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IN FOCUS
Call for Papers! 2014 MRS Fall Meeting & Exhibit Abstract submission opens May 19.
Don’t miss the next event in the MRS OnDemand® Webinar Series! Presented by MRS Bulletin: Featuring talks by:
For more information on the MRS Webinar Series visit www.mrs.org/webinars. Call for Papers—Journal of Materials Research Focus Issue
Watch an MRS TV video about this JMR Focus Issue (and others) featuring Principal Editor Scott T. Misture and JMR Editor-in-Chief Gary Messing from the 2014 MRS Spring Meeting. Visit the JMR Focus Issues web page for more details. NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF MATERIALS Materials in Focus Hall-Petch Effect Yields Harder Transparent Spinel Ceramics Image caption: Microstructure of the new porous and fully dense transparent spinel ceramic, which Naval Research Laboratory researchers produced by sintering nanopowders in a pristine environment under very high pressures and low temperatures (compared with conventional sintering techniques). Image credit: Wollmershauser et al./Elsevier. Click image to enlarge.
Considered to be superior to glass and comparable to sapphire in mechanical performance, transparent spinel ceramics have a wide range of applications, from high-energy lasers to armor windows for vehicles, ships and aircraft. In the past, researchers have proposed that decreasing the average grain size of the ceramic could make the material harder and stronger (the Hall-Petch effect). But inherent processing difficulties have prevented this idea from becoming reality. Now, researchers with the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) have developed a new sintering technique to fabricate nanocrystalline spinel ceramic that's 50 percent harder and has grains that are an order of magnitude smaller than what has previously been demonstrated in the literature. More Read the abstract in Acta Materialia. Bio Focus New Mechanism Discovered for Gecko Adhesion Image caption: Using a new adhesive system material developed at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, an iPad hangs on a wall using the same mechanism as the gecko beside it. Researchers have discovered that the gecko's tendons play a major role in this process. Image credit: University of Massachusetts Amherst. Click image to enlarge.
Adhesives are not universal; what works best for one surface, such as glass, may not be ideal for another, such as brick. This is especially true for adhesives with peel-and-stick properties that are meant to be reusable. In order to create a sticky surface that could be applied anywhere and removed just as quickly, researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst looked to one of nature's most adept climbers, the gecko. The resulting material, Geckskin, utilizes analogs of the skin and tendon structure of the gecko to create a whole new line of adhesive materials. More Read the abstract in Advanced Materials. Nano Focus Graphene Not So Tough After All Image caption: An electron microscope image shows a pre-crack in a suspended sheet of graphene used to measure the overall strength of the sheet in a test at Rice University. Rice and Georgia Tech scientists performed experiments and theoretical calculations and found that graphene, largely touted for its superior physical strength, is only as strong as its weakest point. Image credit: The Nanomaterials, Nanomechanics and Nanodevices Lab/Rice University). Click image to enlarge.
Perfect graphene is the strongest material ever tested. Now researchers have been able to quantitatively measure the tendency of imperfect sheets of graphene to fracture under stress. Their results, published online last week, show a surprising brittleness that they believe people building devices from the material need to take into account. More Read the abstract in Nature Communications.
Industry Focus Since 2006, a small solar technology company, RavenBrick based in Denver, Colorado, has been working on various processes to help builders and architects respond to the energy challenges of the future with green building materials. The company manufactures smart windows which use thermochromatic filter technology to help regulate the temperature of a building by saving energy costs and reducing glare from sunlight. These windows automatically control the amount of light, heat and glare that passes through the glass by using a special set of filters made of liquid crystals that change phase depending on the amount of solar energy exerted on them. The use of these filters allows for the windows to smoothly transition from a clear state to a tinted state when the external conditions necessitate the need for this. More Image in Focus Electrochemically overgrown CuNi nanopillars. Credit: Josep Nogues, ICN2- Institut Catala de Nanociencia i Nanotecnologia. (Click image to enlarge.)
VIDEO: MRS TV interview with David Gene Morgan of Indiana University, Tutorial YY presenter on "Recognizing and Addressing 'Big Data' Problems." The biggest challenge, Morgan says, is learning how to process and take advantage of the huge amount of information being generated by ongoing research. Click the image to start the video. Critical Meeting Deadlines
MRS Communications
Prospective Article: Research Letters: Atomistic interpretation of the dynamic response of glasses Get your free Android App or iTunes App for MRS Communications for full mobile access to this journal.
Lithium Batteries and Beyond Guest Editors: Khalil Amine, Argonne National Laboratory; Ryoji Kanno, Tokyo Institute of Technology; and Yonhua Tzeng, National Cheng Kung University
This issue contains assessments of battery performance involving complex, interrelated physical and chemical processes between electrode materials and electrolytes. Transformational changes in battery technologies are critically needed to enable the effective use of renewable energy sources such as solar and wind to allow for the expansion of hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) to plug-in HEVs and pure-electric vehicles. For these applications, batteries must store more energy per unit volume and weight, and they must be capable of undergoing many thousands of charge-discharge cycles. The articles in this theme issue present details of several growing interest areas, including high-energy cathode and anode materials for rechargeable Li-ion batteries and challenges of Li metal as an anode material for Li batteries. They also address the recent progress in systems beyond Li ion, including Li-S and Li-air batteries, which represent possible next-generation batteries for electrical vehicles. One article reviews the recent understanding and new strategies and materials for rechargeable Mg batteries. The knowledge presented in these articles is anticipated to catalyze the design of new multifunctional materials that can be tailored to provide the optimal performance required for future electrical energy storage applications. Introduction Technical Feature
A selection of papers: Improving the performance of lithium–sulfur batteries using conductive polymer and micrometric sulfur powder Surface and grain boundary energies of tin dioxide at low and high temperatures and effects on densification behavior
Leica Microsystems recently launched the Leica DCM8 for non-destructive three-dimensional surface profiling. The instrument is a combined confocal and interferometric optical profiler and therefore provides the benefits of both technologies: high definition confocal microscopy for high lateral resolution and interferometry to reach sub-nanometer vertical resolution. Both techniques can be important for surface analysis of materials and components across numerous research and production environments. Surfaces that are made up of intricate structures with highly sloping areas demand lateral resolution of a few microns. In contrast to this, polished super-smooth surfaces with critical micro peaks and valleys require vertical analysis on the nanometer scale. With the Leica DCM8, users will be able to meet their specific surface metrology needs.
[To suggest items for inclusion in Industry News and New Products Focus, please contact Mary Kaufold at 724-779-2755] Materials360 is edited by Tim Palucka, Science News Editor, Materials Research Society.
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