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    Category Chemistry/Nanotechnology

    Research leads to a Golden Discovery for Wearable Technology

    March 17, 2017, Categories  Chemistry/Nanotechnology, Physics, Technology/Electronics

    An example of a gold foil peeled from single crystal silicon. Credit: Reprinted with permission from Naveen Mahenderkar et al., Science [355]:[1203] (2017)

    An example of a gold foil peeled from single crystal silicon.
    Credit: Reprinted with permission from Naveen Mahenderkar et al., Science [355]:[1203] (2017)

    Some day, your smartphone might completely conform to your wrist, and when it does, it might be covered in pure gold, thanks to researchers at Missouri University of Science and Technology. They have developed a way to “grow” thin layers of gold on single crystal wafers of silicon, remove the gold foils, and use them as substrates on which to grow other electronic materials. This could revolutionize wearable or “flexible” technology research, greatly improving versatility of electronics in the future.

    Most research into wearable technology has been done using polymer substrates, or substrates made up of multiple crystals...

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    Engineering team develops new approach to Limit Lead Contamination in Water

    March 16, 2017, Categories  Technology/Electronics, Health/Medical, Chemistry/Nanotechnology, Biology/Biotechnology

    This diagram shows the new model at work: By taking into account a number of factors, including water-use patterns and water chemistry, engineers can predict where lead particles will dislodge and end up in the drinking water supply during a partial lead service line (LSL) replacement. Courtesy: Biswas Lab

    This diagram shows the new model at work: By taking into account a number of factors, including water-use patterns and water chemistry, engineers can predict where lead particles will dislodge and end up in the drinking water supply during a partial lead service line (LSL) replacement. Courtesy: Biswas Lab

    While lead pipes were banned decades ago, they still supply millions of American households daily with drinking water amid risks of corrosion and leaching that can cause developmental and neurological effects in young children. One common abatement: Dig up old lead lines and replace a portion of them with another metal, such as copper. However, this technique can dislodge lead particulates and release them into the water supply...

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    Imaging at the Speed of Light

    March 15, 2017, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics, Chemistry/Nanotechnology

    lasers configured on a tabletop

    Researchers at the University’s Institute of Optics developed a technique that uses lasers to render materials hydrophobic—extremely water repellant. (University photo / Matthew Mann)

    Tiny micro- and nanoscale structures within a material’s surface are invisible to the naked eye, but play a big role in determining a material’s physical, chemical, and biomedical properties. Over the past few years, Chunlei Guo and his University of Rochester team found ways to manipulate those structures by irradiating laser pulses to a material’s surface. They altered materials to make them repel water, attract water, and absorb great amounts of light – all without any type of coating. Now, Guo, Anatoliy Vorobyev, and Ranran Fang at University’s Institute of Optics, have advanced the research...

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    Solid Metal has ‘Structural Memory’ of its liquid state

    March 15, 2017, Categories  Technology/Electronics, Chemistry/Nanotechnology

    This recovered bismuth sample has a rhombohedral structure and contains liquid structural motifs after deep melting at high pressures. The surprising structural memory effect in the molten state is responsible for the unexpected change from magnetic repulsion to magnetic attraction in bismuth. Credit: Image courtesy of Yu Shu and Guoyin Shen

    This recovered bismuth sample has a rhombohedral structure and contains liquid structural motifs after deep melting at high pressures. The surprising structural memory effect in the molten state is responsible for the unexpected change from magnetic repulsion to magnetic attraction in bismuth. Credit: Image courtesy of Yu Shu and Guoyin Shen

    New work used high pressure and temperature to reveal a kind of “structural memory” in samples of bismuth, a discovery with great electrical engineering potential. Bismuth is a historically interesting element for scientists, as a number of important discoveries in the metal physics world were made while studying it, including important observations about the effect of magnetic fields on electrical conductivity. Bismuth has a number of phases...

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