Category Chemistry/Nanotechnology

Researchers have discovered that soaking low density plastic in a sulfur-containing solvent, putting it into a microwave and transforming it into a carbon scaffold makes lithium-sulfur batteries last longer and retain elevated capacity. Credit: Purdue University/Patrick Kim

Purdue engineers have figured out a way to tackle plastic landfills while also improving batteries – by putting ink-free plastic soaked in sulfur-containing solvent into a microwave, and then into batteries as a carbon scaffold. Lithium-sulfur batteries have been hailed as the next generation of batteries to replace the current lithium ion variety. Lithium-sulfur batteries are cheaper and more energy-dense than lithium ions, which would be important characteristics in everything from electric vehicles to laptops...

This false-color, scanning electron microscope image shows the fractured surface of a sequentially bonded graphene sheet. An international research team led by scientists at Beihang University in China and The University of Texas at Dallas developed the high-strength, super-tough sheets, which can be inexpensively fabricated at low temperatures. Credit: Image courtesy Beihang University

Material’s properties exceed those of carbon fiber composites used in aircraft bodies, sports equipment. The team made the sheets by chemically stitching together platelets of graphitic carbon, which is similar to the graphite found in the soft lead of an ordinary pencil...

Although unappetizing in this lab shot, these creatures are already used for many other purposes, including as an ingredient in Asian cuisine. Credit: Johan Foster

A NIST team has measured the best wood-to-pest ratio for the design of new composites. Tunicates are slimy invasive exotic pests that some people like to eat. Now they may be used to make UV-reflective, flexible construction materials. They have combined derivatives of two surplus materials – wood pulp and dried-up pieces of an invasive exotic pest – to form a new composite material that is flexible, sustainable, nontoxic and UV light-reflective. The material could soon be used in a wide variety of applications, including food packaging, biomedical devices, building construction and the design of cars, trucks and boats.

The key ...

A PLATED QUBIT DEVICE. PHOTO: D. PAPAS/NIST

A powerful new plated metal combination that superconducts at easily attained temperatures could pave the road for the next critical steps in the development of cutting-edge supercomputers. CIRES chemist and instrument designer Don David and colleagues Dave Pappas and Xian Wu just published the new recipe: an ultrathin layer of rhenium sandwiched between layers of gold, each measuring 1/1000th the diameter of a human hair that can superconduct at critical temperature over 6 Kelvin.

“The sheer magnitude of the critical temperature was unexpected,” said Don David, director of the CIRES Integrated Instrument Development Facility and coauthor on a paper published this week in Applied Physics Letters...