#nature materials

[knotty-et-al]

Kagome weave with dandelion stems - interplay of the fragile and the robust

So, yesterday I plucked some dandelion stems and wanted to tinker something with it. My first attempts with these fresh dandelion stems included different kinds of braids: The material is too fragile to handle such heavy twists. Hence I decided to try the kagome pattern, as the curving/bending/twisting of the kagome pattern is very light and does cause few stress on the material. Additionally, as I wove I realized again the advantage of this pattern: While it is also simple and elegant in its simplicity, it has practical aspects as well, as it gets its stability from the whole it forms. Each stem alone is not responsible for the stability of the woven piece.

But as network of entangled members supporting each other, the kagome weave stands out with its rather robust kind, despite being built up by rather fragile members.

[materialsworld]

New technology for better lithium battery life

Read more news and analysis from Materials World on the IOM3 website, here: https://www.iom3.org/materials-world-magazine

Credit: DONGHAI WANG 

By Idha Valeur 

A new solid-electrolyte interphase could improve the life, performance and safety of lithium batteries, researchers from Pennsylvania State, USA, say.

The need for a better preforming battery is increasing, with the worlds demand for better performing batteries for use in cars, phones and drones, the stability of the solid-electrolyte interphase has been a hindrance for the development. This is due to a layer of salt on the battery’s lithium electrode surface, which insulates it and administers lithium ions.

Pennsylvania State University professor of mechanical and chemical engineering Donghai Wang said in a press release, ‘This layer is very important and is naturally formed by the reaction between the lithium and the electrolyte in the battery. But it doesn't behave very well, which causes a lot of problems.’ Due to the formation of dendrites – branch-looking formations growing from the battery’s lithium electrode – the performance and safety of the battery is reduced. According to Wang, this is the reason behind the limited lifetime of lithium metal batteries.

‘In this project, we used a polymer composite to create a much better SEI,’ said Wang.

The new developed SEI is a reactive polymer composite comprise of thin layers of polymeric lithium salt, lithium fluoride nanoparticles and graphene oxide sheets.

Using this new reactive polymer will also reduce the weight and cost to produce it, which will also aid the future of lithium metal batteries.

‘With a more stable SEI, it’s possible to double the energy density of current batteries, while making them last longer and be safer,’ according to Wang.

The study, Polymer-inorganic solid-electrolyte interphase for stable lithium metal batteries under lean electrolyte conditions was published in Nature Materials.

Read more news and analysis from Materials World on the IOM3 website, here: https://www.iom3.org/materials-world-magazine

[greenfue]

ثورة في خلايا الوقود.. انخفاض درجة الحرارة يحول الطاقة الهيدروجينية إلى خيار عملي

ثورة في خلايا الوقود.. انخفاض درجة الحرارة يحول الطاقة الهيدروجينية إلى خيار عملي

[scitechman]

Some Superconductors Can Also Carry Currents of ‘Spin’

Some Superconductors Can Also Carry Currents of ‘Spin’

Spin is a particle’s intrinsic angular momentum, and is normally carried in non-superconducting, non-magnetic materials by individual electrons. Spin can be ‘up’ or ‘down’, and for any given material, there is a maximum length that spin can be carried. In a conventional superconductor electrons with opposite spins are paired together so that a flow of electrons carries zero spin.

A few years ago,

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[scitechman]

Method to Grow Large Single-Crystal Graphene Could Advance Scalable 2D Materials

Method to Grow Large Single-Crystal Graphene Could Advance Scalable 2D Materials

A new method to produce large, monolayer single-crystal-like graphene films more than a foot long relies on harnessing a “survival of the fittest” competition among crystals. The novel technique, developed by a team led by the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, may open new opportunities for growing the high-quality two-dimensional materialsnecessary for long-awaited practical…

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[scitechman]

Engineers Design Artificial Synapse for “Brain-On-A-Chip” Hardware

When it comes to processing power, the human brain just can’t be beat.

Packed within the squishy, football-sized organ are somewhere around 100 billion neurons. At any given moment, a single neuron can relay instructions to thousands of other neuronsvia synapses — the spaces between neurons, across which neurotransmitters are exchanged. There are more than 100 trillion synapses that mediate…

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[findinspirationeverywhere]

[effemerideitalia]

Le infinite sorprese dei ragni: tessono un materiale fononico unico. Può gestire suoni e calore

Le infinite sorprese dei ragni: tessono un materiale fononico unico. Può gestire suoni e calore

Una rivoluzionaria ricerca internazionale apre la strada alla realizzazione di nuovi materiali

La seta di ragno è forte come l’acciaio ed elastica come gomma, ha ispirato molti materiali sintetici come il kevlar e nylon e gli scienziati continuano a scoprire una miriade di suoi possibili utilizzi. Ora  nuove scoperte sulle proprietà delle ragnatele  potrebbero ispirare nuovi materiali per gestire…

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