materials science - BLOGS - Blacksciencefictionsociety2024-03-29T10:20:09Zhttps://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/materials+sciencePV Caveats...https://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/profiles/blogs/pv-caveats2024-03-18T10:00:00.000Z2024-03-18T10:00:00.000ZReginald L. Goodwinhttps://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/members/ReginaldLGoodwin<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12401778677,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12401778677,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="12401778677?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="710" /></a></p><p style="text-align:center;"> Graphical abstract. Credit: <em>Joule</em> (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.joule.2024.01.025</p><p style="text-align:left;"><span style="font-size:12pt;">Topics: Applied Physics, Chemistry, Energy, Green Tech, Materials Science, Photovoltaics</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>The energy transition is progressing, and photovoltaics (PV) is playing a key role in this. Enormous capacities are to be added over the next few decades. Experts expect several tens of terawatts by the middle of the century. That's 10 to 25 solar modules for every person. The boom will provide clean, green energy. But this growth also has its downsides.</em></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>Several million tons of waste from old modules are expected by 2050—and that's just for the European market. Even if today's PV modules are designed to last as long as possible, they will end up in landfill at the end of their life, and with them some valuable materials.</em></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>"Circular economy recycling in photovoltaics will be crucial to avoiding waste streams on a scale <a href="https://physicsandnano.com/2024/03/18/pv-caveats/" target="_blank">roughly equivalent</a> to today's global electronic waste," explains physicist Dr. Marius Peters from the Helmholtz Institute Erlangen-Nürnberg for Renewable Energies (HI ERN), a branch of Forschungszentrum Jülich.</em></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>Today's solar modules are only suitable for this to a limited extent. The reason for this is the integrated—i.e., hardly separable—structure of the modules, which is a prerequisite for their long service life. Even though recycling is mandatory in the European Union, PV modules are, therefore, difficult to reuse in a circular way.</em></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>The current study by Dr. Ian Marius Peters, Dr. Jens Hauch, and Prof Christoph Brabec from HI ERN shows how important it is for the rapid growth of the PV industry to recycle these materials. "Our vision is to move away from a design for eternity towards a design for the eternal cycle," says Peters "This will make renewable energy more sustainable than any energy technology before.</em></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><a href="https://techxplore-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/techxplore.com/news/2024-03-consequences-pv-boom-recycling-strategies.amp">The consequences of the PV boom: Study analyzes recycling strategies for solar modules</a>, Forschungszentrum Juelich</span></p><p> </p></div>Super Strength...https://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/profiles/blogs/super-strength2024-03-04T16:02:56.000Z2024-03-04T16:02:56.000ZReginald L. Goodwinhttps://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/members/ReginaldLGoodwin<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12395799283,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12395799283,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="12395799283?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a></p><p></p><p style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size:10pt;">A sample of the new titanium lattice structure 3D printed in cube form. Credit: RMIT. New titanium lattice structure 3D printed in cube form. Credit: RMIT</span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;">Topics: 3D Printing, Additive Manufacturing, Materials Science, Metamaterials</span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>A 3D printed ‘metamaterial’ boasting levels of strength for weight <a href="https://physicsandnano.com/2024/03/04/super-strength/" target="_blank">not normally seen</a> in nature or manufacturing could change how we make everything from medical implants to aircraft or rocket parts.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>RMIT University researchers created the new metamaterial – a term used to describe an artificial material with unique properties not observed in nature – from common titanium alloy.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>But it’s the material’s unique lattice structure design, recently revealed in the journal <strong>Advanced Materials</strong>, that makes it anything but common: tests show it’s 50% stronger than the next strongest alloy of similar density used in aerospace applications.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><strong><em>Nature-Inspired Designs and Innovations</em></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>Lattice structures made of hollow struts were originally inspired by nature: strong hollow-stemmed plants like the Victoria water lily or the hardy organ pipe coral (Tubipora musica) showed us the way to combine lightness and strength.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><a href="https://scitechdaily.com/supernatural-strength-3d-printed-titanium-structure-is-50-stronger-than-aerospace-alloy/">Supernatural Strength: 3D Printed Titanium Structure Is 50% Stronger Than Aerospace Alloy</a>, SciTech Daily, <a href="https://scitechdaily.com/tag/rmit-university/">RMIT University</a></span></p><p></p></div>Limit Shattered...https://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/profiles/blogs/limit-shattered2024-01-29T15:30:54.000Z2024-01-29T15:30:54.000ZReginald L. Goodwinhttps://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/members/ReginaldLGoodwin<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12368038269,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12368038269,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="12368038269?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="710" /></a></p><p style="text-align:center;">TSMC is building Two New Facilities to Accommodate 2nm Chip Production</p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;">Topics: Applied Physics, Chemistry, Electrical Engineering, Materials Science, Nanoengineering, Semiconductor Technology</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;">Realize that Moore’s “law” isn’t like Newton’s Laws of Gravity or the three laws of Thermodynamics. It’s simply an observation based on experience with manufacturing silicon processors and the desire to make money from the endeavor continually.</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;">As a device engineer, I had heard “7 nm, and that’s it” so often that it became colloquial folklore. TSMC has proven itself a powerhouse once again and, in our faltering geopolitical climate, made itself even more desirable to mainland China in its quest to annex the island, sadly by force if necessary.</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>Apple will be the first electronic manufacturer to receive chips built by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) using a <a href="https://physicsandnano.com/2024/01/29/limit-shattered/" target="_blank">two-nanometer process</a>. According to Korea’s DigiTimes Asia, inside sources said that Apple is "widely believed to be the initial client to utilize the process." The report noted that TSMC has been increasing its production capacity in response to “significant customer orders.” Moreover, the report added that the company has recently established a production expansion strategy aimed at producing 2nm chipsets based on the Gate-all-around (GAA) manufacturing process.</em></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>The GAA process, also known as <a href="https://semiengineering.com/knowledge_centers/integrated-circuit/transistors/3d/gate-all-around-fet/">gate-all-around field-effect transistor (GAA-FET)</a> technology, defies the performance limitations of other chip manufacturing processes by allowing the transistors to carry more current while staying relatively small in size.</em></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><a href="https://www.business-standard.com/technology/tech-news/apple-to-jump-queue-for-tsmc-s-industry-first-2-nanometer-chips-report-124012500441_1.html">Apple to jump queue for TSMC's industry-first 2-nanometer chips: Report</a>, Harsh Shivam, New Delhi, Business Standard.</span></p><p> </p></div>Boltwood Estimate...https://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/profiles/blogs/boltwood-estimate2024-01-24T10:00:00.000Z2024-01-24T10:00:00.000ZReginald L. Goodwinhttps://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/members/ReginaldLGoodwin<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12365551887,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12365551887,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="12365551887?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a></p><p style="text-align:center;">Credit: Public Domain</p><p></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;">Topics: Applied Physics, Education, History, Materials Science, Philosophy, Radiation, Research</span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>We take for granted that Earth is very old, almost incomprehensibly so. But for much of human history, estimates of Earth’s age were scattershot at best. In February 1907, a chemist named Bertram Boltwood <a href="https://archive.org/details/americanjourna4231907newh/page/n95/mode/2up">published a paper</a> in the <strong>American Journal of Science</strong> detailing <a href="https://physicsandnano.com/2024/01/24/boltwood-estimate/" target="_blank">a novel method</a> of dating rocks that would radically change these estimates. In mineral samples gathered from around the globe, he compared lead and uranium levels to determine the minerals’ ages. One was a bombshell: A sample of the mineral thorianite from Sri Lanka (known in Boltwood’s day as Ceylon) yielded an age of 2.2 billion years, suggesting that Earth must be at least that old as well. While Boltwood was off by more than 2 billion years (Earth is now estimated to be about 4.5 billion years old), his method undergirds one of today’s best-known radiometric dating techniques.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>In the Christian world, Biblical cosmology placed Earth’s age at around 6,000 years, but fossil and geology discoveries began to upend this idea in the 1700s. In 1862, physicist William Thomson, better known as Lord Kelvin, used Earth’s supposed rate of cooling and the assumption that it had started out hot and molten to estimate that it had formed between 20 and 400 million years ago. He later whittled that down to 20-40 million years, an estimate that rankled Charles Darwin and other “natural philosophers” who believed life’s evolutionary history must be much longer. “Many philosophers are not yet willing to admit that we know enough of the constitution of the universe and of the interior of our globe to speculate with safety on its past duration,” Darwin wrote. Geologists also saw this timeframe as much too short to have shaped Earth’s many layers.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>Lord Kelvin and other physicists continued studies of Earth’s heat, but a new concept — radioactivity — was about to topple these pursuits. In the 1890s, <a href="https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200803/physicshistory.cfm">Henri Becquerel</a> discovered radioactivity, and the <a href="https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200412/history.cfm">Curies</a> discovered the radioactive elements radium and polonium. Still, wrote physicist Alois F. Kovarik in a 1929 <a href="https://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/boltwood-bertram-b.pdf">biographical sketch of Boltwood</a>, “Radioactivity at that time was not a science as yet, but merely represented a collection of new facts which showed only little connection with each other.”</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><a href="https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/202402/history.cfm">February 1907: Bertram Boltwood Estimates Earth is at Least 2.2 Billion Years Old</a>, Tess Joosse, American Physical Society</span></p><p></p></div>On-Off Superconductor...https://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/profiles/blogs/on-off-superconductor2024-01-22T10:00:00.000Z2024-01-22T10:00:00.000ZReginald L. Goodwinhttps://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/members/ReginaldLGoodwin<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12364246686,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12364246686,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="12364246686?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a></p><p style="text-align:center;">A team of physicists has discovered a new superconducting material with unique tunability for external stimuli, promising advancements in energy-efficient computing and quantum technology. This breakthrough, achieved through advanced research techniques, enables unprecedented control over superconducting properties, potentially revolutionizing large-scale industrial applications.</p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;">Topics: Applied Physics, Materials Science, Solid-State Physics, Superconductors</span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>Researchers used the Advanced Photon Source to verify the rare characteristics of this material, potentially paving the way for more efficient large-scale computing.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>As industrial computing needs grow, the size and energy consumption of the hardware needed to keep up with those needs grows as well. A possible solution to this dilemma could be found in superconducting materials, which can <a href="https://physicsandnano.com/2024/01/22/on-off-superconductor/" target="_blank">reduce energy consumption</a> exponentially. Imagine cooling a giant data center full of constantly running servers down to nearly absolute zero, enabling large-scale computation with incredible energy efficiency.