Material Science News and Discussions

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LionGlass boasts 10x the strength of regular glass, greener production
By Michael Irving
July 03, 2023
https://newatlas.com/materials/lionglas ... s-greener/

Despite its many advantages, glass has one major Achilles' heel – it’s brittle. Now, engineers at Penn State have developed LionGlass, a new type of the material that’s not only 10 times more damage resistant, but requires significantly less energy to manufacture.

The most commonly used form of glass, which you’ll find in everything from windows to drinking glasses, is technically known as soda lime silicate glass. Manufacturing this common material requires furnaces that get up to 1,500 °C (2,732 °F), which of course consumes a lot of energy and releases a huge amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. On top of that, this glass is made from quartz sand, soda ash and limestone, the latter two of which release CO2 when melted.

Now, Penn State researchers have improved the recipe to make glass that’s more environmentally friendly to produce, while also being much stronger. The family of new glass compositions, which the team calls LionGlass, get their new powers by swapping the soda ash and limestone for either aluminium oxide or an iron compound. The silica content can vary from 40% to 90% by weight.

Better yet, some compositions of LionGlass were found to boast crack resistance that was at least 10 times higher than that of standard soda lime glass. The team tested samples under a Vickers diamond indenter, and found that the glass didn’t crack even under a force-load of 1 kg (2.2 lb) – by comparison, regular glass will start to crack under a load of just 0.1 kg (0.2 lb). And LionGlass’s crack resistance is likely even higher than that, but this was as high as the testing equipment could go.

“We kept increasing the weight on LionGlass until we reached the maximum load the equipment will allow,” said Nick Clark, a researcher on the project. “It simply wouldn’t crack.”

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Researchers reveal a powerful platform for studying high-entropy alloy electrocatalysis
https://phys.org/news/2023-07-reveal-po ... alloy.html
by Tohoku University

Introduced in 2004, high-entropy alloys (HEAs) are alloys composed of multiple principal elements in nearly equiatomic proportions. Their unique chemical composition results in a high degree of chemical disorder, i.e., entropy, and produces remarkable properties such as high strength, ductility, and strong wear-and-tear resistance even at high temperatures. Scientists have dedicated a significant amount of attention to developing novel HEAs to help improve the performance of various electrocatalyst materials.

Because they are made up of differing constituent elements, HEAs' atomic-level surface designs can be complex. But unraveling this complexity is crucial, since the surface properties of materials often dictate their catalytic activity. This is why researchers are seeking to understand the correlation between the atomic arrangement and the catalytic properties exhibited by HEAs.

Now, a collaborative research team has created a new experimental platform that enables the control of the atomic-level structure of HEAs' surfaces and the ability to test their catalytic properties. Their breakthrough was reported in the journal Nature Communications on July 26, 2023.

"In our study we made thin layers of an alloy called a Cantor alloy, which contains a mix of elements (Cr-Mn-Fe-Co-Ni), on platinum (Pt) substrates," explains Toshimasa Wadayama, co-author of the paper and a professor at Tohoku University's Graduate School of Environmental Studies. "This produced a model surface for studying a specific reaction called the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR).

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Putting starch into bio-based polymer makes bioplastics more compostable
https://phys.org/news/2023-08-starch-bi ... table.html
by Matt Davenport, Michigan State University

Researchers from Michigan State University's top-ranked School of Packaging have developed a way to make a promising, sustainable alternative to petroleum-based plastics more biodegradable.

A team led by Rafael Auras has made a bio-based polymer blend that's compostable in both home and industrial settings. The work is published in the journal ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering.

"In the U.S. and globally, there is a large issue with waste and especially plastic waste," said Auras, MSU professor and the Amcor Endowed Chair in Packaging Sustainability.

Less than 10% of plastic waste is recycled in the U.S. That means the bulk of plastic waste ends up as trash or litter, creating economic, environmental and even health concerns.

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Breakthrough polymer research promises to revolutionize recycling
https://phys.org/news/2023-08-breakthro ... cling.html
by Brian Smith, University of Florida

A team of researchers led by Brent Sumerlin, the George B. Butler Professor in the University of Florida Department of Chemistry, has made a breakthrough with the potential to transform how we recycle plastics. Their innovative approach to working with polymers has led them to develop a new method for recycling that promises to lower the energy requirement without sacrificing the quality of the plastic.

It's no secret that the U.S. and the Earth at large have a pressing plastic problem. Despite a meteoric rise in usage over the past few decades, only about 10% of our plastic currently ends up getting recycled.

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Researchers develop method for upcycling plastic waste into soap
https://phys.org/news/2023-08-method-up ... -soap.html
by Virginia Tech

A team led by Virginia Tech researchers has developed a new method for upcycling plastics into high-value chemicals known as surfactants, which are used to create soap, detergent, and more. The work was published in Science.

