The glass bottles we toss in the recycling bin don’t always end up where we expect. Only about 33% of glass is recycled in the United States,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/glass-material-specific-data#:~:text=EPA%20combined%20data%20from%20the,recycling%20rate%20of%2031.3%20percent." target="_blank">according to the Environmental Protection Agency</a>, partly due to expenses like sorting bottles by color. Penn State scientists recently found that mass-produced soda-lime silicate glass from post-consumer bottles of different colors can be safely melted together in the recycling process, which could potentially lead to more bottles being recycled.The team reported their findings in the&nbsp;<a href="https://ceramics.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ces2.10217" target="_blank">International Journal of Ceramic Engineering and Science</a>.“This work broadly addresses a widespread misconception that different colored glass bottles can’t all be recycled together,” said Katy Gerace, who conducted the research as a doctoral student in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Penn State. She graduated in 2023. “We have confirmed that you can melt all these post-consumer glass bottles together to create new, useful glass products.”Soda-lime silicate bottles, the most recycled type of glass, are turned into cullet — glass that has been crushed into small pieces, or grains – before being remelted. Cullet is most often sorted by color so that manufacturers can achieve specific color and clarity for their products. And the availability of pristine, color-sorted glass cullet limits how much recycled material is used in the manufacturing process, the researchers said.Small-scale manufacturers who are focused on recycling, and not on achieving a specific color bottle could utilize mixed-color cullet, keeping more glass bottles out of landfills and reducing energy costs associated with manufacturing glass, the scientists said.<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CwEixn1u7v8?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https://www.wevolver.com" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable" data-gtm-yt-inspected-23="true" data-lf-form-tracking-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-yt-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-vimeo-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true"></iframe>Katy Gerace, graduate student, in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, shares her research in enabling improved glass recycling technology and modeling tools.&nbsp;Remelting glass cullet requires less energy than raw materials, which translates into less carbon dioxide produced during the melting process. For a 10% increase in recycled content, the scientists said, there is a 3% reduction in energy consumption.“We are exploring how to add value to waste,” said Gerace, who is now a research and development senior engineer at Vitro Architectural Glass. “We are trying to think of this not as waste but as something that potentially could have value.”The work stems from&nbsp;<a href="https://www.psu.edu/news/earth-and-mineral-sciences/story/grant-manufacturing-pa-initiative-improve-glass-recycling/" target="_blank">a partnership between Penn State and Remark Glass</a>, a Philadelphia-based company focused on innovative and creative glass recycling.“As a small business, they are really interested in trying to remove glass from the waste stream and keep it out of landfills,” said John Mauro, the Dorothy Pate Enright Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Penn State and co-author of the study. “They use only post-consumer glass bottles and so they are very interested in understanding the chemical and material properties of the raw materials that come into their business. They wanted to know if there were any technical reasons for them to be concerned about what they’re doing.”Remark provided glass bottles for the study, and Gerace analyzed the samples for chemical composition and thermal properties to quantify variation across five major color families: clear, blue, amber, forest green and emerald green.In addition to demonstrating that post-consumer bottles of different colors and brands can be remelted without risk of material incompatibility, the researchers also presented various processing methods to control color homogeneity in glass produced exclusively from mixed color cullet from recycled glass bottles.Gerace said the particle size of the cullet and the temperature and time of the remelting process have the biggest impacts on color homogeneity.“You have to keep the glass melted for all the different ions to diffuse and move around to create a consistent color,” she said. “So, you can either really extend the time of the melt and hold it at a high temperature for a long time to wait for everything to kind of equilibrate or you can decrease the particle size of the cullet into more of like a fine powder. Then it becomes a little easier to get a nice consistent color.”This means, for example, that various shades of green bottles could be crushed into cullet and melted to produce a homogenous green glass. However, if a specific shade of green is required, then the bottles would be further separated.“Glass is one of the best materials to recycle, but when you actually go look at the process for how it’s done, it’s very non-trivial,” Gerace said. “And unfortunately, we lose a lot of what we put in our recycling bins to the landfill simply because we don’t have a good way of separating and sorting it. And that’s really unfortunate.”

Used glass bottles are crushed into small pieces called cullet before being remelted and remade. A new study found glass from post-consumer bottles of different colors can be safely melted together in the recycling process, which could potentially lead to more bottles being recycled Credit: Provided by Katy Gerace. All Rights Reserved.

Penn State scientists recently found that mass-produced soda-lime silicate glass from post-consumer bottles of different colors can be safely melted together in the recycling process, which could potentially lead to more bottles being recycled.