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><strong><em>Breakthrough in Superconductivity Research</em></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>Physicists at the <a href="https://scitechdaily.com/tag/university-of-washington/">University of Washington</a> and the <a href="https://scitechdaily.com/tag/doe/">U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE)</a> <a href="https://scitechdaily.com/tag/argonne-national-laboratory/">Argonne National Laboratory</a> have made a discovery that could help enable this more efficient future. Researchers have found a superconducting material that is uniquely sensitive to outside stimuli, enabling the superconducting properties to be enhanced or suppressed at will. This enables new opportunities for energy-efficient switchable superconducting circuits. The paper was published in <strong>Science Advances.</strong></em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>Superconductivity is a quantum mechanical phase of matter in which an electrical current can flow through a material with zero resistance. This leads to perfect electronic transport efficiency. Superconductors are used in the most powerful electromagnets for advanced technologies such as magnetic resonance imaging, particle accelerators, fusion reactors, and even levitating trains. Superconductors have also found uses in quantum computing.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><a href="https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-discover-groundbreaking-superconductor-with-on-off-switches/">Scientists Discover Groundbreaking Superconductor With On-Off Switches</a>, Argonne National Laboratory</span></p><p></p></div>Black Silicon...https://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/profiles/blogs/black-silicon2024-01-17T10:00:00.000Z2024-01-17T10:00:00.000ZReginald L. Goodwinhttps://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/members/ReginaldLGoodwin<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12360303470,RESIZE_1200x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12360303470,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="12360303470?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a></p><p style="text-align:center;">Fluorine gas etches the surface of silicon into a series of angular peaks that, when viewed with a powerful microscope, look much like the pyramid pattern in the sound-proofing foam shown above. Researchers at PPPL have now modeled how these peaks form in silicon, creating a material that is highly light absorbent. Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain</p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;">Topics: Energy, Environment, Materials Science, Nanomaterials, Solar Power</span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have developed a new theoretical model explaining one way to make <a href="https://physicsandnano.com/2024/01/17/black-silicon/" target="_blank">black silicon</a>, an important material used in solar cells, light sensors, antibacterial surfaces, and many other applications.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>Black silicon is made when the surface of regular silicon is etched to produce tiny nanoscale pits on the surface. These pits change the color of the silicon from gray to black and, critically, trap more light, an essential feature of efficient <a href="https://phys.org/tags/solar+cells/">solar cells</a>.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>While there are many ways to make black silicon, including some that use the charged, fourth state of matter known as plasma, the new model focuses on a process that uses only fluorine gas. PPPL Postdoctoral Research Associate Yuri Barsukov said the choice to focus on fluorine was intentional: The team at PPPL wanted to fill a gap in publicly available research. While some papers have been published about the role of charged particles called ions in the production of black silicon, not much has been published about the role of neutral substances, such as fluorine gas.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>"We now know—with great specificity—the mechanisms that cause these pits to form when fluorine gas is used," said Barsukov, one of the authors of a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1116/6.0002841">new paper</a> about the work, appearing in the <strong>Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology A.</strong></em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>"This kind of information, published publicly and openly available, benefits us all, whether we pursue further knowledge into the <a href="https://phys.org/tags/basic+knowledge/">basic knowledge</a> that underlines such processes or we seek to improve manufacturing processes," Barsukov added.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><a href="https://phys-org.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/phys.org/news/2024-01-black-silicon-prized-material-solar.amp">How black silicon, a prized material used in solar cells, gets its dark, rough edge</a>, Rachel Kremen, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/index.html?curid=39825" target="_blank">Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory</a></span></p><p></p></div>10x > Kevlar...https://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/profiles/blogs/10x-kevlar2024-01-09T10:00:00.000Z2024-01-09T10:00:00.000ZReginald L. Goodwinhttps://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/members/ReginaldLGoodwin<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12347948292,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12347948292,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="366" alt="12347948292?profile=RESIZE_400x" /></a></p><p></p><p style="text-align:center;">Scientists have developed amorphous silicon carbide, a strong and scalable material with potential uses in microchip sensors, solar cells, and space exploration. This breakthrough promises significant advancements in material science and microchip technology. An artist’s impression of amorphous silicon carbide nanostrings testing to its limit tensile strength. Credit: Science Brush</p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;">Topics: Applied Physics, Chemistry, Materials Science, Nanomaterials, Semiconductor Technology</span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>A new material that doesn’t just rival the strength of diamonds and graphene but boasts a yield strength <a href="https://physicsandnano.com/2024/01/09/10x-kevlar/" target="_blank">ten times greater than Kevlar</a>, renowned for its use in bulletproof vests.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>Researchers at <a href="https://scitechdaily.com/tag/delft-university-of-technology/">Delft University of Technology</a>, led by assistant professor Richard Norte, have unveiled a remarkable new material with the potential to impact the world of material science: amorphous silicon carbide (a-SiC).</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>Beyond its exceptional strength, this material demonstrates mechanical properties crucial for vibration isolation on a microchip. Amorphous silicon carbide is particularly suitable for making ultra-sensitive microchip sensors.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>The range of potential applications is vast, from ultra-sensitive microchip sensors and advanced solar cells to pioneering space exploration and DNA sequencing technologies. The advantages of this material’s strength, combined with its scalability, make it exceptionally promising.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>Researchers at <a href="https://scitechdaily.com/tag/delft-university-of-technology/">Delft University of Technology</a>, led by assistant professor Richard Norte, have unveiled a remarkable new material with the potential to impact the world of material science: amorphous silicon carbide (a-SiC).</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>The researchers adopted an innovative method to test this material’s tensile strength. Instead of traditional methods that might introduce inaccuracies from how the material is anchored, they turned to microchip technology. By growing the films of amorphous silicon carbide on a silicon substrate and suspending them, they leveraged the geometry of the nanostrings to induce high tensile forces. By fabricating many such structures with increasing tensile forces, they meticulously observed the point of breakage. This microchip-based approach ensures unprecedented precision and paves the way for future material testing.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>Why the focus on nanostrings? “Nanostrings are fundamental building blocks, the foundation that can be used to construct more intricate suspended structures. Demonstrating high yield strength in a nanostring translates to showcasing strength in its most elemental form.”</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><a href="https://scitechdaily.com/10x-stronger-than-kevlar-amorphous-silicon-carbide-could-revolutionize-material-science/">10x Stronger Than Kevlar: Amorphous Silicon Carbide Could Revolutionize Material Science</a>, <a href="https://scitechdaily.com/tag/delft-university-of-technology/">Delft University Of Technology</a></span></p><p></p></div>Scandium and Superconductors...https://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/profiles/blogs/scandium-and-superconductors2024-01-08T10:00:00.000Z2024-01-08T10:00:00.000ZReginald L. Goodwinhttps://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/members/ReginaldLGoodwin<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12347514059,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12347514059,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="12347514059?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a></p><p></p><p style="text-align:center;">Scandium is the only known elemental superconductor to have a critical temperature in the 30 K range. This phase diagram shows the superconducting transition temperature (<em>T</em><sub>c</sub>) and crystal structure versus pressure for scandium. The measured results on all the five samples studied show consistent trends. (Courtesy: <a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0256-307X/40/10/107403"><em>Chinese Phys. Lett.</em> <strong>40</strong> 107403</a>)</p><p> </p><p>T<span style="font-size:12pt;">opics: Applied Physics, Chemistry, Condensed Matter Physics, Materials Science, Superconductors, Thermodynamics</span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em><a href="https://www.rsc.org/periodic-table/element/21/scandium#:~:text=Scandium%20is%20mainly%20used%20for,bicycle%20frames%20and%20baseball%20bats.">Scandium</a> remains a superconductor at temperatures above 30 K (-243.15</em> <em>Celsius, -405.67 Fahrenheit), making it the first element known to superconduct at such a high temperature. The <a href="https://physicsandnano.com/2024/01/08/scandium-and-superconductors/" target="_blank">record-breaking discovery</a> was made by researchers in China, Japan, and Canada, who subjected the element to pressures of up to 283 GPa – around 2.3 million times the atmospheric pressure at sea level.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>Many materials become superconductors – that is, they conduct electricity without resistance – when cooled to low temperatures. The first superconductor to be discovered, for example, was solid mercury in 1911, and its transition temperature T<sub>c </sub>is only a few degrees above absolute zero. Several other superconductors were discovered shortly afterward with similarly frosty values of T<sub>c</sub>.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>In the late 1950s, the Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer (BCS) theory explained this superconducting transition as the point at which electrons overcome their mutual electrical repulsion to form so-called “Cooper pairs” that then travel unhindered through the material. But beginning in the late 1980s, a new class of “high-temperature” superconductors emerged that could not be explained using BCS theory. These materials have Tc above the boiling point of liquid nitrogen (77 K), and they are not metals. Instead, they are insulators containing copper oxides (cuprates), and their existence suggests it might be possible to achieve superconductivity at even higher temperatures.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>The search for room-temperature superconductors has been on ever since, as such materials would considerably improve the efficiency of electrical generators and transmission lines while also making common applications of superconductivity (including superconducting magnets in particle accelerators and medical devices like MRI scanners) simpler and cheaper.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><a href="https://physicsworld.com/a/scandium-breaks-temperature-record-for-elemental-superconductors/">Scandium breaks temperature record for elemental superconductors</a>, Isabelle Dumé, Physics World</span></p><p></p></div>The "Tiny Ten"...https://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/profiles/blogs/the-tiny-ten2023-12-22T03:48:13.000Z2023-12-22T03:48:13.000ZReginald L. Goodwinhttps://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/members/ReginaldLGoodwin<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12332688897,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12332688897,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="12332688897?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a></p><p></p><p style="text-align:center;">Researchers are working to overcome challenges related to nanoscale optoelectronic interconnects, which use light to transmit signals around an integrated circuit. IMAGE: PROVIDED BY NCNST</p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;">Topics: Biology, Materials Science, Nanoengineering, Nanomaterials, Nanotechnology, Quantum Mechanics</span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>The promise of nanotechnology, the engineering of machines and systems at the nanoscale, is anything but tiny. Over the past decade alone, there has been an explosion in research on how to <a href="https://physicsandnano.com/2023/12/21/the-tiny-ten/" target="_blank">design and build</a> components that solve problems across almost every sector, and nanotechnology innovations have led to huge advancements in our quest to address humanity’s grand challenges, from healthcare to water to food security.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>Like any area of scholarship, there are still so many unknowns. And yet, there are more talented scientists and engineers endeavoring to better comprehend and harness the power of nanotechnology than ever before. The future is bright for nanotechnology and its applications.