Category Physics

You’re probably used to the sight of smartwatches on people’s wrists. But what about smart clothes? Researchers at the University of Georgia are exploring how the clothes people wear can potentially track and protect their health. Smart textiles are fabrics that can monitor the body’s vitals and movement in real time. They’re flexible and lightweight, making them more comfortable to wear while moving.

The present publication focuses on MXenes, a class of two-dimensional, microscopic materials made from metals that can be coated or printed onto fabrics...

Most materials we use in everyday life expand slightly when heated and return to their original size when cooled. In addition to such thermal properties, materials can also have electrical properties or magnetic properties, and traditionally we have used these characteristics separately. However, some materials allow multiple properties to coexist within a single substance.

Research on such materials is expected to contribute to the development of next-generation memory devices that can store and retain information while consuming far less energy.

How multiferroics could transform memory
A representative example is a class of materials known as multiferroics, which combine the properties of a capacitor (the ability to store electric charge) and a magnet...

When we hear about moving objects with electricity, most of us imagine a “pulling force.” Positive and negative charges attract each other, drawing objects together. It is natural to think that this attractive force—known as electrostatic force—is what makes things move.

However, this force is not very strong, and it has not been suitable for driving large machines in our daily lives. For that reason, most practical motors rely on a different mechanism. For example, the motors in electric fans and electric vehicles do not use electricity directly to create motion...

A new material can store energy from sunlight and convert it into hydrogen days later. The material, jointly developed by researchers from Ulm and Jena, can do this even in the dark. The process is reversible and can be reactivated several times using a pH switch. The results are published in the journal Nature Communications.

Green hydrogen is one of the most important pillars of the energy transition. It is produced from sunlight using photocatalytic processes. There are now a variety of technologies for converting and storing solar energy into chemical energy...