Message in a bottle: Combining mixed-color glass an option to boost recycling

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Connecting the Future: Bridging the Digital Divide in Intelligent Cities and Underserved Regions

Researchers have created a new class of materials called “glassy gels” that are very hard and difficult to break despite containing more than 50% liquid. Coupled with the fact that glassy gels are simple to produce, the material holds promise for a variety of applications.Gels and glassy polymers are classes of materials that have historically been viewed as distinct from one another. Glassy polymers are hard, stiff and often brittle. They’re used to make things like water bottles or airplane windows. Gels – such as contact lenses – contain liquid and are soft and stretchy.“We’ve created a class of materials that we’ve termed glassy gels, which are as hard as glassy polymers, but – if you apply enough force – can stretch up to five times their original length, rather than breaking,” says Michael Dickey, corresponding author of a paper on the work and the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at North Carolina State University. “What’s more, once the material has been stretched, you can get it to return to its original shape by applying heat. In addition, the surface of the glassy gels is highly adhesive, which is unusual for hard materials.”“A key thing that distinguishes glassy gels is that they are more than 50% liquid, which makes them more efficient conductors of electricity than common plastics that have comparable physical characteristics,” says Meixiang Wang, co-lead author of the paper and a postdoctoral researcher at NC&nbsp;State.“Considering the number of unique properties they possess, we’re optimistic that these materials will be useful,” Wang says.Glassy gels, as the name suggests, are effectively a material that combines some of the most attractive properties of both glassy polymers and gels. To make them, the researchers start with the liquid precursors of glassy polymers and mix them with an ionic liquid. This combined liquid is poured into a mold and exposed to ultraviolet light, which “cures” the material. The mold is then removed, leaving behind the glassy gel.“The ionic liquid is a solvent, like water, but is made entirely of ions,” says Dickey. “Normally when you add a solvent to a polymer, the solvent pushes apart the polymer chains, making the polymer soft and stretchable. That’s why a wet contact lens is pliable, and a dry contact lens isn’t. In glassy gels, the solvent pushes the molecular chains in the polymer apart, which allows it to be stretchable like a gel. However, the ions in the solvent are strongly attracted to the polymer, which prevents the polymer chains from moving. The inability of chains to move is what makes it glassy. The end result is that the material is hard due to the attractive forces, but is still capable of stretching due to the extra spacing.”The researchers found that glassy gels could be made with a variety of different polymers and ionic liquids, though not all classes of polymers can be used to create glassy gels.“Polymers that are charged or polar hold promise for glassy gels, because they’re attracted to the ionic liquid,” Dickey says.In testing, the researchers found that the glassy gels don’t evaporate or dry out, even though they consist of 50-60% liquid.“Maybe the most intriguing characteristic of the glassy gels is how adhesive they are,” says Dickey. “Because while we understand what makes them hard and stretchable, we can only speculate about what makes them so sticky.”The researchers also think glassy gels hold promise for practical applications because they’re easy to make.“Creating glassy gels is a simple process that can be done by curing it in any type of mold or by 3D printing it,” says Dickey. “Most plastics with similar mechanical properties require manufacturers to create polymer as a feedstock and then transport that polymer to another facility where the polymer is melted and formed into the end product.“We’re excited to see how glassy gels can be used and are open to working with collaborators on identifying applications for these materials.”The paper, “<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07564-0" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07564-0" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Glassy Gels Toughened by Solvent</a>,” is published in the journal&nbsp;Nature. Co-lead author of the paper is Xun Xiao of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The paper was co-authored by Salma Siddika, a Ph.D. student at NC&nbsp;State; Mohammad Shamsi, a former Ph.D. student at NC&nbsp;State; Ethan Frey, a former undergrad at NC state; Brendan O’Connor, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at NC&nbsp;State; Wubin Bai, a professor of applied physical sciences at UNC; and Wen Qian, a research associate professor of mechanical and materials engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.A video explaining glassy gels, and demonstrating their properties, can be found at <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LV-vgxxbNeY" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LV-vgxxbNeY</a><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LV-vgxxbNeY?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https://www.wevolver.com" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable" data-lf-form-tracking-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-yt-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-vimeo-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true"></iframe> The work was partially supported by funding from the Coastal Studies Institute.

Researchers have created a new class of materials called “glassy gels” that are very hard and difficult to break despite containing more than 50% liquid. Coupled with the fact that glassy gels are simple to produce, the material holds promise for a variety of applications.