Plastics and soaps tend to have little in common when it comes to texture, appearance, and, most importantly, how they are used. But there is a surprising connection between the two on a molecular level: The chemical structure of polyethylene—one of the most commonly used plastics in the world today—is strikingly similar to that of a fatty acid, which is used as a chemical precursor to soap. Both materials are made of long carbon chains, but fatty acids have an extra group of atoms at the end of the chain.

Guoliang "Greg" Liu, associate professor of chemistry in the Virginia Tech College of Science, had long felt this similarity implied that it should be possible to convert polyethylene into fatty acids—and with a few additional steps to the process—to produce soap. The challenge was how to break a long polyethylene chain into many short—but not too short—chains and how to do it efficiently. Liu believed there was the potential for a new upcycling method that could take low-value plastic waste and turn it into a high-value, useful commodity.

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Chemists develop unique design for tough but stretchable gels
https://phys.org/news/2023-08-chemists- ... -gels.html
by Washington University in St. Louis

Chenfeng Ke, an incoming associate professor of chemistry in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, developed a unique design for tough but stretchable hydrogels, reported Aug. 23 in the journal Chem. The new material is both flexible and durable thanks to a ring-shaped sugar molecule that encases its polymer network and allows it to stretch without sacrificing strength.

Ke can 3D-print the so-called crystalline-domain reinforced slide-ring hydrogels, or CrysDoS-gels. He and his co-authors also created a materials library and offer methods for how the material can be added to existing materials to enhance their durability, such as in plastic additives to enhance the durability for parts in automobiles in the future.

"There are a series of tradeoffs with these traditional plastic materials—they're usually one or the other," stretchable or rigid, Ke said. "But if you connect two things with a slidable joint, you have very interesting properties of both."

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Developing novel conducting polymer-hydrogel interpenetrating networks for neural interfacing
https://phys.org/news/2023-09-polymer-h ... acing.html
by Li Yuan, Chinese Academy of Sciences

A research group led by Prof. Lu Yi from the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology (SIAT) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has proposed three-dimensional (3D) conductive polymer-hydrogel interpenetrating networks for high-performance chronic electrode/neural interfacing. The study was published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.

Long-term, reliable detection of electrophysiological signals is pivotal for comprehending mechanisms that underlie brain disorders and for advancing effective treatments. Nonetheless, maintaining stability and biocompatibility of neural electrode interface for necessary extended periods remains challenging.

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Striking rare gold: Researchers unveil new material infused with gold in an exotic chemical state

September 30, 2023

For the first time, Stanford researchers have found a way to create and stabilize an extremely rare form of gold that has lost two negatively charged electrons, denoted Au2+. The material stabilizing this elusive version of the valued element is a halide perovskite—a class of crystalline materials that holds great promise for various applications including more-efficient solar cells, light sources, and electronics components.

Surprisingly, the Au2+ perovskite is also quick and simple to make using off-the-shelf ingredients at room temperature.

https://phys.org/news/2023-09-rare-gold ... fused.html



Credit: Karunadasa et al. 2023.

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C-Crete hailed as a planet-friendly alternative to cement
By Ben Coxworth
October 13, 2023
https://newatlas.com/environment/c-cret ... ternative/

According to some estimates, the generation of the heat used to produce traditional portland cement is responsible for 5% to 8% of all human-made CO2 emissions. A new substance known as C-Crete, however, is claimed to be a much greener – yet still practical – alternative.

C-Crete is being developed by a California-based startup of the same name, which was founded by MIT Civil and Environmental Engineering grad Rouzbeh Savary.

Although the product's exact ingredients are a closely guarded trade secret for now, it is said to contain "patent-pending materials" that bind with unspecified mineral feedstocks and industrial byproducts which clients can obtain locally. Importantly, no heat is required in its production.

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New class of recyclable polymer materials could one day help reduce single-use plastic waste
https://phys.org/news/2023-10-class-rec ... s-day.html
by Katherine Harry and Emma Rettner, The Conversation

Hundreds of millions of tons of single-use plastic ends up in landfills every year, and even the small percentage of plastic that gets recycled can't last forever. But our group of materials scientists has developed a new method for creating and deconstructing polymers that could lead to more easily recycled plastics—ones that don't require you to carefully sort out all your recycling on trash day.

In the century since their conception, people have come to understand the enormous impacts—beneficial as well as detrimental—plastics have on human lives and the environment. As a group of polymer scientists dedicated to inventing sustainable solutions for real-world problems, we set out to tackle this issue by rethinking the way polymers are designed and making plastics with recyclability built right in.
Why use plastics, anyway?

Everyday items including milk jugs, grocery bags, takeout containers and even ropes are made from a class of polymers called polyolefins. Polyolefins make up around half of the plastics produced and disposed of every year.