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>In celebration of its 20th anniversary, the National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, China (NCNST), a subsidiary of the prestigious Chinese Academy of Sciences, partnered with <strong>Science</strong> Custom Publishing to survey nanoscience experts from the journal and across the globe about the most knotty and fascinating questions that still need to be answered if we are to advance nanotechnology in society.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><a href="https://www.science.org/content/resource/tiny-ten-experts-weigh-top-10-challenges-remaining-nanoscience-nanotechnology">The Tiny Ten: Experts weigh in on the top 10 challenges remaining for nanoscience & nanotechnology</a>, Science Magazine</span></p><p></p></div>Nano Racetracks...https://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/profiles/blogs/nano-racetracks2023-12-19T20:19:44.000Z2023-12-19T20:19:44.000ZReginald L. Goodwinhttps://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/members/ReginaldLGoodwin<div><p></p><img class="wp-image-7058 align-center" src="https://physicsandnano.files.wordpress.com/2023/12/image-1.png?w=781" alt="" /><p></p><p></p><p style="text-align:center;"><em>In this image, optical pulses (solitons) can be seen circling through conjoined optical tracks. (Image: Yuan, Bowers, Vahala, et al.)</em> An animated gif is at the original link below.</p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;">Topics: Applied Physics, Astronomy, Electrical Engineering, Materials Science, Nanoengineering, Optics</span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;">(Nanowerk News) <em>When we last checked in with Caltech's Kerry Vahala three years ago, his lab had recently reported the development of a new optical device called a turnkey frequency microcomb that has applications in digital communications, precision timekeeping, spectroscopy, and even astronomy.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>This device, fabricated on a silicon wafer, takes input laser light of one frequency and converts it into an evenly spaced set of many distinct frequencies that form a train of pulses whose length can be as short as 100 femtoseconds (quadrillionths of a second). (The comb in the name comes from the frequencies being spaced like the teeth of a hair comb.)</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>Now Vahala, Caltech's Ted and Ginger Jenkins, Professor of Information Science and Technology and Applied Physics and executive officer for applied physics and materials science, along with members of his research group and the group of John Bowers at UC Santa Barbara, have made a breakthrough in the way the short pulses form in an important new material called ultra-low-loss silicon nitride (ULL nitride), a compound formed of silicon and nitrogen. The silicon nitride is prepared to be extremely pure and deposited in a thin film.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>In principle, short-pulse microcomb devices made from this material would require very low power to operate. Unfortunately, short light pulses (called solitons) cannot be properly generated in this material because of a property called dispersion, which causes light or other electromagnetic waves to travel at different speeds, depending on their frequency. ULL has what is known as normal dispersion, and this prevents waveguides made of ULL nitride from supporting the short pulses necessary for microcomb operation.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>In a paper appearing in Nature Photonics ("Soliton pulse pairs at multiple colors in normal dispersion microresonators"), the researchers discuss their development of the new micro comb, which overcomes the inherent optical limitations of ULL nitride by generating pulses in pairs. This is a significant development because ULL nitride is created with the same technology used for manufacturing computer chips. This kind of manufacturing technique means that these microcombs could one day be integrated into a wide variety of handheld devices similar in form to smartphones.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>The most distinctive feature of an ordinary microcomb is <a href="https://physicsandnano.com/2023/12/19/nano-racetracks/" target="_blank">a small optical loop</a> that looks a bit like a tiny racetrack. During operation, the solitons automatically form and circulate around it.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>"However, when this loop is made of ULL nitride, the dispersion destabilizes the soliton pulses," says co-author Zhiquan Yuan (MS '21), a graduate student in applied physics.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>Imagine the loop as a racetrack with cars. If some cars travel faster and some travel slower, then they will spread out as they circle the track instead of staying as a tight pack. Similarly, the normal dispersion of ULL means light pulses spread out in the microcomb waveguides, and the microcomb ceases to work.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>The solution devised by the team was to create multiple racetracks, pairing them up so they look a bit like a figure eight. In the middle of that '8,' the two tracks run parallel to each other with only a tiny gap between them.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><a href="https://www.nanowerk.com/nanotechnology-news2/newsid=64220.php">Conjoined 'racetracks' make new optical devices possible</a>, Nanowerk.</span></p><p></p></div>All-Solid-State Batteries...https://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/profiles/blogs/all-solid-state-batteries2023-12-19T03:22:28.000Z2023-12-19T03:22:28.000ZReginald L. Goodwinhttps://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/members/ReginaldLGoodwin<div><p style="text-align:left;"> <a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12330404055,RESIZE_1200x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12330404055,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="12330404055?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a></p><p style="text-align:center;"> Comparison of cathode volume changes in all-solid-state cells under low-pressure operation. Credit: Korea Institute of Science and Technology</p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;">Topics: Batteries, Chemistry, Climate Change, Lithium, Materials Science, Nanomaterials</span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>Often referred to as the "dream batteries," all-solid-state batteries are the next generation of batteries that many battery manufacturers are competing to bring to market. Unlike lithium-ion batteries, which use a liquid electrolyte, all components, including the electrolyte, anode, and cathode, are solid, reducing the risk of explosion, and are in high demand in markets ranging from automobiles to energy storage systems (ESS).</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>However, devices that maintain the high pressure (10s of MPa) required for stable operation of all-<a href="https://techxplore.com/tags/solid-state+batteries/">solid-state batteries</a> have problems that reduce the battery performance, such as <a href="https://techxplore.com/tags/energy+density/">energy density</a> and capacity, and must be solved for commercialization.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>Dr. Hun-Gi Jung and his team at the Energy Storage Research Center at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) have identified degradation factors that cause rapid capacity degradation and shortened lifespan when operating all-solid-state batteries at pressures similar to those of lithium-ion batteries. The research is <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/aenm.202301220">published</a> in the journal <strong>Advanced Energy Materials</strong>.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>Unlike previous studies, the researchers confirmed for the first time that degradation can occur inside the <a href="https://techxplore.com/tags/cathode/">cathode</a> as well as outside, showing that all-solid-state batteries can be operated reliably even in low-pressure environments.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>In all-solid-state batteries, the cathode and anode have a volume change during repeated charging and discharging, resulting in interfacial degradation, such as side reaction and contact loss between active materials and solid electrolytes, which increase the interfacial resistance and worsen cell performance.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>To solve this problem, external devices are used to maintain <a href="https://techxplore.com/tags/high+pressure/">high pressure</a>, but this has the disadvantage of reducing energy density as the weight and volume of the battery increase. Research is being conducted on the inside of the all-solid-state cell to maintain the performance of the cell, even in low-pressure environments.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><a href="https://techxplore-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/techxplore.com/news/2023-12-degradation-mechanism-all-solid-state-batteries-commercialization.amp">Investigation of the degradation mechanism for all-solid-state batteries takes another step toward commercialization</a>, National Research Council of Science and Technology.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p></div>Microlenses...https://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/profiles/blogs/microlenses2023-12-11T10:00:00.000Z2023-12-11T10:00:00.000ZReginald L. Goodwinhttps://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/members/ReginaldLGoodwin<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12313740872,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12313740872,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="639" alt="12313740872?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a></p><p></p><p style="text-align:center;">Chromatic imaging of white light with a single lens (left) and achromatic imaging of white light with a hybrid lens (right). Credit: The Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign</p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;">Topics: 3D Printing, Additive Manufacturing, Applied Physics, Materials Science, Optics</span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>Using 3D printing and porous silicon, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have developed compact, visible wavelength achromats that are essential for miniaturized and lightweight optics. These high-performance <a href="https://physicsandnano.com/2023/12/11/microlenses/" target="_blank">hybrid micro-optics</a> achieve high focusing efficiencies while minimizing volume and thickness. Further, these microlenses can be constructed into arrays to form larger area images for achromatic light-field images and displays.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>This study was led by <a href="https://phys.org/tags/materials+science/">materials science</a> and engineering professors Paul Braun and David Cahill, electrical and computer engineering professor Lynford Goddard, and former graduate student Corey Richards. The <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-38858-y">results</a> of this research were published in Nature Communications.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>"We developed a way to create structures exhibiting the functionalities of classical compound optics but in highly miniaturized thin film via non-traditional fabrication approaches," says Braun.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>In many imaging applications, multiple <a href="https://phys.org/tags/wavelengths+of+light/">wavelengths of light</a> are present, e.g., <a href="https://phys.org/tags/white+light/">white light</a>. If a single lens is used to focus this light, different wavelengths focus at different points, resulting in a color-blurred image. To solve this problem, multiple lenses are stacked together to form an achromatic lens. "In white light imaging, if you use a single lens, you have considerable dispersion, and so each constituent color is focused at a different position. With an achromatic lens, however, all the colors focus at the same point," says Braun.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>The challenge, however, is that the required stack of lens elements required to make an achromatic lens is relatively thick, which can make a classical achromatic lens unsuitable for newer, scaled-down technological platforms, such as ultracompact visible wavelength cameras, portable microscopes, and even wearable devices.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><a href="https://phys-org.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/phys.org/news/2023-12-micro-lens-optics-hybrid-achromats.amp">A new (micro) lens on optics: Researchers develop hybrid achromats with high focusing efficiencies</a>, Amber Rose, <a href="https://grainger.illinois.edu/" target="_blank">University of Illinois Grainger College of Engineering</a></span></p><p></p></div>Quantum Switch...https://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/profiles/blogs/quantum-switch2023-11-28T10:00:00.000Z2023-11-28T10:00:00.000ZReginald L. Goodwinhttps://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/members/ReginaldLGoodwin<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12304448667,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12304448667,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="639" alt="12304448667?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a></p><p></p><p style="text-align:center;">Credit: CC0 Public Domain</p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;">Topics: Condensed Matter Physics, Materials Science, Quantum Computer, Quantum Mechanics</span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>Quantum scientists have discovered a rare phenomenon that could hold the key to creating a 'perfect switch' in quantum devices, which flips between being an insulator and a superconductor.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>The research, led by the University of Bristol and <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abp8948">published in Science</a>, found these two opposing electronic states exist within purple bronze, a unique one-dimensional metal composed of individual conducting chains of atoms.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>Tiny changes in the material, for instance, prompted by a small stimulus like heat or light, may trigger an instant transition from an insulating state with zero conductivity to a superconductor with unlimited conductivity and vice versa. This polarized versatility, known as "<a href="https://physicsandnano.com/2023/11/28/quantum-switch/" target="_blank">emergent symmetry</a>," has the potential to offer an ideal On/Off switch in future quantum technology developments.