Researchers Create New Class of Materials Called 'Glassy Gels'

There are some things in life you can watch and then never unwatch,” said<a href="https://profiles.stanford.edu/manu-prakash" data-extlink="" target="_blank">&nbsp;Manu Prakash</a>, associate professor of bioengineering at Stanford University, calling up a video of his latest fascination, the single-cell organism Lacrymaria olor, a free-living protist he stumbled upon playing with his paper<a href="https://foldscope.com/" data-extlink="" target="_blank">&nbsp;Foldscope</a>.&nbsp;“It’s … just … it’s mesmerizing.”“From the minute Manu showed it to me, I have just been transfixed by this cell,” said Eliott Flaum, a graduate student in the “curiosity-driven”<a href="https://web.stanford.edu/group/prakash-lab/cgi-bin/labsite/" data-extlink="" target="_blank">&nbsp;Prakash Lab</a>. Prakash and Flaum spent the last seven years studying Lacrymaria olor’s&nbsp;every move and recently published<a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adk5511" data-extlink="" target="_blank">&nbsp;a paper</a> on their work in Science.“The first time I came back with a fluorescence micrograph, it was just breathtaking,” Flaum said. “That image is in the paper.”Beautiful and mesmerizing,&nbsp;L. olor is actually&nbsp;Science’s latest cover art.The video Prakash queued up reveals why this organism is much more than a pretty picture: a single teardrop-shaped cell swims in a droplet of pond water. In an instant, a long, thin “neck” projects out from the bulbous lower end. And it keeps going. And going. Then, just as quickly, the neck retracts back, as if nothing had happened.In seconds, a cell that was just 40 microns tip-to-tail sprouted a neck that extended 1500 microns or more out into the world. It is the equivalent of a 6-foot human projecting its head more than 200 feet. All from a cell without a nervous system.“It is incredibly complex behavior,” Prakash said with a smile.<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LZArEEBeMpI?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https://www.wevolver.com" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable" data-lf-form-tracking-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-yt-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-vimeo-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true"></iframe>Video courtesy of Prakash Lab/Andrew Myers<h2 id="isPasted">Form is function</h2>L. olor has landed on the cover of&nbsp;Science because Prakash and Flaum have discovered in this behavior a new geometric mechanism previously unknown in biology. And they are the first to explain how such a simple cell can produce such incredible morphodynamics, beautiful folding and unfolding – aka origami – at the scale of a single cell, time and again without fail.It is geometry.&nbsp;L. olor’s behavior is encoded in its cytoskeletal structure, just like human behavior is encoded in neural circuits. “This is the first example of cellular origami,” Prakash said. “We’re thinking of calling it lacrygami.”Specifically, it is a subset of traditional origami known as “curved-crease origami.” It is all based on a structure of thin, helical microtubules – ribs that wrap inside the cell’s membrane. These microtubule ribs are encased in a delicate diaphanous membrane, defining the crease pattern of peaks in a series of mountain-and-valley folds.Prakash and Flaum used transmission electron microscopy and other state-of-the-art investigatory techniques to show there are actually 15 of these stiff, helical microtubule ribbons enshrouding&nbsp;L. olor’s cell membrane – a cytoskeleton. These tubules coil and uncoil, leading to long projection and retraction, nesting back into themselves like the bellows of a compressed helical accordion. The gossamer of membrane tucks away inside the cell in neat, well-defined pleats.“When you store pleats on the helical angle in this way, you can store an&nbsp;infinite amount of material,” Flaum explained. “Biology has figured this out.”<h2>Geometry is destiny</h2>The elegance is in the arithmetic. It is mathematically impossible for this structure to unfold in any other way – and, conversely, only one way it can retract. What is perhaps more striking to Prakash is the robustness of the architecture. In its lifetime,&nbsp;L. olor will perform this projection and retraction 50,000 times without flaw, he said: “L. olor is&nbsp;bound by its geometry to fold and unfold in this particular way.”The key is an under-studied mathematical phenomenon occurring at the precise point where the ribs twist and the folded membrane begins to unfurl. It is a&nbsp;singularity – a point where the structure is folded and unfolded at the same time. It is both and neither – singular.Grabbing a piece of paper, Prakash folds it into a cone shape and then pulls on one corner of the paper to demonstrate how this singularity (called d-cone) travels across the sheet in a neat line. And, by pushing back on the corner how the singularity travels back the exact same path to its original position.“It unfolds and folds at this singularity every time, acting as a controller. This is the first time a geometric controller of behavior has been described in a living cell.” Prakash explained.<h2>Recreational biology</h2>A constant theme running throughout the<a href="https://web.stanford.edu/group/prakash-lab/cgi-bin/labsite/publications/" data-extlink="" target="_blank">&nbsp;Prakash Lab’s</a> work is a profound sense of wonder and playfulness that results in the energetic curiosity necessary to pursue such an idea for such a long time. It is, to put it in Prakash’s terms, old-school science. He also calls it recreational biology.To demonstrate his inspiration, Prakash displayed a family tree of other single-celled organisms that he has chosen to study. True, none can do what&nbsp;L. olor can do, he said. But these intricate geometries come in thousands of forms. Beautiful? Certainly, but each is also hiding wonderful and unwritten rules under their sleeves.“We started with a puzzle,” Prakash explained with all the seriousness a scientist can muster. “Ellie and I asked a very simple question: Where does this material come from? And where does it go? As our playground, we chose Tree of Life. Seven years later, here we are.”As for practical applications, Prakash the engineer is already imagining a new era of deployable microscale “living machines” that could transform everything from space telescopes to miniature surgical robots in the operating room.

