solar arrays that bend toward the sunlight. The research is described in an article published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In biology, there are many examples where light induces movement or change – think of flowers and leaves turning toward sunlight...

Organic Mega Flow Battery Transcends Lifetime, Voltage Thresholds

Dubbed ‘Methuselah’, new molecule outlives previous chemistries. Researchers have demonstrated a new organic molecule that outlives and outperforms its predecessors, offering the longest-lasting high-performance organic flow battery to date. Nicknamed the Methuselah quinone – after the longest-lived Biblical figure – this molecule could usefully store and release energy many tens of thousands of times over multi-year periods. Organic flow batteries are a potentially safer, less expensive alternative to lithium ion batteries and vanadium flow batteries for large-scale renewable energy storage.

“We designed and built a new organic compound that can store electrical energy and also has a very long life before it decomposes,” sa...

Illustration of nanosized device made of two joined silver single crystals that generate light by inelastical electron tunneling. Artwork by Steven Bopp

Using advanced fabrication techniques, engineers have built a nanosized device out of silver crystals that can generate light by efficiently ‘tunneling’ electrons through a tiny barrier. The work brings plasmonics research a step closer to realizing ultra-compact light sources for high-speed, optical data processing and other on-chip applications.

The device emits light by a quantum mechanical phenomenon known as inelastic electron tunneling. In this process, electrons move through a solid barrier that they cannot classically cross...

MIT chemists have designed a polymer that can reversibly switch from a large structure (orange spheres) to the smaller blue shapes, in response to light.
Image: Demin Liu/Molgraphics

New material reversibly changes its structure in response to different wavelengths of light. MIT researchers have designed a polymer material that can change its structure in response to light, converting from a rigid substance to a softer one that can heal itself when damaged.

“You can switch the material states back and forth, and in each of those states, the material acts as though it were a completely different material, even though it’s made of all the same components,” says Jeremiah Johnson, an associate professor of chemistry at MIT, a member of MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and th...