Materials

Although many groups are developing power-generating "smart fabrics," the technology is often too complex to be scaled up to commercial use. Now, however, scientists have devised a method of embroidering electrical generators onto regular fabric.

Scientists experimenting with novel materials have made a breakthrough that could shape a new generation of electronic devices, combining two characteristics in a way they say defies a theoretical explanation.

Rare earth elements are vital for electronics, but they’re in short supply. Now scientists have recreated a promising alternative – a “cosmic magnet” that normally takes millions of years to form in meteorites is cooked up in the lab in seconds.

Plastics can be hard, plastics can be soft, but can plastics be both at the same time? Scientists have been exploring this question and produced a first-of-a-kind material that is pliable in some sections and stiff in others.

In what they hail as a “new frontier in materials,” engineers at Northeastern University have developed a new type of ceramic that can be fashioned into thin and complex shapes, opening up expansive new applications in electronics.

Plastic waste is one of the most pressing environmental problems of our time. Now, engineers at MIT have developed an effective new catalyst that breaks down mixed plastics into propane, which can then be burned as fuel or used to make new plastic.

As one of the strongest materials known to science, spider silk regularly finds itself at the center of exciting engineering breakthroughs, but a new study involving a quick chemical bath could see silkworm silk outperform it.

In a bid to reduce the environmental burden associated with both the manufacturing and disposal of plastics, scientists have demonstrated a new upcycling technique that turns one common form of it into another.

Last year, engineers at Purdue University used their expertise in materials science to produce the world’s whitest paint, and have now made some tweaks to the recipe and produced a version that is thinner and lighter.

Engineers have developed a new 3D-printed titanium alloy with a unique microstructure that makes it ultra-strong. Not only is it stronger than other forms of titanium, but it has the highest strength-to-weight ratio of any 3D-printed metal ever made.

Australian scientists have discovered strangely folded diamonds in rare meteorite samples. In investigating how they came to form, the team found evidence that they were forged in a cataclysm on an ancient dwarf planet.

Engineers at the University of Houston have put forward a new solution to keep planes ice-free, developing an ice-shedding surface coating they say is 100 times stronger than other state-of-the-art materials.

Sending materials into space is expensive, so the more astronauts can make on-site, the better. Engineers have now demonstrated how crushed Martian rock could be mixed with a titanium alloy to make 3D-printable building materials.

Even slight adjustments to how we make cement and concrete can have a big impact on their environmental footprint, and as research continues to show, scientists working in this space are not short of ideas.

Although polylactic acid bioplastic is known for its biodegradability, it can take a long time to degrade if the conditions aren't right. Washington State University scientists have therefore devised a way of upcycling it into a 3D-printing resin.