A side-by-side comparison of Lacrymaria olor, a remarkable ciliate with its “neck” extended and retracted. Researchers discovered origami-like folds make this morphing possible where microtubules define folding pleats. | Prakash Lab

Combining a deep curiosity and “recreational biology,” Stanford researchers have discovered how a simple cell produces remarkably complex behavior, all without a nervous system. It’s origami, they say.

The first example of cellular origami

MIT physicists and colleagues have created a five-lane superhighway for electrons that could allow ultra-efficient electronics and more.&nbsp;The work,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adk9749" target="_blank">reported in the May 10 issue of&nbsp;Science</a>, is one of several important discoveries by the same team over the past year involving a material that is a unique form of&nbsp;<a href="https://news.mit.edu/topic/graphene" target="_blank">graphene</a>.“This discovery has direct implications for low-power electronic devices because no energy is lost during the propagation of electrons, which is not the case in regular materials where the electrons are scattered,” says Long Ju, an assistant professor in the Department of Physics and corresponding author of the&nbsp;Science paper.The phenomenon is akin to cars traveling down an open turnpike as opposed to those moving through neighborhoods. The neighborhood cars can be stopped or slowed by other drivers making abrupt stops or U-turns that disrupt an otherwise smooth commute.<h2>A new material</h2>The material behind this work, known as rhombohedral pentalayer graphene, was discovered two years ago by physicists led by Ju. “We found a goldmine, and every scoop is revealing something new,” says Ju, who is also affiliated with MIT’s Materials Research Laboratory.In a&nbsp;Nature Nanotechnology paper last October, Ju and colleagues&nbsp;<a href="https://news.mit.edu/2023/mit-physicists-turn-pencil-lead-into-gold-1114" target="_blank">reported the discovery</a> of three important properties arising from rhombohedral graphene. For example, they showed that it could be topological, or allow the unimpeded movement of electrons around the edge of the material but not through the middle. That resulted in a superhighway, but required the application of a large magnetic field some tens of thousands times stronger than the Earth’s magnetic field.In the current work, the team reports creating the superhighway without any magnetic field.Tonghang Han, an MIT graduate student in physics, is a co-first author of the paper. “We are not the first to discover this general phenomenon, but we did so in a very different system. And compared to previous systems, ours is simpler and also supports more electron channels.” Explains Ju, “other materials can only support one lane of traffic on the edge of the material. We suddenly bumped it up to five.”Additional co-first authors of the paper who contributed equally to the work are Zhengguang Lu and Yuxuan Yao. Lu is a postdoc in the Materials Research Laboratory. Yao conducted the work as a visiting undergraduate student from Tsinghua University. Other authors are MIT professor of physics Liang Fu;&nbsp;Jixiang Yang and Junseok Seo, both MIT graduate students in physics; Chiho Yoon and Fan Zhang of the University of Texas at Dallas; and Kenji Watanabe and Takashi Taniguchi of the National Institute for Materials Science in Japan.<h2>How it works</h2>Graphite, the primary component of pencil lead, is composed of many layers of graphene, a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in hexagons resembling a honeycomb structure. Rhombohedral graphene is composed of five layers of graphene stacked in a specific overlapping order.Ju and colleagues isolated rhombohedral graphene thanks to a&nbsp;<a href="https://news.mit.edu/2021/custom-made-s-snom-probes-materials-nanoscale-0713" target="_blank">novel microscope</a> Ju built at MIT in 2021 that&nbsp;can quickly and relatively inexpensively determine a variety of important characteristics of a material at the nanoscale. Pentalayer rhombohedral stacked graphene is only a few billionths of a meter thick.In the current work, the team tinkered with the original system, adding a layer of tungsten disulfide (WS2). “The interaction between the WS2&nbsp;and the pentalayer rhombohedral graphene resulted in this five-lane superhighway that operates at zero magnetic field,” says Ju.<h2>Comparison to superconductivity</h2>The phenomenon that the Ju group discovered in rhombohedral graphene that allows electrons to travel with no resistance at zero magnetic field is known as the quantum anomalous Hall effect. Most people are more familiar with superconductivity, a completely different phenomenon that does the same thing but happens in very different materials.Ju notes that although superconductors were discovered in the 1910s, it took some 100 years of research to coax the system to work at the higher temperatures necessary for applications. “And the world record is still well below room temperature,” he notes.Similarly, the rhombohedral graphene superhighway currently operates at about 2 kelvins, or -456 degrees Fahrenheit. “It will take a lot of effort to elevate the temperature, but as physicists, our job is to provide the insight; a different way for realizing this [phenomenon],” Ju says.<h2>Very exciting</h2>The discoveries involving rhombohedral graphene came as a result of painstaking research that wasn’t guaranteed to work. “We tried many recipes over many months,” says Han, “so it was very exciting when we cooled the system to a very low temperature and [a five-lane superhighway operating at zero magnetic field] just popped out.”Says Ju, “it’s very exciting to be the first to discover a phenomenon in a new system, especially in a material that we uncovered.”This work was supported by a Sloan Fellowship; the U.S. National Science Foundation; the U.S. Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering; the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science KAKENHI; and the World Premier International Research Initiative of Japan.

