Researchers fabricated artificial spin lattices that undergo a paramagnetic-to-antiferromagnetic phase transition. These artificial antiferromagnets enable studies of dynamical properties that are critical to understanding, and ultimately implementing, real-world applications such as advanced computing and data-storage technologies. Read more »
Battery Breakthrough Gives Boost to Electric Flight and Long-Range Electric Cars
While lithium metal extends an EV’s driving range, it also shortens the battery’s useful life due to lithium dendrites that can cause short circuits. Researchers report a new class of soft, solid electrolytes—made from both polymers and ceramics—that suppress dendrites, before they can propagate and cause the battery to fail. Read more »
Unexpected Rise in Ferroelectricity as Material Thins
Researchers showed that hafnium oxide surprisingly exhibits enhanced ferroelectricity (reversible electric polarization) as it gets thinner. The work shifts the focus of ferroelectric studies from more complex, problematic compounds to a simpler class of materials and opens the door to novel ultrasmall, energy-efficient electronics. Read more »
A Graphene Innovation That Is Music to Your Ears
A California-based company called GraphAudio is moving toward commercializing graphene-based audio technology developed by researchers at Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley. The technology could transform a variety of devices, including speakers, earbuds and headphones, microphones, autonomous vehicle sensors, and ultrasonic and echolocation systems. Read more »
Water Improves Material’s Ability to Capture CO2
With the help of the ALS, researchers from UC Berkeley and ExxonMobil fine-tuned a material to capture CO2 in the presence of water. The parties have applied for a patent on the material, which was developed for use on the relatively humid flue gases emitted by certain natural gas power plants, a cleaner-burning alternative to coal. Read more » 
Turning Up the Heat on Antibacterial-Resistant Diseases
Scientists have designed a biocompatible polymer that has the potential to advance photothermal therapy, a technique that deploys near-infrared light to combat antibacterial-resistant infections and cancer. The team synthesized the polymer by stringing together small molecules called ionic azaquinodimethanes, which they characterized at the ALS. Read more »
Freeze Frame: Scientists Capture Atomic-Scale Snapshots of Artificial Proteins
Protein-like molecules called polypeptoids have great promise as precision building blocks for creating a variety of designer nanomaterials. In this study, rsearchers used cryo-EM, a technique originally designed to image proteins in solution, as well as x-ray scattering techniques, to characterize the structure of polypeptide nanosheets. Read more »
The Beauty of Imperfections: Linking Atomic Defects to 2D Materials’ Electronic Properties
Two studies reveal surprising details on how some atomic defects emerge in transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), and how those defects shape the material’s electronic properties. The findings could provide a more platform for designing 2D materials for quantum information science and smaller, more powerful optoelectronics. Read more »
Go With the Flow: Scientists Design Better Batteries for a Renewable Energy Grid
Researchers developed a versatile yet affordable battery membrane—from a class of polymers known as AquaPIMs. This class of polymers makes long-lasting and low-cost grid batteries possible based solely on readily available materials such as zinc, iron, and water. Read more »
Multimodal Study of Ion-Conducting Membranes
Using multiple x-ray characterization tools, researchers showed how chemical and structural changes improve the performance of a novel ion-conducting polymer (ionomer) membrane from 3M Company. The work provides insight into factors impacting the proton conductivity of ionomers used for fuel cells and the production of hydrogen fuel. Read more »
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