Aluminum Foam from Scrap

Aluminum From Scrap_can

A group of scientists show a low cost route to manufacture high quality aluminum foam.

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Zinc could be a “golden” bullet for bioabsorbable stents

This series of scanning electron microscope images illustrates the corrosion of zinc wire implanted in rats' arteries at 1.5 months, 3 months, 4.5 months and 6 months. The wires degraded at a rate just below 0.2 millimeters per year -- the "magic" value for bioabsorbable stents -- for the first three months. After that, the corrosion accelerated, so the implant would not remain in the artery for too long. Image: Patrick Bowen.

Some materials dissolve too quickly in the body, and some hang around forever — zinc, however, may be just right.

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Metallic nanostructures control light to a new level

Researchers at King’s College London have achieved previously unseen levels of control over the travelling direction of electromagnetic waves in waveguides.

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2D nanocrystals developed for future computing applications

Researchers are developing a new type of semiconductor technology, pictured here, for future computers and electronics based on "two-dimensional nanocrystals." The material is layered in sheets less than a nanometer thick that could replace today's silicon transistors. Image: Birck Nanotechnology Center, Purdue University.

Technology is based on metal di-chalogenides, which are emerging as potential candidates to replace current CMOS materials.

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Shaping catalytic nanoparticles through surface diffusion

surface-diffusion-nanocatalysts

Controlling the shapes of catalytic nanoparticles made from noble metals such as platinum and palladium may be more complicated than previously thought.

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Increasing SERS enhancement in patterned nanoparticle arrays

dense-metal-nanostructured-arrays

How to improve efficient focusing of light on the nanoscale by using lithographically patterned metal nanoparticle arrays.

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Study reveals extraordinary glass properties

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Chicago have found new ways to produce ultrastable glasses, kin to the amber pictured here. Such glasses, which can now be created in the lab of UW-Madison chemistry Professor Mark Ediger using vapor deposition methods, have qualities that could be used to produce new classes of technologically vauable materials.

Computational and laboratory studies have confirmed that technologically valuable ultrastable glasses can be produced in days or hours.

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Battery or Bracelet? Cable-Type Flexible Lithium-Ion Batteries

cable-type flexible lithium-ion battery

An exceptionally flexible prototype cable-type battery can be used in a variety of shapes towards portable, wearable, and flexible electronics.

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Composite Materials: Reinforcing Metal with Ceramics

Reinforcing Metal with Ceramic

Combining a ductile metal matrix with brittle ceramic additions leads to new composite materials with superior mechanical properties, which appears to be ideal for structural and crash-absorption applications.

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Rolling Titanium into Scrolls: New Microstructures for Medical Implants

Microporous titanium rolled into scrolls

A group of researchers examined a new method for creating 3D micro-architectured Ti structures and found an attractive combination of stiffness, strength, and ductility.

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