Materials
[Due to the increasing size of the archives, each topic page now contains only the prior 365 days of content. Access to older stories is now solely through the Monthly Archive pages or the site search function.]
Argonne and Three Area Universities Form Illinois Center for Advanced Tribology
October 31, 2008
The US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory has teamed with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and Northwestern University to form the Illinois Center for Advanced Tribology (ICAT), which will develop solutions to technical issues related to transportation, health and systems that operate in extreme environments.
Tribology is the science and technology of friction, lubrication and interactive surfaces in relative motion that are evident in virtually everything that moves, including human beings.
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DOE Selects Projects To Advance Nanomanufacturing; Catalysts, Coatings and Oher Nanostructured Materials
October 19, 2008
The US Department of Energy (DOE) has selected 20 project proposals for funding following its Nanomanufacturing for Energy Efficiency 2008 Research Call. The projects promise to make revolutionary improvements in a broad range of catalysts, coatings and other nanostructured materials for use in energy production, storage, and consumption applications that will reduce energy and carbon intensity in industrial processes.
An important next step in realizing the promise of nanotechnology is to improve production and manufacturing techniques for nanomaterials and nano-enabled products, many of which are “stuck at the lab scale.” The selected projects will advance the state of nanomanufacturing by improving the reliability of nanomaterials production and scaling-up manufacturing processes that use nanomaterials.
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Mazda Develops Plastic Molding Technology Which Reduces Consumption of Plastic Resins by 30%
September 10, 2008
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| Elements of Mazda’s injection molding process. Click to enlarge. |
As part of its efforts to reduce vehicle weight, Mazda Motor Corporation has developed a new plastic molding technology that enables a substantial reduction in the weight of plastic parts used in vehicles. This plastic molding manufacturing technique cuts the consumption of plastic resins that are used as raw material by approximately 20 to 30%, with associated reductions in vehicle weight.
The most common manufacturing method for producing automobile plastic parts is injection molding. Mazda’s improved injection molding process involves mixing supercritical fluid (SCF), made from common inert gases such as nitrogen or carbon dioxide, with the plastic resin raw material.
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Lotus to Introduce Eco Elise Demonstrator at British Motor Show
July 09, 2008
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| The Eco Elise, with rooftop solar panels. Click to enlarge. |
Lotus will unveil its “Eco Elise” technology demonstrator at the upcoming British International Motor Show, 23 July - 3 Aug in London. Unlike some of Lotus’ other initiatives, this demonstrator focuses less on tailpipe CO2 and more on materials, manufacturing and design.
Renewable materials. Sustainable hemp technical fabrics have been used as the primary constituent in the composite body panels and spoiler. The hemp fibers have also been used in the manufacture of the lightweight Lotus designed seats. An additional benefit of using hemp is that it is a natural resource that requires relatively low energy to manufacture. The hemp material is used with a polyester resin to form a hybrid composite. Lotus hopes that a fully recyclable composite resin will be viable in the short-term future.
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Cornell Researchers Develop New Method for Self-Assembly of Metals Into Ordered, Porous Structures; Potential Benefit for Fuel Cells and Catalysts
June 28, 2008
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| Ligand-coated platinum nanoparticles (blue and gray balls) nestled amongst the block co-polymers (blue and green strands). The self-assembly of platinum nanoparticles through the use of ligands and polymers is the key first step to a new method for structuring metals developed by Cornell Researchers. Click to enlarge. Image courtesy of Scott Warren & Uli Wiesner, Cornell University |
Cornell University researchers have developed a method to self-assemble metals into complex configurations with ordered porous mesostructures with large and open pores by guiding metal particles into the desired form using soft polymers.
Applications that can exploit the ability to control the structure of metals at the mesoscale (2 to 50 nm) include making more efficient and less expensive catalysts for fuel cells and industrial processes, and creating plasmonic surface structures capable of carrying more information across microchips than conventional wires do. The researchers report on their work in the 27 June issue of the journal Science.
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SRNL Develops New Permeable Microspheres; Potential for Hydrogen Storage
June 06, 2008
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| SRNL researchers removed the top of a glass microsphere to show how palladium has easily passed through the sphere’s pores and assembled itself into a new nanostructure. Click to enlarge. Credit: Savannah River National Lab, American Ceramic Society |
Researchers at the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) have developed a novel material called Porous Wall-Hollow Glass Microspheres (PW-HGM)—tiny glass microballoons 2-100 microns in diameter. The distinguishing characteristic of the microspheres is the interconnected porosity of their thin outer walls that can be produced and varied on a scale of 100 Å to 3,000 Å.
SRNL Researchers G.G. Wicks, L.K. Heung, and R.F. Schumacher have been able to use these open channels to fill the microballoons with gas absorbents and other materials. Hydrogen or other reactive gases can then enter the microspheres through the pores, creating a relatively safe, contained, solid-state storage system. As part of a program with Toyota, SRNL is investigating filling these microspheres with other special hydrogen absorbents to develop safe hydrogen-gas storage systems for vehicles.
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Researchers Use Electrospinning to Produce POM Mats 10x More Stretchable Than Original Material
June 02, 2008
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| FESEM micrograph of the electrospun POM fibers. Click to enlarge. Courtesy of the American Chemical Society |
Researchers at Tsinghua University in China reported the first successful electrospinning of polyoxymethylene (POM)—a type of plastic widely used in automobiles and electronics due to its properties such as good strength, stiffness, abrasion, and chemical resistance.
