https://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. A research team led by Seil Kim of the Korea Institute of Materials Science (KIMS) Energy & Environmental Materials Research Division has developed an Ag–PTFE composite plating technology that produces silver coatings with greater hardness and wear resistance than conventional silver plating by stably dispersing PTFE nanoparticles in a cyanide-free acidic silver plating bath. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-harder-longer-silver-plating.html Nanomaterials Tue, 14 Jul 2026 13:00:07 EDT news703245686 Scientists from the National Graphene Institute at the University of Manchester and Sun Yat-sen University have captured the growth of semiconducting tellurium nanostructures in liquid in real time, revealing how tiny seed particles form, grow into nanowires and compete for material as the structures develop. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-real-microscopy-reveals-semiconductor-nanowires.html Nanophysics Thu, 18 Jun 2026 11:00:15 EDT news700900801 A pioneering new test that can recover fingerprints from ammunition casing, once thought nearly impossible, has been developed by two Irish scientists. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-forensic-recovers-fingerprints-ammunition-casings.html Analytical Chemistry Tue, 30 Sep 2025 15:11:03 EDT news678463861 Metallic nanoparticles, consisting of a few to several thousand atoms or simple molecules, are attracting significant interest. Electrodes coated with layers of nanoparticles (nanolayers) are particularly useful in areas such as energy production, serving as catalysts. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-nanostructures-imaging-techniques-unveil-secrets.html Nanophysics Wed, 13 Nov 2024 11:11:05 EST news650718662 A multi-institutional team of chemists, metallurgists and engineers has developed a highly efficient way to retrieve silver from dead solar panels. Their paper is published in Environmental Technology & Innovation. https://phys.org/news/2024-08-recover-silver-dead-solar-panels.html Analytical Chemistry Wed, 28 Aug 2024 11:10:01 EDT news644060774 New research from Northwestern University has systematically proven that a mild zap of electricity can strengthen a marine coastline for generations—greatly reducing the threat of erosion in the face of climate change and rising sea levels. https://phys.org/news/2024-08-coastal-erosion-electricity.html Earth Sciences Thu, 22 Aug 2024 05:00:01 EDT news643470182 Coupling electrochemical conversion of the greenhouse gas CO2 with renewable electricity sources—such as solar and wind—promises green production of high-demand chemicals and transportation fuels. Carbon dioxide coupling products such as ethylene, ethanol and acetic acid are particularly useful as feedstocks for the chemical industry and powering vehicles. https://phys.org/news/2024-08-chemical-industries-boost-catalyst-coating.html Materials Science Thu, 01 Aug 2024 11:58:13 EDT news641732290 A research team led by Prof. Chen Changlun from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, together with collaborators, developed advanced cobalt-doped nickel hydroxide bipolar electrodes and non-noble metal catalysts, which significantly improved the efficiency and stability of two-step water electrolysis for hydrogen production. https://phys.org/news/2024-07-electrolysis-hydrogen-production.html Analytical Chemistry Mon, 08 Jul 2024 10:36:02 EDT news639653761 Nanostructured high entropy alloys—metals made from a chaotic mix of several different elements—show a lot of promise for use in industries such as aerospace and automotive because of their strength and stability at high temperatures compared with regular metals. https://phys.org/news/2024-05-commercially-viable-class-metals.html Nanomaterials Tue, 07 May 2024 15:06:57 EDT news634313214 Hydrogen (H2) is considered a possible alternative to fossil fuels, which are responsible for a large proportion of atmospheric emissions and global warming, but production costs must be lowered if it is to become a viable option. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-brazilian-scientists-material-hydrogen-production.html Analytical Chemistry Wed, 13 Mar 2024 11:58:03 EDT news629549881 Nanoscientists have developed a wearable textile that can convert body movement into useable electricity and even store that energy. The fabric potentially has a wide range of applications from medical monitoring to assisting athletes and their coaches in tracking their performance, as well as smart displays on clothing. https://phys.org/news/2023-06-wearable-textile-captures-energy-body.html Nanomaterials Mon, 05 Jun 2023 15:30:04 EDT news605197802 High-quality data transmission, high-precision information sensing, and high-sensitivity signal detection are important means to achieve precise perception and effective identification. High-performance chips, terahertz transmission T/R components, and extreme environment sensor manufacturing technologies have become key frontier research hotspots. Its effective implementation strongly depends on the ultra-precision micro-nano manufacturing level of the complex microstructure of core functional devices. As an excellent carrier for information-enabled core functional devices, pure copper metal has ultra-high electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity and high ductility, as well as low-loss signal transmission capabilities. Therefore, it has received extensive attention in the field of micro-nano manufacturing. https://phys.org/news/2022-07-advanced-pure-copper-3d-sub-micron.html Nanomaterials Wed, 27 Jul 2022 12:41:23 EDT news578144479 The boiling of water or other fluids is an energy-intensive step at the heart of a wide range of industrial processes, including most electricity generating plants, many chemical production systems, and even cooling systems for electronics. https://phys.org/news/2022-07-surfaces-efficiently.html Condensed Matter Tue, 12 Jul 2022 10:29:48 EDT news576840576 Flashing graphene into existence from waste was merely a good start. Now Rice University researchers are customizing it. https://phys.org/news/2022-03-graphene.html Nanomaterials Thu, 31 Mar 2022 12:22:14 EDT news567948116 Energy researchers from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) have reported progress using controlled architectural design and structural engineering as a method to fine-tune materials to have simultaneous high power and high energy density for electrochemical storage in portable devices. https://phys.org/news/2022-02-fine-tuning-materials-energy-storage.html Materials Science Thu, 24 Feb 2022 16:24:18 EST news564942255 Researchers from the University of Surrey's Advanced Technology Institute (ATI) and the University of São Paulo have developed a new analysis technique that will help scientists improve renewable energy storage by making better supercapacitors. https://phys.org/news/2021-11-hidden-behavior-supercapacitor-materials.html Materials Science Tue, 09 Nov 2021 10:56:49 EST news555677806 Despite breakthrough diabetes research over the past century, people with diabetes still need to rely on obtaining blood samples to monitor their sugar levels. Daily glucose monitoring by tracking blood sugar levels is essential for managing both types 1 and 2 diabetes, however the current method—finger pricking—is invasive and can become burdensome with how often it needs to be done. https://phys.org/news/2021-10-non-invasive-blood-sugar-methods-saliva.html Analytical Chemistry Thu, 14 Oct 2021 08:54:22 EDT news553420457 In a new report on Science Advances, Fenghui Duan and a research team in China detailed continuous strengthening in nanotwinned pure Nickel materials. The material recorded an unprecedented strength of 4.0 GPa at extremely fine twin thickness, 12 times stronger than that of conventional coarse-grained Nickel. Theories suggest diverse mechanisms of softening nanograined metals. Continuous strengthening can occur in nanotwinned metals with extremely fine twin thickness to realize ultrahigh strength. It is challenging to experimentally verify this hypothesis while regulating the synthesis of nanotwinned metals with a thickness below 10 nm. In this work, the team developed columnar grained nanotwinned nickel with twin thickness ranging from 2.9 to 81 nm, using direct current electrodeposition to show the process of continuous strengthening. Duan et al. used transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to reveal the attributes of strengthening and credited the outcomes to the fine-spaced architecture of the material. https://phys.org/news/2021-09-extremely-strong-nano-twinned-pure-nickel.html Nanophysics Wed, 01 Sep 2021 09:30:01 EDT news549704225 A research team led by Professor Guntae Kim in the School of Energy and Chemical Engineering at UNIST has announced a breakthrough in technology that efficiently converts liquid ammonia into hydrogen. Their findings have also attracted significant attention from academic research communities owing to its new analysis protocol, capable of finding optimal process environments. https://phys.org/news/2021-08-technique-seamlessly-ammonia-green-hydrogen.html Materials Science Thu, 12 Aug 2021 06:44:15 EDT news547969451 For decades, researchers around the world have searched for ways to use solar power to generate the key reaction for producing hydrogen as a clean energy source—splitting water molecules to form hydrogen and oxygen. However, such efforts have mostly failed because doing it well was too costly, and trying to do it at a low cost led to poor performance. https://phys.org/news/2021-07-hydrogen-hard-major-hurdle.html Materials Science Mon, 19 Jul 2021 13:22:55 EDT news545919768 During the COVID-19 pandemic, people have grown accustomed to wearing facemasks, but many coverings are fragile and not easily disinfected. Metal foams are durable, and their small pores and large surface areas suggest they could effectively filter out microbes. Now, researchers reporting in ACS' Nano Letters have transformed copper nanowires into metal foams that could be used in facemasks and air filtration systems. The foams filter efficiently, decontaminate easily for reuse and are recyclable. https://phys.org/news/2021-03-copper-foam-highly-efficient-durable.html Nanomaterials Wed, 24 Mar 2021 08:00:01 EDT news535788792 Ammonia is the second most commonly produced chemical in the world and an important component of most fertilizers, but current industrial processes to make ammonia produce several millions of tons of carbon dioxide-a potent greenhouse gas-each year. https://phys.org/news/2020-12-ammonia-smaller-carbon-footprint.html Materials Science Tue, 01 Dec 2020 10:28:02 EST news526040877 