Artist’s rendition of a newly discovered superhighway for electrons that can occur in rhombohedral graphene. “We found a goldmine, and every scoop is revealing something new,” says MIT Assistant Professor Long Ju. Image: Sampson Wilcox/Research Laboratory of Electronics

The work could lead to ultra-efficient electronics and more.

Physicists create five-lane superhighway for electrons

The future of data, Edge Data Center,  is equivalent to a mini data centre. Its proximity to enterprises eliminates latency and other limitations, giving access to real-time data. In this article, we will delve into its core concepts, advancements, operational challenges, and real-time applications.

What is an Edge Data Center: A Comprehensive Guide for Engineering Professionals

Imagine a portable 3D printer you could hold in the palm of your hand. The tiny device could enable a user to rapidly create customized, low-cost objects on the go, like a fastener to repair a wobbly bicycle wheel or a component for a critical medical operation.Researchers from MIT and the University of Texas at Austin took a major step toward making this idea a reality by demonstrating the first chip-based 3D printer. Their proof-of-concept device consists of a single, millimeter-scale photonic chip that emits reconfigurable beams of light into a well of resin that cures into a solid shape when light strikes it.The prototype chip has no moving parts, instead relying on an array of tiny optical antennas to steer a beam of light. The beam projects up into a liquid resin that has been designed to rapidly cure when exposed to the beam’s wavelength of visible light.By combining silicon photonics and photochemistry, the interdisciplinary research team was able to demonstrate a chip that can steer light beams to 3D print arbitrary two-dimensional patterns, including the letters M-I-T. Shapes can be fully formed in a matter of seconds.In the long run, they envision a system where a photonic chip sits at the bottom of a well of resin and emits a 3D hologram of visible light, rapidly curing an entire object in a single step.This type of portable 3D printer could have many applications, such as enabling clinicians to create tailor-made medical device components or allowing engineers to make rapid prototypes at a job site.“This system is completely rethinking what a 3D printer is. It is no longer a big box sitting on a bench in a lab creating objects, but something that is handheld and portable. It is exciting to think about the new applications that could come out of this and how the field of 3D printing could change,” says senior author Jelena Notaros, the Robert J. Shillman Career Development Professor in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), and a member of the Research Laboratory of Electronics.Joining Notaros on the paper are Sabrina Corsetti, lead author and EECS graduate student; Milica Notaros PhD ’23; Tal Sneh, an EECS graduate student; Alex Safford, a recent graduate of the University of Texas at Austin; and Zak Page, an assistant professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at UT Austin. The&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41377-024-01478-2" target="_blank">research appears today</a> in&nbsp;Nature Light Science and Applications.<h2>Printing with a chip</h2>Experts in silicon photonics, the Notaros group previously developed integrated optical-phased-array systems that steer beams of light using a series of microscale antennas fabricated on a chip using semiconductor manufacturing processes. By speeding up or delaying the optical signal on either side of the antenna array, they can move the beam of emitted light in a certain direction.Such systems are key for lidar sensors, which map their surroundings by emitting infrared light beams that bounce off nearby objects. Recently, the group has focused on systems that emit and steer visible light for augmented-reality applications.They wondered if such a device could be used for a chip-based 3D printer.At about the same time they started brainstorming, the Page Group at UT Austin demonstrated specialized resins that can be rapidly cured using wavelengths of visible light for the first time. This was the missing piece that pushed the chip-based 3D printer into reality.