IN FOCUS

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	FREE WEBINAR—Advanced Tomography Techniques for Biological, Organic and Inorganic Materials Wednesday, July 20  |  12:00 – 1:30 pm (ET) The presentations in this webinar will complement the articles in the July 2016 issue of MRS Bulletin, which provides an overview of some of these latest developments in analytical electron tomography. Attendance for this and all MRS OnDemand Webinars is FREE, but advance registration is required.

MATERIALS NEWS

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Materials in Focus

Research Highlights: Perovskites
	Research on perovskites has progressed rapidly, with solar-cell efficiencies now at 22%, five times higher than first cells reported in 2009. MRS Bulletin presents the impact of a selection of recent advances in this burgeoning field.
Nanocrystals embedded in nanoporous carbon increase energy-storage capacity
	Electrical energy-storage devices inherently face a difficult trade-off between energy and power densities. Although traditional Li-ion batteries store more energy than supercapacitors, they require long charge times and cannot instantaneously deliver it. An ultimate solution, therefore, may lie in a hybrid approach: why not design the anode to act as a battery and the cathode to act as a capacitor? A Georgia Institute of Technology research group recently brought to light this optimized asymmetric solution that takes the advantages of both charge storage mechanisms.
Ultrathin organic device displays information directly on skin
	The field of electronic skin (e-skin) has blossomed in recent years, with researchers demonstrating a range of practical healthcare applications for these wearable devices, ranging from detecting inflammation around wounds to reading the electrical activity of the brain. Various research groups are now working toward incorporating stretchable light-emitting diodes (LEDs) into their devices, which would allow users to read their vitals straight from their skin.
Hybrid photodetector combines graphene and quantum dots
	Combining a graphene phototransistor with a colloidal quantum dot photodiode creates a hybrid photodetector for visible, near-infrared, and short-wave infrared light with increased speed, sensitivity, and linear dynamic range.
Metastable dual-phase alloys improve strength and ductility
	The strength–ductility trade-off in metal alloys is a well-known phenomenon: increasing strength tends to decrease ductility and toughness and vice versa. This arises from the intrinsic nature of the interactions of dislocations with the surrounding microstructural elements. By reconsidering the typical aim of producing high-entropy alloys with single-phase solid-solution microstructures and introducing a second, metastable phase, researchers have now eliminated the high strength-high ductility trade-off.
Biomimetic, drug-carrying vesicles evade immune system to fight inflamed tissues
	In recent decades, researchers have increasingly sought to develop bioinspired drug delivery carriers or nanoparticles that can bring medicines directly to problematic cells, such as tumors and inflamed tissues. But the approaches thus far have had prominent drawbacks, such as a complicated synthesis process, lack of control, and an inability to “hide” from the immune system and filtering organs. Now researchers have developed biomimetic proteolipid (consisting of proteins and lipids) vesicles that can not only pass by the immune system undetected, but also target inflamed tissues to deliver anti-inflammatory drugs.
Implantable electrodes track faint heart signals
	Doctors make sure your heart is ticking steadily by taking an electrocardiogram, placing electrodes on your skin to measure your heart’s electric activity. Someday, though, we might be able to take such measurements more precisely from inside our bodies. A team of Japanese scientists has designed an amplifying device that can be implanted into the body to detect even faint cardiac signals—like an internal ECG.

Industry Focus

Three materials start-ups attract funding
Three materials start-ups have attracted funding to develop and scale up improved ingredients that may help solar, battery, and three-dimensional printing technologies reach the next level of performance.

Scientists devise new way to find an elusive element: Helium
Helium’s role in superconductivity and other applications has grown so much that there have been occasional shortages. Until now, it has been discovered only as a byproduct of oil and gas exploration, as the natural gas in some reservoirs contains a small but commercially valuable proportion of helium. But now scientists have figured out a way to explore specifically for helium. 

Firms claim biobased routes to ethyl acetate and glycols
Producers of consumer and industrial products will have new options for biobased intermediates—if scale-up efforts for ethyl acetate and glycols prove economical in today’s cheap fossil-fuel environment.


Policy Focus

Science minister says he’s watching out for post-Brexit “discrimination” against UK researchers
Shortly after the United Kingdom voted to exit the European Union, the country’s science minister says he is “vigilant” about discrimination against UK scientists in European research programs. But his words appear insufficient to quell scientists’ anxieties for the long term.

For more science policy news, follow @MaterialsSciPol


OF INTEREST TO THE MATERIALS COMMUNITY

Are rare earths part of a bright future for lighting and displays?
Are we running out of europium? This is the kind of question that generates blank looks. The slightest hint, however, that smartphones cannot be upgraded would generate an uproar. Europium belongs to the lanthanides group, which are part of the 17 rare-earth elements. Many of them face high risk for shortage in the near future, something that raises concerns over the future of high-tech applications.


MEETINGS UPDATE

Critical Meeting Deadlines

PUBLICATIONS UPDATE

News

Did you know? MRS Bulletin special issues are available to everyone for free online!

