Search results for lubricant films

General Physics Mar 7, 2024

Dancing droplets' new spin on water harvesting

A more efficient way to capture fresh water from the air could be inspired by a phenomenon of motion first glimpsed in bowls of breakfast cereal.

Polymers Jan 26, 2024

Bioinspired hydrogel pattern enhances atmospheric water harvesting via directional droplet steering

The water in the air originates from both natural and forced evaporation, with condensation being the final and crucial step in water harvesting. Condensation involves nucleation, growth, and shedding of water droplets, which ...

Nanophysics Jan 24, 2024

Combining two types of molecular boron nitride could create hybrid material for faster, more powerful electronics

In chemistry, structure is everything. Compounds with the same chemical formula can have different properties depending on the arrangement of the molecules they're made of. And compounds with a different chemical formula ...

Nanophysics Dec 7, 2023

Making extremely thin lubricating films predictable: Extension of the Reynolds equation by a non-linear wall slip law

When an electric vehicle accelerates, the motor generates maximum forces and enormous pressures act on the gears of the electric drivetrain. Surface meets surface, metal meets metal. If there were no lubricating film to allow ...

Analytical Chemistry Oct 23, 2023

Researchers develop new mechanism to create water-repellent surfaces

Researchers have developed a new mechanism to make water droplets slip off surfaces, and describe it in a paper published in Nature Chemistry. The discovery challenges existing ideas about friction between solid surfaces ...

Nanophysics Sep 27, 2023

Researchers dynamically tune friction in graphene

The friction on a graphene surface can be dynamically tuned using external electric fields, according to researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign led by Professor Rosa Espinosa-Marzal of the Department of ...

Environment Sep 21, 2023

Viewpoint: German police have long collaborated with energy giant RWE to enforce ecological catastrophe

In early 2023, the German village of Lützerath was the site of violent clashes between thousands of protesters and police who wanted to clear the village so it could be swallowed up by Garzweiler II, a huge opencast coal ...

Plants & Animals Sep 20, 2023

Unveiling the aquatic marvel: The rock-climbing fish and its adhesion-sliding feat

Underwater "traffic" encompasses a fascinating variety of creatures, from fish with their graceful swimming postures to jet-propelled jellyfish and remoras hitching rides on other organisms. Among these, a remarkable species ...

Materials Science Sep 10, 2023

Novel membrane could reduce energy expenditure in separating molecules for desalination, drug development

Separating molecules is critical to producing many essential products. For example, in petroleum refining, the hydrocarbons—chemical compounds composed of hydrogens and carbons—in crude oil are separated into gasoline, ...

Other Aug 14, 2023

New book describes how whaling shaped U.S. culture even after petroleum replaced it

The whaling industry helped drive industrialization in the 19th century, with whale oil used to light lamps and lubricate machinery. Even after petroleum replaced whale oil as an energy source in the U.S., whaling continued ...

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