Category Physics

A smart new material reacts to light, can remember its shape as it folds and unfolds and can heal itself when damaged. Credit: Image courtesy of Washington State University

Washington State University researchers have developed a unique, multifunctional smart material that can change shape from heat or light and assemble and disassemble itself. This is the first time researchers have been able to combine several smart abilities, including shape memory behavior, light-activated movement and self-healing behavior, into one material.

Smart materials that can react to external stimuli, like light or heat, have been an interesting novelty and look almost magical as they mysteriously fold and unfold themselves...

Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence Process in OLED Devices Credit: Osaka University

~Clue to development of light-weighted, flexible, high-contrast lighting. An international joint research group succeeded in developing a novel thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) material which displays emission of light in colors from green to deep-red through Intersystem Crossing from the singlet to the triplet excitons, a world first. The results will contribute to R&D in white TADF light emitting devices for indoor and outdoor use through combination with TADF materials that emit light in shorter wavelengths (deep blue to yellow).

Over the last few decades, research on organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) has greatly advanced...

Rutgers University engineers created unique elastomeric rotary actuators based on pneumatically driven peristaltic motion. Using silicone-based wheels, these motors enable a new class of soft locomotion — not found in nature — that can withstand impact, traverse irregular terrain and operate in water. For soft robotics, this innovation represents progress toward providing torque without bending actuators. Credit: Xiangyu Gong

Rutgers engineers, in a breakthrough, create a soft motor that could power versatile soft robots. A small, squishy vehicle equipped with soft wheels rolls over rough terrain and runs under water...

Electrocatalytic water splitting is about to get less costly, thanks to research at KTH Royal Institute of Technology. Credit: Image courtesy of KTH The Royal Institute of Technology

A hydrogen-fuel economy could finally become a reality with the recent discovery of a cheap, stable and efficient means of getting hydrogen from water. Scientists at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm have unlocked one major barrier to exploiting this renewable energy source. Because the best-performing catalysts for electrochemical oxidation, or “water splitting,” are expensive precious metals, the team led by KTH Professor Licheng Sun is one of many worldwide searching for cheaper alternatives. Sun had earlier developed molecular catalysts for water oxidation (Nature Chem...