These polymers are used in plastics commonly labeled as HDPE, LLDPE or PP, or by their recycling codes #2, #4 and #5, respectively. These plastics are incredibly durable because the chemical bonds that make them up are extremely stable. But in a world set up for single-use consumption, this is no longer a design feature but rather a design flaw.

Imagine if half of the plastics used today were recyclable by twice as many processes as they are now. While that wouldn't get the recycling rate to 100%, a jump from single digits—currently around 9%—to double digits would make a big dent in the plastics produced, the plastics accumulated in the environment and their capacity for recycling and reuse.

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https://www.threads.net/@cosmic.andrew1 ... ywJvLuRGKx

NASA’s Marshall Spaceflight Center recently tested a novel aluminum alloy 6061-RAM2 3D printed rocket nozzle. They ran it with both LH2/LOX and CH4/LOX to test its performance in high heat environments. Usually aluminum cracks under these conditions but this new alloy is promising for weight savings and ease of manufacturing.

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VPR: A stronger, stretchier, self-healing plastic
https://phys.org/news/2023-11-vpr-stron ... astic.html
by University of Tokyo

Researchers at the University of Tokyo have developed an innovative plastic that is stronger and stretchier than the current standard type. The plastic is also partially biodegradable, remembers its shape, and can be healed with heat. The researchers created it by adding the molecule polyrotaxane to an epoxy resin vitrimer, a type of plastic.

Named VPR, the material can hold its form and has strong internal chemical bonds at low temperatures. However, at temperatures above 150° Celsius, those bonds recombine and the material can be reformed into different shapes.

Applying heat and a solvent breaks VPR down into its raw components. Submerging it in seawater for 30 days also resulted in 25% biodegradation, with the polyrotaxane breaking down into a food source for marine life. This new material could have wide-reaching applications for a more circular economy to recirculate resources and reduce waste, from engineering and manufacturing, to medicine and sustainable fashion.

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A twist on atomic sheets to create new materials
https://phys.org/news/2023-11-atomic-sh ... rials.html
by Nathi Magubane, University of Pennsylvania

The way light interacts with naturally occurring materials is well-understood in physics and materials science. But in recent decades, researchers have fabricated metamaterials that interact with light in new ways that go beyond the physical limits imposed on naturally occurring materials.

A metamaterial is composed of arrays of "meta-atoms," which have been fabricated into desirable structures on the scale of about a hundred nanometers. The structure of arrays of meta-atoms facilitate precise light-matter interactions. However, the large size of meta-atoms relative to regular atoms, which are smaller than a nanometer, has limited the performance of metamaterials for practical applications.

Now, a collaborative research team led by Bo Zhen of the University of Pennsylvania has unveiled a new approach that directly engineers atomic structures of material by stacking the two-dimensional arrays in spiral formations to tap into novel light-matter interaction. This approach enables metamaterials to overcome the current technical limitations and paves the way for next-generation lasers, imaging, and quantum technologies. Their findings were published in the journal Nature Photonics.

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Team Uses DNA to Make Quasicrystals Out Of Nanoparticles
by Kate McAlpine
November 13, 2023
Introduction:

(Futurity) Nanoengineers have created a quasicrystal—a scientifically intriguing and technologically promising material structure—from nanoparticles using DNA, the molecule that encodes life.

The team reports the results in the journal Nature Materials.

Unlike ordinary crystals, which are defined by a repeating structure, the patterns in quasicrystals don’t repeat. Quasicrystals built from atoms can have exceptional properties—for example, absorbing heat and light differently, exhibiting unusual electronic properties such as conducting electricity without resistance, or their surfaces are very hard or very slippery.

Engineers studying nanoscale assembly often view nanoparticles as a kind of “designer atom,” which provides a new level of control over synthetic materials. One of the challenges is directing particles to assemble into desired structures with useful qualities, and in building this first DNA-assembled quasicrystal, the team entered a new frontier in nanomaterial design.

Somewhat squashed pentagonal bipyramids pack together on the left side of the image (see link below to view image), fading into a ball-and-stick model of the connections between neighboring particles. The model sketches out triangles and rhombuses without a consistent pattern, as each ball has five or six connections.

Read more here: https://www.futurity.org/quasicrystal- ... 97912-2/

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New technique can capture or reuse CO2 as a chemical source for the production of sustainable plastics
https://phys.org/news/2023-11-technique ... mical.html
by University de Liege

A team led by chemists at the University of Liège has developed a new polyurethane production technique using CO2 to create new types of easily recyclable plastics. The study, published in the Journal of the American Chemistry Society, could provide a solution for the development of truly sustainable plastics.