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>Lead author Nigel Hussey, Professor of Physics at the University of Bristol, said, "It's a really exciting discovery that could provide a perfect switch for <a href="https://phys.org/tags/quantum+devices/">quantum devices</a> of tomorrow.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>"The remarkable journey started 13 years ago in my lab when two Ph.D. students, Xiaofeng Xu, and Nick Wakeham, measured the magnetoresistance—the change in resistance caused by a magnetic field—of purple bronze."</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>In the absence of a <a href="https://phys.org/tags/magnetic+field/">magnetic field</a>, the resistance of purple bronze was highly dependent on the direction in which the <a href="https://phys.org/tags/electrical+current/">electrical current</a> was introduced. Its <a href="https://phys.org/tags/temperature+dependence/">temperature dependence</a> was also rather complicated. Around <a href="https://phys.org/tags/room+temperature/">room temperature</a>, the resistance is metallic, but as the <a href="https://phys.org/tags/temperature/">temperature</a> is lowered, this reverses and the material appears to be turning into an insulator. Then, at the lowest temperatures, the resistance plummets again as it transitions into a superconductor.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>Despite this complexity, surprisingly, the magnetoresistance was found to be extremely simple. It was essentially the same irrespective of the direction in which the current or field was aligned and followed a perfect linear temperature dependence all the way from room temperature down to the superconducting transition temperature.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><a href="https://phys-org.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/phys.org/news/2023-11-reveals-rare-metal-revolutionary-future.amp">Research reveals rare metal could offer revolutionary switch for future quantum devices</a>, <a href="http://www.qub.ac.uk/" target="_blank">Queen's University Belfast</a>, Phys.org.</span></p><p></p></div>Liquid Squeezing...https://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/profiles/blogs/liquid-squeezing2023-10-12T14:03:02.000Z2023-10-12T14:03:02.000ZReginald L. Goodwinhttps://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/members/ReginaldLGoodwin<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12254137666,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12254137666,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="12254137666?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a></p><p></p><p style="text-align:center;">That isn't tea, but the paradox still applies: Dispersing gold nanoparticles in an aqueous chlorine solution. (Courtesy: Ai Du)</p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;">Topics: Aerogels, Einstein, Materials Science, Nanomaterials, Soft Materials</span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>If you stir a colloidal solution containing nanoparticles, you might expect the particles to disperse evenly through the liquid. But that’s not what happens. Instead, the particles end up concentrated in a specific region and may even clump together. This unexpected result is an example of Einstein’s tea leaf paradox, and the researchers at Tongji University in China who discovered it – quite by accident – say it could be used to collect particles or molecules for detection in a dilute solution. Importantly, it could also be used to make aerogels for technological applications.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>We usually stir a liquid to evenly disperse the substances in it. The phenomenon known as Einstein’s tea leaf paradox describes a reverse effect in which the leaves in a well-stirred cup of tea instead become concentrated in a doughnut-shaped area and gather at the bottom center of the cup once stirring ceases. While this paradox has been known about for more than 100 years and is understood to be caused by a secondary flow effect, there are few studies on how it manifests for nanoparticles in a stirred solution.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em><strong>Liquid "squeezing"</strong></em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>Researchers led by Ai Du of the School of Physics, Science, and Engineering at Tongji University in Shanghai have now simulated how gold nanoparticle spheres dispersed in water move when the solution is stirred. When they calculated the flow velocity distribution of the fluid, they found that the rate at which the particles moved appeared to follow the fluid’s flow velocity.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>“Interestingly, by dividing the whole container into several sectors, we also observed that the high-velocity region driven by the stirrer was also the region in which the particles aggregated,” explains Du. “We think that this phenomenon is probably due to direct ‘<a href="https://physicsandnano.com/2023/10/12/liquid-squeezing/" target="_blank">squeezing</a>’ of the liquid created by the stirrer and comes from the mass differences between the nanoparticles and the liquid phase.”</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><a href="https://physicsworld.com/a/einsteins-tea-leaf-paradox-could-help-make-aerogels/">Einstein’s tea leaf paradox could help make aerogels</a>, Isabelle Dumé, Physics World.</span></p><p></p></div>Stronger Than Steel...https://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/profiles/blogs/stronger-than-steel2023-08-24T10:00:00.000Z2023-08-24T10:00:00.000ZReginald L. Goodwinhttps://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/members/ReginaldLGoodwin<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12208004276,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12208004276,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="12208004276?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a></p><p></p><p class="has-text-align-center" style="text-align:center;">Researchers from the University of Connecticut and colleagues have created a highly durable, lightweight material by structuring DNA and then coating it in glass. The resulting product, characterized by its nanolattice structure, exhibits a unique combination of strength and low density, making it potentially useful in applications like vehicle manufacturing and body armor. (Artist’s concept.)</p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;">Topics: Biotechnology, DNA, Material Science, Nanomaterials</span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>Researchers have developed a highly robust material with an extremely low density by constructing a structure <a href="https://physicsandnano.com/2023/08/24/stronger-than-steel/" target="_blank">using DNA</a> and subsequently coating it in glass.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>Materials possessing both strength and lightness have the potential to enhance everything from automobiles to body armor. But usually, the two qualities are mutually exclusive. However, researchers at the <a href="https://scitechdaily.com/tag/university-of-connecticut/">University of Connecticut</a>, along with their collaborators, have now crafted an incredibly strong yet lightweight material. Surprisingly, they achieved this using two unexpected building blocks: DNA and glass.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>“For the given density, our material is the strongest known,” says Seok-Woo Lee, a materials scientist at UConn. Lee and colleagues from UConn, <a href="https://scitechdaily.com/tag/columbia-university/">Columbia University</a>, and <a href="https://scitechdaily.com/tag/brookhaven-national-laboratory/">Brookhaven National Lab</a> reported the details on July 19 in <strong>Cell Reports Physical Science</strong>.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>Strength is relative. Iron, for example, can take 7 tons of pressure per square centimeter. But it’s also very dense and heavy, weighing 7.8 grams/cubic centimeter. Other metals, such as titanium, are stronger and lighter than iron. And certain alloys combining multiple elements are even stronger. Strong, lightweight materials have allowed for lightweight body armor and better medical devices and made safer, faster cars and airplanes.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><a href="https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-create-new-material-five-times-lighter-and-four-times-stronger-than-steel/?expand_article=1">Scientists Create New Material Five Times Lighter and Four Times Stronger Than Steel</a>. Sci-Tech Daily</span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;">Reference: “High-strength, lightweight nano-architected silica” by Aaron Michelson, Tyler J. Flanagan, Seok-Woo Lee, and Oleg Gang, 27 June 2023, <em><strong>Cell Reports Physical Science</strong></em>.</span><br /><span style="font-size:12pt;"><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666386423002540">DOI: 10.1016/j.xcrp.2023.101475</a></span></p><p></p></div>Build Better Batteries...https://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/profiles/blogs/build-better-batteries2023-08-23T10:00:00.000Z2023-08-23T10:00:00.000ZReginald L. Goodwinhttps://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/members/ReginaldLGoodwin<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12202262287,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12202262287,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="12202262287?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a></p><p></p><p class="has-text-align-center">Electric field- and pressure-assisted fast sintering to control graphene alignment in thick composite electrodes for boosting lithium storage performance. Credit: Hongtao Sun, Penn State</p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;">Topics: Battery, Energy, Graphene, Green Tech, Lithium, Materials Science, Nanomaterials</span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>The demand for <a href="https://physicsandnano.com/2023/08/23/build-better-batteries/" target="_blank">high-performance batteries</a>, especially for use in electric vehicles, is surging as the world shifts its energy consumption to a more electric-powered system, reducing reliance on fossil fuels and prioritizing climate remediation efforts. To improve battery performance and production, Penn State researchers and collaborators have developed a new fabrication approach that could make for more efficient batteries that maintain energy and power levels.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>The improved method for fabricating <a href="https://techxplore.com/tags/battery+electrodes/">battery electrodes</a> may lead to high-performance batteries that would enable more energy-efficient <a href="https://techxplore.com/tags/electric+vehicles/">electric vehicles</a>, as well as such benefits as enhancing power grid storage, according to Hongtao Sun. Sun is an assistant professor of industrial and manufacturing engineering at Penn State and the co-corresponding author of the study, which was published in and featured on the front cover of <strong>Carbon</strong>.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>"With current batteries, we want them to enable us to drive a car for longer distances, and we want to charge the car in maybe five minutes, 10 minutes, comparable to the time it takes to fill up for gas," Sun said. "In our work, we considered how we can achieve this by making the electrodes and battery cells more compact, with a higher percentage of active components and a lower percentage of passive components."</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>If an electric car maker wants to improve the driving distance of their vehicles, they add more battery cells, numbering in the thousands. The smaller and lighter, the better, according to Sun.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>"The solution for longer driving distances for an electric vehicle is just to add compact batteries, but with denser and thicker electrodes," Sun said, explaining that such electrodes could better connect and power the battery's components, making them more active. "Although this approach may slightly reduce <a href="https://techxplore.com/tags/battery+performance/">battery performance</a> per electrode weight, it significantly enhances the vehicle's overall performance by reducing the battery package's weight and the energy required to move the electric vehicle."</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><a href="https://techxplore-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/techxplore.com/news/2023-08-thicker-denser-electrodes-key-advanced.amp">Thicker, denser, better: New electrodes may hold the key to advanced batteries</a>, Jamie Oberdick, Pennsylvania State University, techxplore.</span></p><p></p></div>Beyond Heisenberg Compensators...https://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/profiles/blogs/beyond-heisenberg-compensators2023-08-21T10:00:00.000Z2023-08-21T10:00:00.000ZReginald L. Goodwinhttps://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/members/ReginaldLGoodwin<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12200585897,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12200585897,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="640" alt="12200585897?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a></p><p></p><p class="has-text-align-center" style="text-align:center;">The central role of HFIP: a solvent component that solvates POM. a. 1,1,1,3,3,3-Hexafluoro-2-propanol (HFIP): an effective solvent for polyoxymethylene (POM), the clustering of HFIP enabled the decrease of σ*OH energy38. b. Images of an undivided cell before (left) and after (right) the electrolysis. c. Reaction profile of POM bulk electrolysis at 3.5 V (60 °C), 0.1 M LiClO4 in CH3CN: HFIP (26:4). Credit: <em>Nature Communications</em> (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-39362-z</p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;">Topics: Chemistry, Green Tech, Materials Science, Star Trek</span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>A group of researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign demonstrated a way to use the renewable energy source of electricity to recycle a form of plastic that's growing in use but more challenging to recycle than other popular forms of plastic.