Materials

An illustration depicting how the new material works – normally, the manganese atomic ions (purple circles) and the disulfur molecular ions (figure-8s) are separated (left of frame). But under pressure, they move closer together (right of frame) changing the conductivity of the material

Materials

Weird compound jumps from conductor to insulator and back under pressure

Researchers have discovered a material that can switch between an insulator and a conductor freely, even at room temperature. The material, a compound of manganese and sulfide (MnS2), starts off as an insulator but becomes conductive under pressure.

A sample of the new synthetic spider silk

Materials

Synthetic spider silk stronger and tougher than the real thing

Spider silk is one of nature’s most impressive materials, exhibiting impressive strength and toughness. Now, researchers at Washington University in St. Louis claim to have created an artificial version that can outperform some natural spider silks.

Scientists imagine a range of uses for a newly-developed floating cotton, including swimsuits with increased buoyancy

Materials

Coated cotton could make its way into high-buoyancy swimsuits

A group of scientists has come up with a novel coating for everyday cotton that gives it a broader set of useful traits, enabling it to repel oil and water with ease, and most impressively, float even when bearing loads many times its own weight.

A novel type of plastic developed by researchers in China can safely break down in a week in sunlight and air

Materials

Novel plastic disintegrates in a week in sunlight and oxygen

Researchers in China have demonstrated a new form of plastic that degrades in just a week when exposed to sunlight and oxygen, which they believe could make for electronics that are easier to dispose of at the end of their lives.

Samples of mycelium leather sheets produced at VTT

Materials

Scientists produce continuous sheets of sustainable mushroom leather

Scientists at Finland's VTT Technical Research Centre have been developing an alternative leather made from fungi, and have now demonstrated a way to produce continuous sheets of the stuff at commercial scales.

Researchers have combined five metals into an alloy, and found that 2D sheets of it perform well as a catalyst

Materials

New five-metal alloy makes for 2D catalyst to convert CO2 into fuels

Researchers have created a new alloy made up of not two, but five different metals, and put it to work as a catalyst. The 2D material was able to convert carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide, potentially helping to turn the greenhouse gas into fuels.

A diagram of the new thermoelectric generator

Energy

Thermoelectric generator contrasts heat of Sun and cold of space

Thermoelectric generators produce an electric current through a temperature gradient. Now, engineers have created a new device that absorbs heat from the Sun on one surface and emits it from another, allowing it to generate electricity day and night.

Researchers have developed a way to use "flashes" of electricity to convert carbon into different forms such as graphene or nanodiamonds

Materials

New method converts carbon into graphene or diamond in a flash

A new method converts carbon from a variety of sources straight into useful forms such as graphene or diamond. The technique uses a “flash” of electricity to heat the carbon, converting it into a final form determined by the length of the flash.

A new material could find applications in medical implants and aerospace components in advanced aircraft like that being developed by Raytheon

Materials

Extraordinary new material shows zero heat expansion from 4 to 1,400 K

Australian researchers have created what may be one of the most thermally stable materials ever discovered. This remarkable advanced material, made of scandium, aluminum, tungsten and oxygen, doesn't change in volume at all between 4 and 1,400 Kelvin.

An artist's illustration of the atomic structure of the new 4H-silicon allotrope

Materials

Scientists create strange new form of silicon

Silicon is vital to all of the electronics that our modern world is built on. Now, research led by the Carnegie Institution for Science has developed a way to create a new form of silicon with a unique hexagonal structure.

Fraunhofer scientists have demonstrated a new form of bifunctional plastic in the form of film and granules

Materials

Plastics with embedded enzymes could self-clean or self-destruct

Scientists have worked out a way to embed active enzymes in plastic that can give it different capabilities, such as an ability to break down proteins on the surface or degrade itself to avoid polluting the environment.

University of Manchester researchers Craig Dawson, Happiness Ijije and Lisa Scullion onsite as workers tend to the world's first graphene-enhanced concrete slab in the background

Materials

World's first graphene-enhanced concrete slab poured in England

Recent research projects have demonstrated how the wonder material graphene could play a role in stronger, more eco-friendly concrete, and now we're seeing the first real-world deployment of the technology in the foundations of a new gym in the UK.