Since most foam materials are made of petrochemical plastics, they aren't very climate-friendly. But now an alternative is in sight—a novel foam material produced entirely from wood, which is not harmful to the environment ...
Materials Science
Apr 29, 2015
7
39
Phase transitions have long been of crucial importance to scientific research. The change from water to ice or steam is a simple example. A phase transition important to pioneering research today is that from metal to insulator ...
Condensed Matter
Dec 19, 2019
0
989
(PhysOrg.com) -- Working together, Matthieu Gaudet and Steve Arscott from the University of Lille (IEMN lab) in France have built a circuit using a phenomenon known as photoelectrowetting, which allows a switch to be turned ...
New research conducted by Princeton University physicists is delving with high resolution into the complex and fascinating world of topological quantum matter—a branch of physics that studies the inherent quantum properties ...
Quantum Physics
Nov 17, 2022
0
452
Rice University researchers have found a way to stitch graphene and hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) into a two-dimensional quilt that offers new paths of exploration for materials scientists.
Nanomaterials
Mar 1, 2010
1
0
A major limitation in the performance of solar cells happens within the photovoltaic material itself: When photons strike the molecules of a solar cell, they transfer their energy, producing quasi-particles called excitons—an ...
Condensed Matter
Sep 21, 2014
2
0
Smart materials are revolutionizing solar thermal collectors. A team of researchers from EPFL has developed a coating that is capable of absorbing heat as well as repelling it. Invisible to the naked eye, this process particularly ...
Energy & Green Tech
Jul 3, 2015
0
642
MIT scientists have synthesized, for the first time, a crystal they believe to be a two-dimensional quantum spin liquid: a solid material whose atomic spins continue to have motion, even at absolute zero temperature.
Superconductivity
Mar 29, 2011
0
2
Researchers from Brown University have shown experimentally how a unique form of magnetism arises in an odd class of materials called Mott insulators. The findings are a step toward a better understanding the quantum states ...
General Physics
Feb 9, 2017
2
1099
Certain materials, like copper, conduct electricity very well. Other materials, like glass, do not. A certain kind of material, called a topological insulator, acts partially like one and partially like the other ― it ...
Quantum Physics
Sep 10, 2019
0
368