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>In their study recently published in Nature Communications, they share their innovative process that shows the potential for harnessing <a href="https://phys.org/tags/renewable+energy+sources/">renewable energy sources</a> in the shift toward a circular plastics economy.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>"We wanted to demonstrate this concept of bringing together renewable energy and a c<a href="https://physicsandnano.com/2023/08/21/beyond-heisenberg-compensators/" target="_blank">ircular plastic economy</a>," said Yuting Zhou, a postdoctoral associate, and co-author, who worked on this groundbreaking research with two professors in chemistry at Illinois, polymer expert Jeffrey Moore and electrochemistry expert Joaquín Rodríguez-López.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>The project was conceived by Moore, who had experience working with Poly(phthalaldehyde), a form of polyacetal. Polyoxymethylene (POM) is a high-performance acetal resin that is used in a variety of industries, including automobiles and electronics. A thermoplastic, it can be shaped and molded when heated and hardens upon cooling with a high degree of strength and rigidity, making it an attractive lighter alternative to metal in some applications, like mechanical gears in automobiles. It is produced by various chemical firms with slightly different formulas and names, including Delrin by DuPont.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>When recycling, those highly crystalline properties of POM make it difficult to break down. It can be melted and molded again, but POM's original material properties are lost, limiting the usefulness of the recycled material.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>"When the polymer was in use as a product, it was not a pure polymer. It will also have other chemicals like coloring additives and antioxidants. So, if you simply melt it and remold it, the material properties are always lost," Zhou explained.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>The Illinois research team's method uses electricity, which can be drawn from renewable sources, and takes place at room temperature.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>This electro-mediated process deconstructs the polymer, breaking it down into monomers—the molecules that are bonded to other identical molecules to form polymers.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><a href="https://phys-org.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/phys.org/news/2023-08-recycling-possibilities-circular-plastics-economy.amp">A recycling study demonstrates new possibilities for a circular plastics economy powered by renewable energy,</a> Tracy Crane, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.</span></p><p></p></div>Confession...https://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/profiles/blogs/confession2023-07-10T10:00:00.000Z2023-07-10T10:00:00.000ZReginald L. Goodwinhttps://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/members/ReginaldLGoodwin<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12132319871,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12132319871,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="12132319871?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a></p><p style="text-align:center;">Credit: Freddie Pagani for <em>Physics Today</em></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;">Topics: African Americans, Diversity in Science, Electrical Engineering, Materials Science, Physics</span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>Students should strategically consider where to apply to graduate school, and faculty members should provide up-to-date job resources so that undergraduates can make informed career decisions.</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>The number of bachelor’s degrees in physics awarded annually at US institutions is at or near an all-time high—nearly double what it was two decades ago. Yet the number of first-year physics graduate students has grown much more slowly, at only around 1–2% per year. The difference in the growth rates of bachelor’s recipients and graduate spots may be increasing the competition that students face when interested in pursuing graduate study.</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>With potentially more students applying for a relatively fixed number of first-year graduate openings, students may need to apply to more schools, which would take more time and cost more money. As the graduate school admissions process becomes more competitive, applicants may need even more accomplishments and experiences, such as postbaccalaureate research, to gain acceptance. Such opportunities are not available equally to all students. To read about steps one department has taken to make admissions more equitable, see the July <strong>Physics Today</strong> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1063/PT.3.5271" target="_blank">article</a> by one of us (Young), Kirsten Tollefson, and Marcos D. Caballero.</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>We do not view the increasing gap between bachelor’s recipients and graduate spots as necessarily a problem, nor do we believe that all physics majors should be expected to go to graduate school. Rather, we assert that this trend is one that both prospective applicants and those advising them should be aware of so students can make an informed decision about their postgraduation plans.</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;">The “itch” for graduate school has always been a constant with me. I wanted especially to go after meeting Dr. Ronald McNair after his maiden voyage on Challenger in 1984. Little did I know that he would perish two years later in the same vehicle. Things happened to set the itch aside: marriage, kids, sports leagues. Life can delay your decision, too. <a href="https://physicsandnano.com/2023/07/10/confession/" target="_blank">My gap</a> was 33 years: 1984 to 2017.</span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;">The recent decision by the Supreme Court to overturn another precedent: Affirmative Action in college admissions, affects graduate schools as well as undergraduate admissions. After every effort of progress, whether in race (a social construct) relations, labor, or gender, history, if they allow us to study it, has always shown a backlash. The group that is in power wants to remain in power, and the inequity those of us lower on the totem poll are pointing out they see as the result of the "natural order," albeit by government fiat.</span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;">My pastor at the time could have called our congressman and gotten me an appointment. My grades weren't too bad, and being the highest-ranking cadet in the city and county probably would have helped my CV. I chose an HBCU, NC A&T State University, in my undergrad because Greensboro to Winston-Salem was and is a lot closer than the Air Force Academy in Colorado. I would have been away from my parents for an entire agonizing year of no contact: cell phones and video chatting weren't a thing. I also wasn’t a fan of my freshman year being called a “<a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/plebe#:~:text=%22of%20or%20characteristic%20of%20the,*ple-%2C%20from%20root%20*">Plebe</a>” (lower-born). I do support the decisions students and their parents make as the best decision for their future. I do not support an unelected body trying to do "reverse political Entropy," turning back the clock of progress to 1953. We are, however, in 2023, and issues like climate change can be solved by going aggressively towards renewables: Texas experienced some of the hottest days on the planet, and their off-the-national grid held because of <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/solar-wind-green-energy-keeping-texas-power-grids-running/story?id=100796136#:~:text=The%20Lone%20Star%20State%20has,reached%20an%20all-time%20high.">solar and wind</a>, in an impressive display of irony.</span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;">Physics majors who graduate and go to work are prepared for either teaching K-12 or engineering. I worked at Motorola, Advanced Micro Devices, and Applied Materials. I taught Algebra 1, Precalculus, and Physics. So, if it’s any consolation: physics majors will EARN a living and eat! As a generalist, you should be able to master anything you’d be exposed to.</span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;">Speaking of Harvard: when I worked at Motorola in Austin, Texas, one of my coworkers was promoted from process engineering to Section Manager of Implant/Diffusion/Thin Films. He attended Harvard, and I, A&T. I still worked in photo and etch, primarily as the etch process engineer on nights. I noticed he had a familiar green book on his bookshelf with yellow, sinusoidal lines on the cover.</span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>Me: Hey! Isn't that a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Physics-Parts-II-David-Halliday/dp/047134530X/ref=sr_1_2?hvadid=241625178708&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9009649&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=13087104632915332667&hvtargid=kwd-1221573005&hydadcr=3200_10391839&keywords=halliday+and+resnick&qid=1688954585&sr=8-2">Halladay and Resnick</a>?</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>Him: Why, yes! What do you know about it?</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>Me: I learned Physics I from Dr. Tom Sandin (who recently retired after 50 YEARS: 1968 - 2018). He taught <a href="https://journalnow.com/news/local/30-things-you-should-know-about-astronaut-ronald-mcnair/article_b6e2357c-8b07-550c-bf19-f4a713047e76.html">Dr. Ron McNair</a>, one of the astronauts on the Space Shuttle Challenger. Physics II was taught to me by Dr. Elvira Williams: she was the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D. in Physics in the state of North Carolina and the FOURTH to earn a Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics in the nation. Who were your professors?</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>Him: Look at the time! Got a meeting. Bye!</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;">Life experiences, in the end, overcome legacy and connection. We need a diversity of opinions to solve complex problems. Depending on the same structures and constructs to produce our next innovators isn't just shortsighted: it's <a href="https://psychcentral.com/health/magical-thinking#:~:text=Magical%20thinking%20is%20most%20often,a%20specific%20action%20or%20ritual.">magical thinking</a>.</span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;">I now do think that 18 might be a little too young for a freshman on any campus and 22 a little too early for graduate school.</span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;">Just make the gap a little less than three decades!</span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><a href="https://pubs.aip.org/physicstoday/online/42443/The-gap-between-physics-bachelor-s-recipients-and">The gap between physics bachelor’s recipients and grad school spots is growing</a>, Nicholas T. Young, Caitlin Hayward, and Eric F. Bell, AIP Publishing, Physics Today.</span></span></p></div>Beyond Attogram Imaging...https://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/profiles/blogs/beyond-attogram-imaging2023-06-26T10:00:00.000Z2023-06-26T10:00:00.000ZReginald L. Goodwinhttps://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/members/ReginaldLGoodwin<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12126828078,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12126828078,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="390" alt="12126828078?profile=RESIZE_400x" /></a></p><p style="text-align:center;">When X-rays (blue color) illuminate an iron atom (red ball at the center of the molecule), core-level electrons are excited. X-ray excited electrons are then tunneled to the detector tip (gray) via overlapping atomic/molecular orbitals, which provide elemental and chemical information about the iron atom. Credit: Saw-Wai Hla</p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;">Topics: Applied Physics, Instrumentation, Materials Science, Nanomaterials, Quantum Mechanics</span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>A team of scientists from Ohio University, Argonne National Laboratory, the University of Illinois-Chicago, and others, led by Ohio University Professor of Physics, and Argonne National Laboratory scientist, Saw Wai Hla, have taken the world's first X-ray SIGNAL (or SIGNATURE) of <a href="https://physicsandnano.com/2023/06/26/beyond-attogram-imaging/" target="_blank">just one atom</a>. This groundbreaking achievement could revolutionize the way scientists detect materials.</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>Since its discovery by Roentgen in 1895, X-rays have been used everywhere, from medical examinations to security screenings in airports. Even Curiosity, NASA's Mars rover, is equipped with an X-ray device to examine the material composition of the rocks on Mars. An important usage of X-rays in science is to identify the type of materials in a sample. Over the years, the quantity of materials in a sample required for X-ray detection has been greatly reduced thanks to the development of synchrotron X-rays sources and new instruments. To date, the smallest amount one can X-ray a sample is in an attogram, which is about 10,000 atoms or more. This is due to the X-ray signal produced by an atom being extremely weak, so conventional X-ray detectors cannot be used to detect it. According to Hla, it is a long-standing dream of scientists to X-ray just one atom, which is now being realized by the research team led by him.</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>"Atoms can be routinely imaged with scanning probe microscopes, but without X-rays, one cannot tell what they are made of. We can now detect exactly the type of a particular atom, one atom-at-a-time, and can simultaneously measure its chemical state," explained Hla, who is also the director of the Nanoscale and Quantum Phenomena Institute at Ohio University. "Once we are able to do that, we can trace the materials down to the ultimate limit of just one atom. This will have a great impact on environmental and medical sciences and maybe even find a cure that can have a huge impact on humankind. This discovery will transform the world."