“With photocurable resins, it is very hard to get them to cure all the way up at infrared wavelengths, which is where integrated optical-phased-array systems were operating in the past for lidar,” Corsetti says. “Here, we are meeting in the middle between standard photochemistry and silicon photonics by using visible-light-curable resins and visible-light-emitting chips to create this chip-based 3D printer. You have this merging of two technologies into a completely new idea.”Their prototype consists of a single photonic chip containing an array of 160-nanometer-thick optical antennas. (A sheet of paper is about 100,000 nanometers thick.) The entire chip fits onto a U.S. quarter.When powered by an off-chip laser, the antennas emit a steerable beam of visible light into the well of photocurable resin. The chip sits below a clear slide, like those used in microscopes, which contains a shallow indentation that holds the resin. The researchers use electrical signals to nonmechanically steer the light beam, causing the resin to solidify wherever the beam strikes it.<h2>A collaborative approach</h2>But effectively modulating visible-wavelength light, which involves modifying its amplitude and phase, is especially tricky. One common method requires heating the chip, but this is inefficient and takes a large amount of physical space.Instead, the researchers used liquid crystal to fashion compact modulators they integrate onto the chip. The material’s unique optical properties enable the modulators to be extremely efficient and only about 20 microns in length.A single waveguide on the chip holds the light from the off-chip laser. Running along the waveguide are tiny taps which tap off a little bit of light to each of the antennas.The researchers actively tune the modulators using an electric field, which reorients the liquid crystal molecules in a certain direction. In this way, they can precisely control the amplitude and phase of light being routed to the antennas.But forming and steering the beam is only half the battle. Interfacing with a novel photocurable resin was a completely different challenge.The Page Group at UT Austin worked closely with the Notaros Group at MIT, carefully adjusting the chemical combinations and concentrations to zero-in on a formula that provided a long shelf-life and rapid curing.In the end, the group used their prototype to 3D print arbitrary two-dimensional shapes within seconds.Building off this prototype, they want to move toward developing a system like the one they originally conceptualized — a chip that emits a hologram of visible light in a resin well to enable volumetric 3D printing in only one step.“To be able to do that, we need a completely new silicon-photonics chip design. We already laid out a lot of what that final system would look like in this paper. And, now, we are excited to continue working towards this ultimate demonstration,” Jelena Notaros says.

The tiny device could enable a user to rapidly create customized, low-cost objects on the go, like a fastener to repair a wobbly bicycle wheel or a component for a critical medical operation. Credit: Sampson Wilcox, RLE

Smaller than a coin, this optical device could enable rapid prototyping on the go.

Researchers demonstrate the first chip-based 3D printer

In this episode, discuss how big of a problem lead contaminated water still is across the world and how a collaboration between MIT & Nanyang University plans to tackle it with a highly accurate and inexpensive water pollution sensor.