Critical Publications Deadlines

JUST PUBLISHED

	Advanced recording schemes for electron tomography
	Tim Dahmen, Patrick Trampert, Niels de Jonge, and Philipp Slusallek, MRS Bulletin
	Advanced tomography techniques for inorganic, organic, and biological materials
	James E. Evans and Heiner Friedrich, MRS Bulletin
	Analytical electron tomography
	Rowan K. Leary and Paul A. Midgley, MRS Bulletin
	Atomic resolution electron tomography
	Sara Bals, Bart Goris, Annick De Backer, Sandra Van Aert, and Gustaaf Van Tendeloo, MRS Bulletin
	Correlation of wear characteristics with hardness of recycled carbon fiber prepreg reinforced polypropylene composites
	Anisah Abd Latiff, Noraiham Mohamad, Abd Razak Jeefferie, Mohd Hayatunnufus Md Nasir, S. Siti Rahmah, Mazlin Aida Mahamood, Muhammad Ilman Hakimi Chua Abdullah and Hairul Effendy Ab Maulod, Journal of Materials Research
	Evaluation of Polishing-Induced Subsurface Damage of 4H-SiC (0001) by Cross-Sectional Electron Backscattered Diffraction and Synchrotron X-Ray Micro-Diffraction
	Koji Ashida, Daichi Dojima, Yasunori Kutsuma, Satoshi Torimi, Satoru Nogami, Yasuhiko Imai, Shigeru Kimura, Jun-ichiro Mizuki, Noboru Ohtani and Tadaaki Kaneko, MRS Advances
	Wear Mechanism of Coated and Uncoated Carbide Cutting Tool in Machining Process
	Jaharah A. Ghani, Che Hassan Che Haron, Mohd Shahir Kasim, Mohd Amri Sulaiman and Siti Haryani Tomadi, Journal of Materials Research

	Breakthrough Performance, Reliability and Robustness of SiC Junction Transistors
	Siddarth Sundaresan and Ranbir Singh, MRS Advances
	Bringing the social costs and benefits of electric energy from photovoltaics versus fossil fuels to light
	Carol Olson and Frank Lenzmann, MRS Energy & Sustainability
	Effect of the ligand in the crystal structure of zinc oxide: an x-ray powder diffraction, x-ray absorption near-edge structure, and an extended x-ray absorption fine structure study
	María de los A. Cepeda-Pérez, Cristina M. Reyes-Marte, Valerie Ann Carrasquillo, William A. Muñiz, Edgar J. Trujillo, Rahul Singhal, Harry Rivera and Mitk'El B. Santiago-Berríos, MRS Communications
	Empirical relation between Pauling electronegativity and self-energy cutoffs in local-density approximation-1/2 quasi-particle approach applied to the calculation of band gaps of binary compound semiconductors
	Mauro Ribeiro, MRS Communications
	The social and economic consequences of the fossil fuel supply chain
	Carol Olson and Frank Lenzmann, MRS Energy & Sustainability

Nano Focus

	Nanoscale tribology of graphene grown by chemical vapor deposition and transferred onto silicon oxide substrates
	Tuna Demirbaş and Mehmet Z. Baykara, Journal of Materials Research
	Ultrafast Laser Induced Subwavelength Periodic Surface Structures on Semiconductors/Metals and Application to SERS Studies
	V. Saikiran, Mudasir H Dar, R. Kuladeep and Narayana Rao Desai, MRS Advances

SCIENCE AS ART

Zinc Oxide Nanojewels Katherine E. Copenhaver, Georgia Institute of Technology Zinc oxide nanowalls electrodeposited on polished stainless steel electrode, imaged with SEM, color added in Adobe Photoshop. A Second Place Winner in the Science as Art competition at the 2016 MRS Spring Meeting. Copyright for all Science as Art images belongs to the Materials Research Society. To request permission to re-use the images, please contact Anita Miller.

EDITOR'S CHOICE VIDEO

NEW PRODUCTS FOCUS

World’s Smallest 9-Axis Motion Sensor
	Bosch Sensortec recently launched the BMX160, a compact 9-axis motion sensor that is ideally suited for a wide range of applications such as smartphones, smart watches, fitness trackers, smart jewelry—e.g., rings, necklaces—as well as Augmented/Virtual Reality devices. By combining Bosch Sensortec’s advanced accelerometer, gyroscope and geomagnetic sensor technologies, the BMX160 is able to meet the increasingly more stringent low-power requirements demanded by wearable devices. Bosch's low-power sensor technology makes this the standout 9­-axis inertial sensor on the market, reducing power consumption below 1.5 milliampere (mA). This sensor is ideally suited for applications that face extreme form factor restraints; e.g., in smart glasses. Contact: +49-7121-35-35900
Wide Angle Adapter for 3-Chip HD Lens
	Resolve Optics announced the Model 387 0.7x Wide Angle Adapter for optimized use with the Fujinon TF4XA-1 4mm HD lens for 3CCD cameras. The Model 387 provides a cost effective route to achieving a wide field-of-view for HD Broadcast applications with no loss of performance. The Model 387 converts the 4 mm focal length TF4XA-1 HD lens to a 2.8 mm focal length while maintaining its high definition 200 cycle performance across all the sensors of 1/3-inch 3-CCD or 3-CMOS cameras. In doing this the Model 387 usefully increases the horizontal field-of-view from 71 degrees to a minimum of 95 degrees. Contact: [email protected] or +44-1494-777100

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please contact Mary Kaufold at 724-779-2755.

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Materials360 is edited by Judy Meiksin, News Editor, and produced by Joe Yzquierdo, Electronic Communications Assistant, Materials Research Society.

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