The online cover story of Science Advances this week features a conceptual gastrointestinal (GI) microdevice, developed by a research team for extended drug release. Drug delivery platforms for extended drug release have proven to be challenging to develop in bioengineering due to gastrointestinal (GI) tract movements and their resulting elimination from the body. In a new report, Arijit Ghosh and a team of interdisciplinary researchers in chemical and biomolecular engineering, gastroenterology and hepatology, materials science, drug discovery and neurology at the Johns Hopkins University in the U.S. reported new drug-loaded devices bioinspired by the grip mechanisms of parasitic roundworms known as hookworms. The parasites can linger in the small intestine for prolonged timeframes feeding on the blood of their host. https://phys.org/news/2020-11-gastrointestinal-resident-shape-changing-microdevices-drug-delivery.html Biochemistry Tue, 10 Nov 2020 09:30:02 EST news524215157 Detecting viable bacteria is important for various fields, from food safety to medical diagnosis. The existing techniques to conduct antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST)—testing that, for example, allows health care providers to prescribe the correct dose of antibiotics for a particular infection—are slow, require skilled personnel or utilize bulky and expensive instruments. A new electrochemical sensor developed by Penn State researchers now can make that process simpler, while being low-cost and portable, and can directly monitor viable bacteria in liquid samples such as blood or milk. https://phys.org/news/2020-11-bacterial-method-health-food-safety.html Analytical Chemistry Mon, 02 Nov 2020 09:51:33 EST news523533087 For the first time, researchers from Missouri S&T have shown that highly ordered copper thin films can be crystallized directly on a one-molecule-thick layer of organic material rather than on the inorganic substrates that have been used for years. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-amino-acids-high-performance-copper-thin.html Materials Science Wed, 30 Sep 2020 10:59:19 EDT news520682357 China expects to generate 2.5 billion end-of-life lithium-ion batteries from portable electronics such as smartphones and laptops in 2020, but very few are recycled. Although these batteries are discarded, the metals inside them are still valuable. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-materials-lithium-ion-batteries-recycled-reuse.html Materials Science Tue, 15 Sep 2020 09:10:01 EDT news519379545 Although true "cyborgs"—part human, part robotic beings—are science fiction, researchers are taking steps toward integrating electronics with the body. Such devices could monitor for tumor development or stand in for damaged tissues. But connecting electronics directly to human tissues in the body is a huge challenge. Now, a team is reporting new coatings for components that could help them more easily fit into this environment. https://phys.org/news/2020-08-cyborg-technology-enable-diagnostics-merger.html Polymers Mon, 17 Aug 2020 05:32:09 EDT news516861116 A supersensitive dopamine detector can help in the early diagnosis of several disorders that result in too much or too little dopamine, according to a group led by Penn State and including Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and universities in China and Japan. https://phys.org/news/2020-08-highly-sensitive-dopamine-detector-d.html Analytical Chemistry Fri, 07 Aug 2020 16:15:29 EDT news516035720 Easily produced, nature-like nanostructures of cobalt phosphide are highly effective catalysts for the electrolysis of water, according to research performed by chemist Ning Yan and his team at the University of Amsterdam's Van 't Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences together with co-workers from the School of Physics and Technology at Wuhan University, China. In a paper featured on the front cover of the Journal of Materials Chemistry A, they describe how relatively straightforward electrochemical deposition methods yield grass-, leaf-, and flower-like nanostructures that carry the promise of efficient hydrogen generation. https://phys.org/news/2020-07-harvesting-hydrogen-nanogardens.html Nanomaterials Fri, 03 Jul 2020 08:26:14 EDT news512983570 Many species have naturally evolved remarkable strategies to visually adapt to their environments for protection and predation. Researchers have studied adaptive camouflaging in the infrared (IR) spectrum, although the method is highly challenging to develop in the lab. In a new report now published on Science Advances, Mingyang Li and a research team at the National University of Defense Technology in China, developed adaptive thermal camouflage devices that bridged the optical and radiative properties of nanoscopic platinum (Pt) and silver (Ag) electro-deposited Pt films. The metal-based devices maintained large, uniform, and consistent IR tunabilities in the mid-wave IR (MWIR) and long-wave IR (LWIR) atmospheric transmission windows (ATWs). The team multiplexed and enlarged the devices, allowing flexibility for camouflaging capabilities. The technology is advantageous across a variety of camouflage platforms and in many thermal radiation management technologies. https://phys.org/news/2020-06-metals-camouflage.html Nanophysics Fri, 05 Jun 2020 10:50:01 EDT news510572768