Category Technology/Electronics

Photoluminescent compounds synthesized by the Coordination Chemistry and Catalysis Unit glowing under a UV light. Credit: Image courtesy of Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University – OIST

Chemical compounds that emit light are used in a variety of different materials, from glow-in-the-dark children’s toys to LED lights to light-emitting sensors. As the demand for these compounds increases, finding new efficient methods for their production is essential. New research describes a new strategy for producing photoluminescent (PL) compounds with increased capabilities.

Production of PL compounds is typically centered around 2 main methods: the conventional metal-ligand system or an aggregation based system...

1. Metamaterial bricks are assembled into a layer to produce a meta-surface, which could have applications across healthcare and entertainment
2, These space coiling bricks act to slow down sound waves, meaning that they can be transformed into any required sound field.

A super-material that bends, shapes and focuses sound waves that pass through it has been invented by scientists. Metamaterials have already shown remarkable results with light manipulation, allowing scientists to create a real-life version of Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak, for example. But a Universities of Sussex and Bristol team have now shown that they also work with sound waves, which could transform medical imaging and personal audio.

Finely shaped sound fields are used in medical imaging and therapy as well as in ...

The buckling-induced cubic patterned kirigami sheet can be folded flat (Image courtesy of Ahmad Rafsanjani/Harvard SEAS)

Origami-inspired materials use folds in materials to embed powerful functionality. However, all that folding can be pretty labor intensive. Now, researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) are drawing material inspiration from another ancient Japanese paper craft—kirigami. Kirigami relies on cuts, rather than folds, to change the structure and function of materials.

In a new paper published in Physical Review Letters, SEAS researchers demonstrate how a thin, perforated sheet can be transformed into a foldable 3D structure by simply stretching the cut material...

Hydrogenation forms a mixture of lithium amide and hydride (light blue) as an outer shell around a lithium nitride particle (dark blue) nanoconfined in carbon. Nanoconfinement suppresses all other intermediate phases to prevent interface formation, which has the effect of dramatically improving the hydrogen storage performance

Lawrence Livermore scientists have collaborated with an interdisciplinary team of researchers including colleagues from Sandia National Laboratories to develop an efficient hydrogen storage system that could be a boon for hydrogen powered vehicles. Hydrogen is an excellent energy carrier, but the development of lightweight solid-state materials for compact, low-pressure storage is a huge challenge.

Complex metal hydrides are a promising class of hydrogen storage mate...