</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>Their paper, published in the scientific journal <strong>Nature</strong> on May 31, 2023, and gracing the cover of the print version of the scientific journal on June 1, 2023, details how Hla and several other physicists and chemists, including Ph.D. students at OHIO, used a purpose-built synchrotron X-ray instrument at the XTIP beamline of Advanced Photon Source and the Center for Nanoscale Materials at Argonne National Laboratory.</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><a href="https://phys.org/news/2023-05-scientists-world-x-ray-atom.html" target="_blank">Scientists report the world's first X-ray of a single atom</a>, Ohio University, Phys.org.</span></span></p></div>Straining Moore...https://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/profiles/blogs/straining-moore2023-06-22T10:00:00.000Z2023-06-22T10:00:00.000ZReginald L. Goodwinhttps://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/members/ReginaldLGoodwin<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12126816677,RESIZE_1200x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12126816677,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="12126816677?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a></p><p style="text-align:left;"><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;">Topics: Applied Physics, Chemistry, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Materials Science, Nanotechnology, Quantum Mechanics, Semiconductor Technology</span></span></p><p style="text-align:left;"><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>Gordon Moore, the co-founder of Intel who died earlier this year, is famous for forecasting a continuous rise in the density of transistors that we can pack onto semiconductor chips. <strong>James McKenzie</strong> looks at how “<a href="https://physicsandnano.com/2023/06/22/straining-moore/" target="_blank">Moore’s law</a>” is still going strong after almost six decades but warns that further progress is becoming harder and ever more expensive to sustain.</em></span></span></p><p style="text-align:left;"><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>When the <a href="https://www.tsmc.com/english">Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company</a> (TSMC) announced last year that it was <a href="https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4655874">planning to build a new factory</a> to produce integrated circuits, it wasn’t just the eye-watering $33bn price tag that caught my eye. What also struck me is that the plant, <a href="https://appleinsider.com/articles/21/07/29/tsmc-gets-government-approval-for-2-nanometer-chip-plant">set to open in 2025 in the city of Hsinchu</a>, will make the world’s first <a href="https://n2.tsmc.com/english/dedicatedFoundry/technology/N2.htm">“2-nanometer” chips</a>. Smaller, faster, and up to 30% more efficient than any microchip that has come before, TSMC’s chips <a href="https://appleinsider.com/articles/22/06/17/tsmc-announces-2nm-chip-production-will-start-by-2025">will be sold to the likes of Apple</a> – the company’s biggest customer – powering everything from smartphones to laptops.</em></span></span></p><p style="text-align:left;"><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>But our ability to build such tiny, powerful chips shouldn’t surprise us. After all, the engineer <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Gordon-Moore">Gordon Moore</a> – who died on 24 March this year, aged 94 – famously predicted in 1965 that the number of transistors we can squeeze onto an integrated circuit ought to double yearly. Writing for the magazine <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190327213847/https:/newsroom.intel.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2018/05/moores-law-electronics.pdf">Electronics (<strong>38</strong> 114)</a>, Moore reckoned that by 1975 it should be possible to fit a quarter of a million components onto a single silicon chip with an area of one square inch (6.25 cm<sup>2</sup>).</em></span></span></p><p style="text-align:left;"><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>Moore’s prediction, which he later said was simply a <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/gordon-moore-the-man-whose-name-means-progress">“wild extrapolation”</a>, held true, although, in 1975, he revised his forecast, predicting that chip densities would double every two years rather than every year. What thereafter became known as “Moore’s law” proved amazingly accurate, as the ability to pack ever more transistors into a tiny space underpinned the almost non-stop growth of the consumer electronics industry. In truth, it was never an established scientific “law” but more a description of how things had developed in the past as well as a roadmap that the semiconductor industry imposed on itself, driving future development.</em></span></span></p><p style="text-align:left;"><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><a href="https://physicsworld.com/a/moores-law-further-progress-will-push-hard-on-the-boundaries-of-physics-and-economics/" target="_blank">Moore's law: further progress will push hard on the boundaries of physics and economics</a>, James McKenzie, Physics World</span></span></p></div>Magnetic Chirality...https://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/profiles/blogs/magnetic-chirality2023-06-15T10:00:00.000Z2023-06-15T10:00:00.000ZReginald L. Goodwinhttps://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/members/ReginaldLGoodwin<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}11839723095,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}11839723095,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="11839723095?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a></p><p style="text-align:center;">An RNA-making molecule crystallizes on magnetite, which can bias the process toward a single chiral form. S. FURKAN OZTURK</p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;">Topics: Biology, Biotechnology, Chemistry, Magnetism, Materials Science</span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>In 1848, French chemist Louis Pasteur discovered that some molecules essential for life exist in mirror-image forms, much like our left and right hands. Today, we know biology chooses just one of these <a href="https://physicsandnano.com/2023/06/15/magnetic-chirality/" target="_blank">“chiral” forms: DNA, RNA</a>, and their building blocks are all right-handed, whereas amino acids and proteins are all left-handed. Pasteur, who saw hints of this selectivity, or “homochirality,” thought magnetic fields might somehow explain it, but its origin has remained one of biology’s great mysteries. Now, it turns out Pasteur may have been onto something.</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>In three new papers, researchers suggest magnetic minerals common on early Earth could have caused key biomolecules to accumulate on their surface in just one mirror image form, setting off positive feedback that continued to favor the same form. “It’s a real breakthrough,” says Jack Szostak, an origin of life chemist at the University of Chicago who was not involved with the new work. “Homochirality is essential to get biology started, and this is [a possible]—and I would say very likely—solution.”</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>Chemical reactions are typically unbiased, yielding equal amounts of right- and left-handed molecules. But life requires selectivity: Only right-handed DNA, for example, has the correct twist to interact properly with other chiral molecules. To get [life], “you’ve got to break the mirror, or you can’t pull it off,” says Gerald Joyce, an origin of life chemist and president of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>Over the past century, researchers have proposed various mechanisms for skewing the first biomolecules, including cosmic rays and polarized light. Both can cause an initial bias favoring either right- or left-handed molecules, but they don’t directly explain how this initial bias was amplified to create the large reservoirs of chiral molecules likely needed to make the first cells. An explanation that creates an initial bias is a good start but “not sufficient,” says Dimitar Sasselov, a physicist at Harvard University and a leader of the new work.</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/breakthrough-could-explain-why-life-molecules-are-left-or-right-handed" target="_blank">‘Breakthrough’ could explain why life molecules are left- or right-handed</a>, Robert F. Service, Science.org.</span></span></p></div>Chiplets...https://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/profiles/blogs/chiplets2023-06-14T10:00:00.000Z2023-06-14T10:00:00.000ZReginald L. Goodwinhttps://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/members/ReginaldLGoodwin<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}11812006900,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}11812006900,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="654" alt="11812006900?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a></p><p style="text-align:center;">Source: Semiengineering dot com - <a href="https://semiengineering.com/knowledge_centers/packaging/advanced-packaging/chiplets/" target="_blank">Chiplets</a></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;">Topics: Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Materials Science, Semiconductor Technology, Solid-State Physics</span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>Depending on who you’re speaking with at the time, the industry’s adoption of chiplet technology to <a href="https://physicsandnano.com/2023/06/14/chiplets/" target="_blank">extend the reach of Moore’s Law</a> is either continuing to roll along or is facing the absence of a commercial market. However, both assertions cannot be true. What is true is that chiplets have been used to build at least some commercial ICs for more than a decade and that semiconductor vendors continue to expand chiplet usability and availability. At the same time, the interface and packaging standards that are essential to widespread chiplet adoption remain in flux.</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>On the positive side of this question are existence proofs. Xilinx, now AMD, has been using 2.5D chiplet technology with large silicon interposers to make FPGAs for more than a decade. The first commercial use of this packaging technology appeared back in 2011 when Xilinx announced its Virtex-7 2000T FPGA, a 2-Mgate device built from four FPGA semiconductor tiles bonded to a silicon interposer. Xilinx jointly developed this chiplet-packaging technology with its foundry, TSMC, which now offers this CoWoS (Chip-on-Wafer-on-Substrate) interposer-and-chiplet technology to its other foundry customers. TSMC customers that have announced chiplet-based products include Broadcom and Fujitsu. AMD is now five generations along the learning curve with this packaging technology, which is now essential to the continued development of bigger and more diverse FPGAs. AMD will be presenting an overview of this multi-generation, chiplet-based technology, including a status update at the upcoming Hot Chips 2023 conference being held at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, in August.</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>Similarly, Intel has long been developing and using chiplet technology in its own packaged ICs. The company has been using its 2.5D EMIB (embedded multi-die interconnect bridge) chiplet-packaging technology for years to manufacture its Stratix 10 FPGAs. That technology has now spread throughout Intel’s product line to include CPUs and SoCs. The poster child for Intel’s chiplet-packaging technologies is unquestionably the company’s Ponte Vecchio GPU, which packages 47 active “tiles” – Intel’s name for chiplets – in a multi-chip package. These 47 dies are manufactured by multiple semiconductor vendors using five different semiconductor process nodes, all combined in one package using Intel’s EMIB 2.5D and 3D Foveros chiplet-packaging techniques to produce an integrated product with more than 100 billion transistors – something not currently possible on one silicon die. Intel is now opening these chiplet-packaging technologies to select customers through IFS – Intel Foundry Services – and consequently expanding the size and number of its packaging facilities.</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><a href="https://www-forbes-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.forbes.com/sites/tiriasresearch/2023/05/29/the-chiplets-time-is-coming-its-here-or-not/amp/" target="_blank">The Chiplet’s Time Is Coming. It’s Here, Or Not</a>. Steven Leibson, Tirias Research, Forbes</span></span></p></div>Organic Solar Cells...https://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/profiles/blogs/organic-solar-cells2023-06-01T10:00:00.000Z2023-06-01T10:00:00.000ZReginald L. Goodwinhttps://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/members/ReginaldLGoodwin<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}11217774072,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}11217774072,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="538" alt="11217774072?profile=RESIZE_584x" /></a></p><p style="text-align:center;">Prof. Li Gang invented a novel technique to achieve breakthrough efficiency with organic solar cells. Credit: Hong Kong Polytechnic University</p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;">Topics: Chemistry, Green Tech, Materials Science, Photonics, Research, Solar Power</span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>Researchers from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) have achieved a breakthrough power-conversion efficiency <a href="https://physicsandnano.com/2023/06/01/organic-solar-cells/" target="_blank">(PCE) of 19.31%</a> with organic solar cells (OSCs), also known as polymer solar cells. This remarkable binary OSC efficiency will help enhance these advanced solar energy device applications.</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>The PCE, a measure of the power generated from a given solar irradiation, is considered a significant benchmark for the performance of photovoltaics (PVs), or <a href="https://techxplore.com/tags/solar+panels/">solar panels</a>, in <a href="https://techxplore.com/tags/power+generation/">power generation</a>. The improved efficiency of more than 19% that was achieved by the PolyU researchers constitutes a record for binary OSCs, which have one donor and one acceptor in the photoactive layer.</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>Led by Prof. Li Gang, Chair Professor of Energy Conversion Technology, and Sir Sze-Yen Chung, Endowed Professor in Renewable Energy at PolyU, the research team invented a novel OSC morphology-regulating technique by using 1,3,5-trichlorobenzene as a crystallization regulator. This new technique boosts OSC efficiency and stability.