The process, which uses an electric charge to turn polymers into thin fibers in the presence of electricity, produced plastic mats that show very high elongation about 10 times that of the original bulk tensile bar and could lead to new uses for the plastic, they say. The study is scheduled for publication in the 10 June issue of the ACS journal Macromolecules.
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UK Technology Strategy Board (TSB) to Award $45M to 16 Low-Carbon Vehicle Projects
May 08, 2008
The UK’s Technology Strategy Board has selected 16 projects to receive £23 million (US$45 million) in government investment through the Low Carbon Vehicles Innovation Platform. (Earlier post.) Including investments by the companies involved, the total value of the development projects will be £52 million (US$102 million).
The sixteen new research, development and demonstration projects represent the first investment by the Low Carbon Vehicles Innovation Platform since it was established in the autumn of 2007, and follows an open competition launched in September. The government investment is equally provided by the Technology Strategy Board and the Department for Transport.
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Ford Developing Thermally Sprayed Nano-Coating for Cylinders to Reduce Friction, Support Lighterweight Construction
April 17, 2008
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| Honed cylinder coating made from one of the materials (SUNA) under test. Click to enlarge. |
Ford Research Centre Aachen (Germany) is developing a thermally sprayed nano-coating using a Plasma Transferred Wire Arc (PTWA) process that could replace the heavier cast iron liners that provide the necessary wear resistance of cylinder bores in aluminum block engines.
Presented in a paper at the SAE 2008 World Congress by Dr. Clemens Verpoort of the Aachen center, the thin, wear-resistant coating reduces weight and improves friction performance while delivering equal durability and reliability to the product.
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Researchers Refine Aluminum Alloy to Enable Economically Viable, Large-Scale, On-Demand Hydrogen Production
February 19, 2008
Researchers at Purdue University have further refined their aluminum-gallium alloy used in a hydrogen production process (earlier post) that they say is now economically competitive with conventional fuels for transportation and power generation.
The new alloy contains 95% aluminum and 5% of an alloy that is made of the metals gallium, indium and tin. Its predecessor in the research contained 80% aluminum and 20% gallium. Because the new alloy contains significantly less of the more expensive gallium than previous forms of the alloy, hydrogen can be produced less expensively, according to Jerry Woodall, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Purdue, who invented the process.
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ZIFs: New Framework Materials for the Capture and Storage of CO2
February 15, 2008
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| A ZIF structure. Click to enlarge. |
Researchers led by Omar Yaghi at UCLA have developed a new class of materials—zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs)—that exhibit “unusual” selectivity for capturing carbon dioxide from gas mixtures and “extraordinary” capacity for storing CO2. The work is reported in the 15 February issue of the journal Science.
The researchers synthesized 25 ZIF crystal structures and found that three of them (ZIF-68, ZIF-69, ZIF-70) exhibited selectivity for capturing carbon dioxide from gas mixtures. One liter of ZIF-69 can hold approximately 83 liters of CO2 at 273 kelvin (-0.15°C) under ambient pressure.
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Researchers Develop New Hybrid Membrane With High Hydrothermal Stability; Potential Energy-Efficient Replacement for Distillation Techniques in Biofuel Production
February 07, 2008
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| The cylinder is the carrier of a hybrid membrane: a layer of about 100 nanometer thickness. The insert is a close-up of the layer showing the organic links and pores. From the left of the tube, only water molecules leave the sieve. Click to enlarge. |
Researchers at the University of Twente in The Netherlands have developed a new hybrid organic–inorganic nanosieve membrane with high hydrothermal stability that enables energy-efficient molecular separations, including dehydration up to at least 150° C, even after long periods of continuous exposure to water.
The hybrid membranes are suitable for dehydrating solvents and biofuels, an application for which there is a large potential market worldwide. The main advantage of membrane technology is that it consumes far less energy than common distillation techniques. The scientists also foresee opportunities in separating hydrogen gas from gas mixtures and also in water desalinization applications.
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Researchers Develop Magnetic Shape-Memory Metal Foam; Potential for Weight Reduction in Automotive and Aerospace Applications
January 01, 2008
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| The porous nature of nickel-manganese-gallium alloy gives it shape-memory properties. Click to enlarge. Credit: P. Müllner, M. Chmielus and S. Donovan, Boise State University, and D. Dunand and Y. Boonyongmaneerat, Northwestern University. |
Two research teams headed by Peter Müllner at Boise State University and David Dunand at Northwestern University, both funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), have developed a new class of materials known as magnetic shape-memory foams.
The foam consists of a nickel-manganese-gallium alloy whose structure resembles a piece of Swiss cheese with small voids of space between thin, curvy struts of material. The struts have a bamboo-like grain structure that can lengthen, or strain, up to 10% when a magnetic field is applied.
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Catalyst-Free Chemistry Material System Offers Cost-Effective Repair for Composite Materials
November 28, 2007
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| The catalyst-free system uses microcapsules containing chlorobenzene to repair cracks in composite materials. Click to enlarge. |
A new catalyst-free, self-healing material system developed by researchers at the University of Illinois offers a less expensive and more practical way to repair composite materials used in structural applications ranging from airplane fuselages to wind-farm propeller blades.
The new self-healing system incorporates chlorobenzene microcapsules, as small as 150 microns in diameter, as an active solvent. The expensive, ruthenium-based Grubbs’ catalyst, which was required in the researchers’ first approach, is no longer needed.