Podcast: Is Your Drinking Water Safe? This Sensor Has The Answer

This article was discussed in our <a href="https://www.wevolver.com/profile/the.next.byte" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Next Byte podcast</a>.&nbsp;<iframe height="200px" width="100%" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="https://player.simplecast.com/076af450-88d2-4524-8ec5-df4c5234a282?dark=false" class="fr-draggable" data-lf-form-tracking-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-yt-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-vimeo-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true"></iframe> The full article will continue below.<hr>Engineers at MIT, Nanyang Technological University, and several companies have developed a compact and inexpensive technology for detecting and measuring lead concentrations in water, potentially enabling a significant advance in tackling this persistent global health issue.The World Health Organization estimates that 240 million people worldwide are exposed to drinking water that contains unsafe amounts of toxic lead, which can affect brain development in children, cause birth defects, and produce a variety of neurological, cardiac, and other damaging effects. In the United States alone, an estimated 10 million households still get drinking water delivered through lead pipes.<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNzE1NzM1MzgzNjM4LU1JVC1MZWFkLURldGVjdGlvbi0wMi1wcmVzcy5qcGciLCJlZGl0cyI6eyJyZXNpemUiOnsid2lkdGgiOjk1MCwiZml0IjoiY292ZXIifX19" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Testing setup of the photonic chip sensor, including microfluidic chamber to transport analyte solutions and optical fibers on the sides to measure the photonic response of the chip. Image: Courtesy of the researchers“It’s an unaddressed public health crisis that leads to over 1 million deaths annually,” says Jia Xu Brian Sia, an MIT postdoc and the senior author of the paper describing the new technology.But testing for lead in water requires expensive, cumbersome equipment and typically requires days to get results. Or, it uses simple test strips that simply reveal a yes-or-no answer about the presence of lead but no information about its concentration. Current EPA regulations require drinking water to contain no more that 15 parts per billion of lead, a concentration so low it is difficult to detect.The new system, which could be ready for commercial deployment within two or three years, could detect lead concentrations as low as 1 part per billion, with high accuracy, using a simple chip-based detector housed in a handheld device. The technology gives nearly instant quantitative measurements and requires just a droplet of water.The findings are described in a <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-47938-6" target="_blank">paper appearing today</a> in the journal Nature Communications, by Sia, MIT graduate student and lead author Luigi Ranno, Professor Juejun Hu, and 12 others at MIT and other institutions in academia and industry.The team set out to find a simple detection method based on the use of photonic chips, which use light to perform measurements. The challenging part was finding a way to attach to the photonic chip surface certain ring-shaped molecules known as crown ethers, which can capture specific ions such as lead. After years of effort, they were able to achieve that attachment via a chemical process known as Fischer esterification. “That is one of the essential breakthroughs we have made in this technology,” Sia says.In testing the new chip, the researchers showed that it can detect lead in water at concentrations as low as one part per billion. At much higher concentrations, which may be relevant for testing environmental contamination such as mine tailings, the accuracy is within 4 percent.The device works in water with varying levels of acidity, ranging from pH values of 6 to 8, “which covers most environmental samples,” Sia says. They have tested the device with seawater as well as tap water, and verified the accuracy of the measurements.In order to achieve such levels of accuracy, current testing requires a device called an inductive coupled plasma mass spectrometer. “These setups can be big and expensive,” Sia says. The sample processing can take days and requires experienced technical personnel.While the new chip system they developed is “the core part of the innovation,” Ranno says, further work will be needed to develop this into an integrated, handheld device for practical use. “For making an actual product, you would need to package it into a usable form factor,” he explains. This would involve having a small chip-based laser coupled to the photonic chip. “It’s a matter of mechanical design, some optical design, some chemistry, and figuring out the supply chain,” he says. While that takes time, he says, the underlying concepts are straightforward.The system can be adapted to detect other similar contaminants in water, including cadmium, copper, lithium, barium, cesium, and radium, Ranno says. The device could be used with simple cartridges that can be swapped out to detect different elements, each using slightly different crown ethers that can bind to a specific ion.“There’s this problem that people don’t measure their water enough, especially in the developing countries,” Ranno says. “And that’s because they need to collect the water, prepare the sample, and bring it to these huge instruments that are extremely expensive.” Instead, “having this handheld device, something compact that even untrained personnel can just bring to the source for on-site monitoring, at low costs,” could make regular, ongoing widespread testing feasible.Hu, who is the John F. Elliott Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, says, “I’m hoping this will be quickly implemented, so we can benefit human society. This is a good example of a technology coming from a lab innovation where it may actually make a very tangible impact on society, which is of course very fulfilling.”“If this study can be extended to simultaneous detection of multiple metal elements, especially the presently concerning radioactive elements, its potential would be immense,” says Hou Wang, an associate professor of environmental science and engineering at Hunan University in China, who was not associated with this work.Wang adds, “This research has engineered a sensor capable of instantaneously detecting lead concentration in water. This can be utilized in real-time to monitor the lead pollution concentration in wastewater discharged from industries such as battery manufacturing and lead smelting, facilitating the establishment of industrial wastewater monitoring systems. I think the innovative aspects and developmental potential of this research are quite commendable.”Wang Qian, a principal research scientist at the Institute of Materials Research in Singapore, who also was not affiliated with this work, says, “The ability for the pervasive, portable, and quantitative detection of lead has proved to be challenging primarily due to cost concerns. This work demonstrates the potential to do so in a highly integrated form factor and is compatible with large-scale, low-cost manufacturing.”The team included researchers at MIT, at Nanyang Technological University and Temasek Laboratories in Singapore, at the University of Southampton in the U.K., and at companies Fingate Technologies, in Singapore, and Vulcan Photonics, headquartered in Malaysia. The work used facilities at MIT.nano, the Harvard University Center for Nanoscale Systems, NTU’s Center for Micro- and Nano-Electronics, and the Nanyang Nanofabrication Center.