</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>The team developed a non-monotonic intermediated state manipulation (ISM) strategy to manipulate the bulk-heterojunction (BHJ) OSC morphology and simultaneously optimize the crystallization dynamics and <a href="https://techxplore.com/tags/energy/">energy</a> loss of non-fullerene OSCs. Unlike the strategy of using traditional solvent additives, which is based on excessive molecular aggregation in films, the ISM strategy promotes the formation of more ordered molecular stacking and favorable molecular aggregation. As a result, the PCE was considerably increased, and the undesirable non-radiative recombination loss was reduced. Notably, non-radiative recombination lowers the light generation efficiency and increases heat loss.</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><a href="https://techxplore.com/news/2023-05-efficiency-solar-cells.html" target="_blank">Researchers achieve a record 19.31% efficiency with organic solar cells</a>. Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Tech Explore</span></span></p></div>ALPS and Dark Matter...https://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/profiles/blogs/alps-and-dark-matter2023-05-29T18:23:31.000Z2023-05-29T18:23:31.000ZReginald L. Goodwinhttps://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/members/ReginaldLGoodwin<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}11157933256,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}11157933256,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="636" alt="11157933256?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a></p><p style="text-align:center;">Magnet row of the ALPS experiment in the HERA tunnel: In this part of the magnets, intense laser light is reflected back and forth, from which axions are supposed to form. Credit: DESY, Marta Maye</p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;">Topics: Dark Matter, Materials Science, Particle Physics, Quantum Mechanics</span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>The ALPS (<a href="https://physicsandnano.com/2023/05/29/alps-and-dark-matter/" target="_blank">Any Light Particle Search</a>) experiment, which stretches a total length of 250 meters, is looking for a particularly light type of new elementary particle. The international research team wants to search for these so-called axions or axion-like particles using twenty-four recycled superconducting magnets from the HERA accelerator, an intense laser beam, precision interferometry, and highly sensitive detectors.</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>Such particles are believed to react only extremely weakly with known kinds of matter, which means they cannot be detected in experiments using accelerators. ALPS is therefore resorting to an entirely different principle to detect them: in a strong magnetic field, photons—i.e., particles of light—could be transformed into these mysterious elementary particles and back into [light] again.</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>"The idea for an experiment like ALPS has been around for over 30 years. By using components and the infrastructure of the former HERA accelerator, together with state-of-the-art technologies, we are now able to realize ALPS II in an <a href="https://phys.org/tags/international+collaboration/">international collaboration</a> for the first time," says Beate Heinemann, Director of Particle Physics at DESY.</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>Helmut Dosch, Chairman of DESY's Board of Directors, adds, "DESY has set itself the task of decoding matter in all its different forms. So ALPS II fits our research strategy perfectly, and perhaps it will push open the door to dark matter."</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>The ALPS team sends a high-intensity laser beam along a device called an optical resonator in a <a href="https://phys.org/tags/vacuum+tube/">vacuum tube</a>, approximately 120 meters in length, in which the beam is reflected backward and forwards and is enclosed by twelve HERA magnets arranged in a straight line. If a photon were to turn into an axion in the strong magnetic field, that axion could pass through the opaque wall at the end of the line of magnets.</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>Once through the wall, it would enter another magnetic track almost identical to the first. Here, the [axion] could then change back into a photon, which would be captured by the detector at the end. A second optical resonator is set up here to increase the probability of an [axion[ turning back into a photon by a factor of 10,000.</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>This means if [light] does arrive behind the wall, it must have been an axion in between. "However, despite all our technical tricks, the probability of a photon turning into an axion and back again is very small," says DESY's Axel Lindner, project leader and spokesperson of the ALPS collaboration, "like throwing 33 dice and them all coming up the same."</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>In order for the experiment to actually work, the researchers had to tweak all the different components of the apparatus to maximum performance. The light detector is so sensitive that it can detect a single photon per day. The precision of the system of mirrors for the light is also record-breaking: the distance between the mirrors must remain constant to within a fraction of an atomic diameter relative to the wavelength of the laser.</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><a href="https://phys-org.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/phys.org/news/2023-05-world-sensitive-model-independent-dark.amp" target="_blank">World's most sensitive model-independent experiment starts searching for dark matter</a>, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, Phys.org.</span></span></p></div>Nano Sanitizer...https://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/profiles/blogs/nano-sanitizer2023-05-25T10:00:00.000Z2023-05-25T10:00:00.000ZReginald L. Goodwinhttps://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/members/ReginaldLGoodwin<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}11148626858,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}11148626858,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="534" alt="11148626858?profile=RESIZE_584x" /></a></p><p style="text-align:center;">The disinfectant powder is stirred in bacteria-contaminated water (upper left). The mixture is exposed to sunlight, which rapidly kills all the bacteria (upper right). A magnet collects the metallic powder after disinfection (lower right). The powder is then reloaded into another beaker of contaminated water, and the disinfection process is repeated (lower left).<span class="media-attrib"> (Image credit: Tong Wu/Stanford University)</span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;">Topics: Biology, Chemistry, Environment, Materials Science, Nanotechnology</span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>When exposed to sunlight, a low-cost, recyclable powder can kill thousands of waterborne bacteria per second. Stanford and SLAC scientists say the ultrafast disinfectant could be a <a href="https://physicsandnano.com/2023/05/25/nano-sanitizer/" target="_blank">revolutionary advance</a> for 2 billion people worldwide without access to safe drinking water.</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>At least 2 billion people <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/drinking-water">worldwide</a> routinely drink water contaminated with disease-causing microbes.</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>Now, scientists at Stanford University and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have invented a low-cost, recyclable powder that kills thousands of waterborne bacteria per second when exposed to ordinary sunlight. According to the Stanford and SLAC team, the discovery of this ultrafast disinfectant could be a significant advance for nearly 30 percent of the world’s population with no access to safe drinking water. Their results are <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s44221-023-00079-4">published</a> in a May 18 study in <strong>Nature Water</strong>.</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>“Waterborne diseases are responsible for 2 million deaths annually, the majority in children under the age of 5,” said study co-lead author Tong Wu, a former postdoctoral scholar of materials science and engineering (MSE) at the <a href="https://engineering.stanford.edu/">Stanford School of Engineering</a>. “We believe that our novel technology will facilitate revolutionary changes in water disinfection and inspire more innovations in this exciting interdisciplinary field.”</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>Conventional water-treatment technologies include chemicals, which can produce toxic byproducts, and ultraviolet light, which takes a relatively long time to disinfect and requires a source of electricity.</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>The new disinfectant developed at Stanford is a harmless metallic powder that works by absorbing both UV and high-energy visible light from the sun. The powder consists of nano-size flakes of aluminum oxide, molybdenum sulfide, copper, and iron oxide.</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>“We only used a tiny amount of these materials,” said senior author <a href="https://profiles.stanford.edu/yi-cui">Yi Cui</a>, the Fortinet Founders Professor of MSE and of Energy Science & Engineering in the <a href="https://sustainability.stanford.edu/">Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability</a>. “The materials are low cost and fairly abundant. The key innovation is that, when immersed in water, they all function together.”</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><a href="https://news.stanford.edu/2023/05/18/new-technology-uses-ordinary-sunlight-disinfect-drinking-water/" target="_blank">New nontoxic powder uses sunlight to quickly disinfect contaminated drinking water,</a> Mark Shwartz, Stanford News.</span></span></p></div>Balsa Chips...https://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/profiles/blogs/balsa-chips2023-05-22T13:21:08.000Z2023-05-22T13:21:08.000ZReginald L. Goodwinhttps://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/members/ReginaldLGoodwin<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}11135716495,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}11135716495,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="700" alt="11135716495?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a></p><p style="text-align:center;">Modified wood modulates electrical current: researchers at Linköping University and colleagues from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology have developed the world’s first electrical transistor made of wood. (Courtesy: Thor Balkhed)</p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;">Topics: Applied Physics, Biomimetics, Electrical Engineering, Materials Science, Research</span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>Researchers in Sweden have built a transistor <a href="https://physicsandnano.com/2023/05/22/balsa-chips/" target="_blank">out of a plank of wood</a> by incorporating electrically conducting polymers throughout the material to retain space for an ionically conductive electrolyte. The new technique makes it possible, in principle, to use wood as a template for numerous electronic components, though the Linköping University team acknowledges that wood-based devices cannot compete with traditional circuitry on speed or size.</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>Led by <a href="https://liu.se/en/employee/isaen77" target="_blank">Isak Engquist</a> of <a href="https://liu.se/en/organisation/liu/itn/loe" target="_blank">Linköping’s Laboratory for Organic Electronics</a>, the researchers began by removing the lignin from a plank of balsa wood (chosen because it is grainless and evenly structured) using a NaClO<sub>2</sub> chemical and heat treatment. Since lignin typically constitutes 25% of wood, removing it creates considerable scope for incorporating new materials into the structure that remains.</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>The researchers then placed the delignified wood in a water-based dispersion of an electrically conducting polymer called poly(3,4-ethylene-dioxythiophene)–polystyrene sulfonate, or PEDOT: PSS. Once this polymer diffuses into the wood, the previously insulating material becomes a conductor with an electrical conductivity of up to 69 Siemens per meter – a phenomenon the researchers attribute to the formation of PEDOT: PSS microstructures inside the 3D wooden “scaffold.”</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>Next, Engquist and colleagues constructed a transistor using one piece of this treated balsa wood as a channel and additional pieces on either side to form a double transistor gate. They also soaked the interface between the gates and channels in an ion-conducting gel. In this arrangement, known as an organic electrochemical transistor (OECT), applying a voltage to the gate(s) triggers an electrochemical reaction in the channel that makes the PEDOT molecules non-conducting and therefore switches the transistor off.</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><a href="https://physicsworld.com/a/a-transistor-made-from-wood/" target="_blank">A transistor made from wood</a>, Isabelle Dumé, Physics World</span></span></p></div>A Charge for all Seasons...https://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/profiles/blogs/a-charge-for-all-seasons2023-05-18T10:00:00.000Z2023-05-18T10:00:00.000ZReginald L. Goodwinhttps://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/members/ReginaldLGoodwin<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}11129074899,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}11129074899,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="11129074899?profile=RESIZE_584x" width="534" /></a></p><p style="text-align:center;">The new composition for fluorine-containing electrolytes promises to maintain high battery charging performance for future electric vehicles even at sub-zero temperatures. (Image by Shutterstock.)</p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;">Topics: Battery, Chemistry, Climate Change, Global Warming, Lithium, Materials Science</span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>Scientists developed a <a href="https://physicsandnano.com/2023/05/18/a-charge-for-all-seasons/" target="_blank">new and safer electrolyte</a> for lithium-ion batteries that work as well in sub-zero conditions as it does at room temperature.