Commodity plastics have transformed global industry. Whether in construction, clothing, vehicles or food packaging, these plastics are everywhere in our daily lives, so much so that their global use has been estimated at around 460 million tons in 2019.

"This number is staggering, but not surprising, because plastics, also known as synthetic polymers, have met a large success thanks to their irreplaceable characteristics: they are light, cheap and incredibly versatile," explains Christophe Detrembleur, chemist at the Center for Education and Research on Macromolecules (CERM) of the University of Liège. "However, the fact that they are difficult to recycle, or even impossible to recycle in the case of thermosets, has serious consequences."

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Google DeepMind AI Predicts Millions of New Crystal Structures

Some 380,000 of them are believed to be stable enough to aid in developing new technology.

Using artificial intelligence to create new things is all the rage right now. Whether you want text, computer code, or images, there are uncountable generative AI models that can oblige. Google DeepMind announces that it has developed an AI model to generate something else: crystal structures. Its new Graph Networks for Materials Exploration (GNoME) system has successfully generated 2.2 million new crystalline materials, and the team thinks 380,000 of them are stable enough to be helpful in advanced technology.

https://www.extremetech.com/science/goo ... structures

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Google DeepMind AI Predicts Millions of New Crystal Structures

Some 380,000 of them are believed to be stable enough to aid in developing new technology.

Using artificial intelligence to create new things is all the rage right now. Whether you want text, computer code, or images, there are uncountable generative AI models that can oblige. Google DeepMind announces that it has developed an AI model to generate something else: crystal structures. Its new Graph Networks for Materials Exploration (GNoME) system has successfully generated 2.2 million new crystalline materials, and the team thinks 380,000 of them are stable enough to be helpful in advanced technology.

https://www.extremetech.com/science/goo ... structures

Here is an article that has a little bit more background on this: https://www.axios.com/2023/12/02/ai-rob ... -materials

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Low Temperature Liquid Metal Could Save 90% of Chemical Industry Energy

December 4, 2023 by Brian Wang
https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2023/12/l ... nergy.html

Chemical production using solid processes is energy intensive and causes over 10% of greenhouse emissions by requiring temperatures of up to a thousand degrees centigrade.
A new process instead uses liquid metals, in this case dissolving tin and nickel which gives them unique mobility, enabling them to migrate to the surface of liquid metals and react with input molecules such as canola oil. This results in the rotation, fragmentation, and reassembly of canola oil molecules into smaller organic chains, including propylene, a high-energy fuel crucial for many industries.

Reserarchers dissolved high melting point nickel and tin in a gallium based liquid metal with a melting point of only 30 degrees centigrade. Dissolving nickel in liquid gallium let them get access to liquid nickel at very low temperatures. This acts as a ‘super’ catalyst. In comparison solid nickel’s melting point is 1455 degrees centigrade. The same effect, to a lesser degree, is also experienced for tin metal in liquid gallium,” Dr Tang said.

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Cracked Piece of Metal Heals Itself in Experiment That Stuns Scientists
by Daivd Neld
December 4, 2023

Introduction:

(Science Alert) File this under 'That's not supposed to happen!': Scientists observed a metal healing itself, something never seen before. If this process can be fully understood and controlled, we could be at the start of a whole new era of engineering.

In a study published in July, a team from Sandia National Laboratories and Texas A&M University was testing the resilience of the metal, using a specialized transmission electron microscope technique to pull the ends of the metal 200 times every second.

They then observed the self-healing at ultra-small scales in a 40-nanometer-thick piece of platinum suspended in a vacuum.

Cracks caused by the kind of strain described above are known as fatigue damage: repeated stress and motion that causes microscopic breaks, eventually causing machines or structures to break.

Amazingly, after about 40 minutes of observation, the crack in the platinum started to fuse back together and mend itself before starting again in a different direction.

Read more here: https://www.sciencealert.com/cracked-p ... ientists

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Polyethylene waste could be a thing of the past
https://phys.org/news/2023-12-polyethylene.html
by University of Adelaide

An international team of experts undertaking fundamental research has developed a way of using polyethylene waste (PE) as a feedstock and converted it into valuable chemicals, via light-driven photocatalysis.

The University of Adelaide's Professor Shizhang Qiao, Chair of Nanotechnology, and Director, Center for Materials in Energy and Catalysis, at the School of Chemical Engineering, led the team that published their findings in the journal Science Advances.

"We have upcycled polyethylene plastic waste into ethylene and propionic acid with high selectivity using atomically dispersed metal catalysts," said Professor Qiao.

"An oxidation-coupled room-temperature photocatalysis method was used to convert the waste into valuable products with high selectivity. Nearly 99% of the liquid product is propionic acid, alleviating the problems associated with complex products that then require separation. Renewable solar energy was used rather than industrial processes that consume fossil fuel and emit greenhouse gases."