Graphene holds significant promise as an ideal reinforcing phase. However, its tendency to irreversibly aggregate and its unclear impact on electrodeposition mechanisms have hindered the full exploitation of its advantages for enhancing material mechanical properties. In this study, we produced a graphene/Ni composite reinforced with reduced graphene oxide (rGO) via a simple, scalable, and cost-effective electrodeposition approach. The incorporation of graphene not only raised the cathodic polarization potential but also enhanced the transport of ions. As a result, the presence of rGO significantly influenced the grain size, grain distribution, and the proportion of growth twins-3(111). Compared with Ni, the graphene/Ni composite exhibited improvements of 14.8% in strength and 16.8% in fracture elongation.
Materials react differently to electric and magnetic fields, and these reactions are known as electromagnetic responses. In many solid materials, unusual electromagnetic responses have been known to only emerge when specific symmetries are broken.
Researchers at Rutgers University, Pohang University of Science and Technology, National Taiwan University and University of Michigan recently observed new electromagnetic effects in ferro-rotational materials, which they reported in a paper in Nature Physics. These are solid materials in which individual crystals collectively rotate, and form ordered rotational domains, without breaking spatial inversion (I) or time-reversal (T) symmetry.
“Twisting is ubiquitous in nature, appearing in DNA structures, climbing vines, and even in quartz crystals that exhibit piezoelectricity. Such twisting is typically three-dimensional and is described by chirality, characterized by left-or right-handedness,” Sang-Wook Cheong, senior author of the paper told Phys.org.
Table salt and refined sugar look white to our eyes, but that is only because their individual colorless crystals scatter visible light. This feature of crystals is not always desirable when it comes to materials for optical and electrical devices, however.
Metal-organic frameworks are one such material. Crystalline with micropores, thin films of these nanomaterials have been attracting attention as a next-generation material that could also have an impact on environmental issues such as hydrogen storage and carbon dioxide capture.
An Osaka Metropolitan University Graduate School of Engineering team has found a way to control the growth of crystals on such thin films so that light scattering is reduced significantly.
Scientists led by Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) investigators have made a significant advance in developing alternative materials for the high-speed memory chips that let computers access information quickly and that bypass the limitations of existing materials.
They have discovered a way that allows them to make sense of previously hard-to-read data stored in these alternative materials, known as antiferromagnets.
Researchers consider antiferromagnets to be attractive materials for making computer memory chips because they are potentially more energy efficient than traditional ones made of silicon. Memory chips made of antiferromagnets are not subject to the size and speed constraints nor corruption issues that are inherent to chips made with certain magnetic materials.
CU Boulder researchers have introduced a solution to improving the performance of large-scale desalination plants: stimulated Raman scattering (SRS).
Published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, the laser-based imaging method allows researchers to observe in real-time membrane fouling, a process where unwanted materials such as salts, minerals and microorganisms accumulate on filtration membranes.
Worldwide, 55% of people experience water scarcity at least one month a year, and that number is expected to climb to 66% by the end of the century.
An international team of researchers led by Lancaster University has discovered a highly efficient mechanism for shaking magnets using very short light pulses, shorter than a trillionth of a second. Their research is published in Physical Review Letters.
The discovery of new fundamental properties and phenomena in magnetic materials is essential for the development of faster and energy-efficient devices.
Using a very short electromagnetic pulse to shake the magnetization, researchers investigated its effect on the magnetization steering angle in two similar magnetic materials with different electronic orbitals. After shaking the magnet and subsequently analyzing its magnetic state, they found that interaction between orbital motion and spinning enables a 10-fold larger spin deflection by the light pulse than the one without such interactions.