</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>Many owners of electric vehicles worry about how effective their batteries will be in very cold weather. Now new battery chemistry may have solved that problem.</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>In current <a href="https://www.anl.gov/science-101/batteries" target="_blank">lithium-ion batteries</a>, the main problem lies in the liquid electrolyte. This key battery component transfers charge-carrying particles called ions between the battery’s two electrodes, causing the battery to charge and discharge. But the liquid begins to freeze at sub-zero temperatures. This condition severely limits the effectiveness of charging electric vehicles in cold regions and seasons.</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>To address that problem, a team of scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne and Lawrence Berkeley national laboratories developed a fluorine-containing electrolyte that performs well even in sub-zero temperatures.</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>“Our research thus demonstrated how to tailor the atomic structure of electrolyte solvents to design new electrolytes for sub-zero temperatures.” — John Zhang, Argonne group leader.</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>“Our team not only found an antifreeze electrolyte whose charging performance does not decline at minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit, but we also discovered, at the atomic level, what makes it so effective,” said Zhengcheng “John” Zhang, a senior chemist and group leader in Argonne’s Chemical Sciences and Engineering division.</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>This low-temperature electrolyte shows promise of working for batteries in electric vehicles, as well as in energy storage for electric grids and consumer electronics like computers and phones.</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><a href="https://www.anl.gov/article/an-electric-vehicle-battery-for-all-seasons" target="_blank">An electric vehicle battery for all seasons</a>, Joseph E. Harmon, Argonne National Labs</span></span></p></div>Superconductors, 3D Disorder, Fractals...https://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/profiles/blogs/superconductors-3d-disorder-fractals2023-05-17T10:00:00.000Z2023-05-17T10:00:00.000ZReginald L. Goodwinhttps://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/members/ReginaldLGoodwin<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}11117286286,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}11117286286,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="640" alt="11117286286?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a></p><p style="text-align:center;">Fractals are a never-ending pattern that you can zoom in on, and the image doesn’t change. Fractals can occur in two dimensions, like frost on a window, or in three dimensions, like tree limbs. A recent discovery from Purdue University researchers has established that superconducting images, seen above in red and blue, are actually fractals that fill a three-dimensional space and are disorder driven rather than driven by quantum fluctuations as expected. Frost and tree images by Adobe. Superconducting image (center) from "Critical nematic correlations throughout the superconducting doping range in Bi<sub>2-x</sub>Pb<sub>z</sub>Sr<sub>2-y</sub>La<sub>y</sub>CuO<sub>6+x</sub>" in <em>Nature Communications</em>. Credit: <em>Nature Communications</em> (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-38249-3</p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;">Topics: Applied Physics, Civilization, Computer Modeling, Condensed Matter Physics, Materials Science, Solid-State Physics, Superconductors</span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>Meeting the world's energy demands is reaching a critical point. Powering the technological age has caused issues globally. It is increasingly important to create superconductors that can operate at ambient pressure and temperature. This would go a long way toward <a href="https://physicsandnano.com/2023/05/17/superconductors-3d-disorder-fractals/" target="_blank">solving</a> the energy crisis.</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>Advancements with superconductivity hinge on advances in <a href="https://phys.org/tags/quantum+materials/">quantum materials</a>. When electrons inside quantum materials undergo a phase transition, the electrons can form intricate patterns, such as fractals. A fractal is a never-ending pattern. When zooming in on a fractal, the image looks the same. Commonly seen fractals can be a tree or frost on a windowpane in winter. Fractals can form in two dimensions, like the frost on a window, or in three-dimensional space, like the limbs of a tree.</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>Dr. Erica Carlson, a 150th Anniversary Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Purdue University, led a team that developed theoretical techniques for characterizing the fractal shapes that these electrons make in order to uncover the underlying physics driving the patterns.</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>Carlson, a theoretical physicist, has evaluated high-resolution images of the locations of electrons in the superconductor Bi<sub>2-x</sub>Pb<sub>z</sub>Sr<sub>2-y</sub>La<sub>y</sub>CuO<sub>6+x</sub> (BSCO) and determined that these images are indeed fractal and discovered that they extend into the full three-dimensional space occupied by the material, like a tree filling space.</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>What was once thought of as random dispersions within the fractal images are purposeful and, shockingly, not due to an underlying quantum phase transition as expected but due to a disorder-driven phase transition.</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>Carlson led a collaborative team of researchers across multiple institutions and published their findings, titled "Critical nematic correlations throughout the superconducting doping range in Bi<sub>2-x</sub>Pb<sub>z</sub>Sr<sub>2-y</sub>La<sub>y</sub>CuO<sub>6+x</sub>," in <strong>Nature Communications</strong>.</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>The team includes Purdue scientists and partner institutions. From Purdue, the team includes Carlson, Dr. Forrest Simmons, a recent Ph.D. student, and former Ph.D. students Dr. Shuo Liu and Dr. Benjamin Phillabaum. The Purdue team completed their work within the Purdue Quantum Science and Engineering Institute (PQSEI). The team from partner institutions includes Dr. Jennifer Hoffman, Dr. Can-Li Song, Dr. Elizabeth Main of Harvard University, Dr. Karin Dahmen of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Dr. Eric Hudson of Pennsylvania State University.</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><a href="https://phys-org.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/phys.org/news/2023-05-superconductive-images-3d-disorder-driven-fractals.amp" target="_blank">Researchers discover superconductive images are actually 3D and disorder-driven fractals</a>, Cheryl Pierce, Purdue University, Phys.org.</span></span></p></div>TEG...https://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/profiles/blogs/teg2023-04-25T10:00:00.000Z2023-04-25T10:00:00.000ZReginald L. Goodwinhttps://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/members/ReginaldLGoodwin<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}11035675488,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}11035675488,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="479" alt="11035675488?profile=RESIZE_584x" /></a></p><p style="text-align:center;">The new self-powered thermoelectric generator device uses an ultra-broadband solar absorber (UBSA) to capture sunlight, which heats the generator. Simultaneously, another component called a planar radiative cooling emitter (RCE) cools part of the device by releasing heat. Credit: Haoyuan Cai, Jimei University</p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;">Topics: Alternate Energy, Battery, Chemistry, Energy, Materials Science, Thermodynamics</span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>Researchers have developed a new thermoelectric generator (<a href="https://physicsandnano.com/2023/04/24/teg/" target="_blank">TEG</a>) that can continuously generate electricity using heat from the sun and a radiative element that releases heat into the air. Because it works during the day or night and in cloudy conditions, the new self-powered TEG could provide a reliable power source for small electronic devices such as outdoor sensors.</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>"Traditional power sources like batteries are limited in capacity and require regular replacement or recharging, which can be inconvenient and unsustainable," said research team leader Jing Liu from Jimei University in China. "Our new TEG design could offer a sustainable and continuous energy solution for small devices, addressing the constraints of traditional power sources like batteries."</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>TEGs are solid-state devices that use temperature differences to generate electricity without moving parts. In the journal Optics Express, Liu and a multi-institutional team of researchers describe and demonstrate a new TEG that can simultaneously generate the heat and cold necessary to create a temperature difference large enough to generate electricity even when the sun isn't out. The passive power source is made of components that can easily be manufactured.</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>"The unique design of our self-powered <a href="https://techxplore.com/tags/thermoelectric+generator/">thermoelectric generator</a> allows it to work continuously, no matter the weather," said Liu. "With further development, our TEG has the potential to impact a wide range of applications, from remote sensors to wearable electronics, promoting a more sustainable and eco-friendly approach to powering our daily lives."</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><a href="https://techxplore-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/techxplore.com/news/2023-04-passive-device-generates-electricity-day.amp" target="_blank">New passive device continuously generates electricity during the day or night</a>, Optica/Tech Explore</span></span></p></div>Strange Metals II...https://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/profiles/blogs/strange-metals-ii2023-04-18T10:00:00.000Z2023-04-18T10:00:00.000ZReginald L. Goodwinhttps://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/members/ReginaldLGoodwin<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}11029472860,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}11029472860,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="642" alt="11029472860?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a></p><p style="text-align:center;">Credit: CC0 Public Domain</p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;">Topics: Applied Physics, Chemistry, Materials Science, Metamaterials, Quantum Mechanics</span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>The behavior of so-called "<a href="https://physicsandnano.com/2023/04/18/strange-metals-ii/" target="_blank">strange metals</a>" has long puzzled scientists—but a group of researchers at the University of Toronto may be one step closer to understanding these materials.</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>Electrons are discrete, subatomic particles that flow through wires like molecules of water flowing through a pipe. The flow is known as electricity, and it is harnessed to power and control everything from lightbulbs to the Large Hadron Collider.</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>In quantum matter, by contrast, electrons don't behave as they do in normal materials. They are much stronger, and the four fundamental properties of electrons—charge, spin, orbit, and lattice—become intertwined, resulting in complex states of matter.</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>"In quantum matter, electrons shed their particle-like character and exhibit strange collective behavior," says condensed matter physicist Arun Paramekanti, a professor in the U of T's Department of Physics in the Faculty of Arts & Science. "These materials are known as non-Fermi liquids, in which the simple rules break down."</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>Now, three researchers from the university's Department of Physics and Centre for Quantum Information & Quantum Control (CQIQC) have developed a theoretical model describing the interactions between subatomic particles in non-Fermi liquids. The framework expands on existing models and will help researchers understand the behavior of these "<a href="https://phys.org/tags/strange+metals/">strange metals</a>."</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>Their research was published in the journal <strong>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)</strong>. The lead author is physics Ph.D. student Andrew Hardy, with co-authors Paramekanti and post-doctoral researcher Arijit Haldar.</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>"We know that the flow of a complex fluid like blood through arteries is much harder to understand than water through pipes," says Paramekanti. "Similarly, the flow of electrons in non-Fermi liquids is much harder to study than that in simple metals."</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>Hardy adds, "What we've done is construct a model, a tool, to study non-Fermi liquid behavior. And specifically, to deal with what happens when there is symmetry breaking, when there is a phase transition into a new type of system."</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>"Symmetry breaking" is the term used to describe a fundamental process found in all of nature. Symmetry breaks when a system—whether a droplet of water or the entire universe—loses its symmetry and homogeneity and becomes more complex.</em></span></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><a href="https://phys-org.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/phys.org/news/2023-04-insight-enigmatic-realm-strange-metals.amp" target="_blank">Researchers develop new insight into the enigmatic realm of 'strange metals',</a> Chris Sasaki, University of Toronto, Phys.org</span></span></p></div>