Artist’s impression of the chip surface, showing the on-chip light interferometer used to sense the presence of lead. The lead binding process to the crown ether is shown in the inset. Image: Jia Xu Brian Sia

The chip-scale device could provide sensitive detection of lead levels in drinking water, whose toxicity affects 240 million people worldwide.

Scientists develop an affordable sensor for lead contamination

<section id="isPasted">What do volcanic lava, fire smoke, automobile exhaust fumes, and printer toner have in common? They are all sources of ultrafine particles – particles with a diameter below 100 nanometers, which can pose serious health risks if inhaled. Due to their small size, ultrafine nanoparticles are difficult to detect and measure without expensive and sometimes bulky equipment. To overcome these issues, our researchers have designed a new ultra-sensitive fiber-tip sensor that can detect single particles with diameters down to 50 nanometers in size. In the future, the new sensor will be used in studies to control and evaluate indoor air quality at schools.</section><section tabindex="-1">Nanoparticles are very much part of the everyday world that we call home. For example, in medical testing, devices are available to check for nanoparticles like pathogens and biomarkers for diseases such as cancer.And in drug development, a host of nanoparticles are used to make the drug delivery systems of the future.One class of nanoparticle that is garnering plenty of attention due to its connection with the air that we breathe is the ultrafine particle (UFP), a particle with a diameter below 100 nanometers (nm).Exposure to UFPs – which can be found in smoke, exhaust fumes, and even printer toners – can have serious health risks, especially if these particles are directly inhaled.<section tabindex="-1" id="isPasted">“When UFPs lodge in the lungs, it can pose a severe health risk because once in the lungs, they can absorb toxins that we might breathe in from the air around us. As a result, those toxins then stay in the body,” says <a href="https://www.tue.nl/en/research/researchers/arthur-hendriks" target="_blank">Arthur Hendriks</a>, PhD researcher at the Department of Applied Physics and Science Education. “So, to help prevent this, accurate ways of detecting UFPs are needed so as to monitor indoor air quality.”For example, research on indoor air quality is at the forefront of the <a href="https://www.learnproject-heu.eu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">Horizon Europe project LEARN</a>, which is seeking to control and evaluate indoor air quality at schools and to assess the impact of air quality on children’s health, and part of this requires accurate ways to detect UFPs.<h3>The small-big problem</h3>But detecting UFPs is easier said than done though, and ironically, detection of such small particles relies on the use of large and expensive equipment.“Large and expensive isn’t the answer. We need small, compact, accurate, and cheap devices to make it easier to detect UFPs in factories, hospitals, offices, and schools,” notes Hendriks.</section><section tabindex="-1">So, what is the state-of-the-art now then? “There are sensors based on fiber-optic technologies that can measure liquids and gases with good accuracy. But these sensors not suitable for measuring small particles like UFPs and so their application are limited in that sense,” says Hendriks.&nbsp;‘Lab-on-fiber’ technologies have been used to detect biological cells at the micrometer scale (1000 times larger than the nanometer scale). “But this technology cannot detect single nanoparticles similar in size to UFPs,” says Hendriks.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1714987151109-csm_Hendriks+Nanophotonic-fiber-tip-sensor_5fc4f58556.png" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">SEM image of nanophotonic fiber tip sensor. Source: Arthur Hendriks<h3 id="isPasted">A fiber-tip solution</h3>To meet the demand for a new UFP sensing technology, Hendriks and his TU/e collaborators, which includes Andrea Fiore – professor at the Department of Applied Physics and Science Education, developed a nanophotonic fiber-tip sensor that is sensitive to tiny changes in the environment around the sensor, so much so that it can detect a single nanoparticle the same size as UFPs.“Our sensor design is small and compact, and importantly, it clearly indicates when a detection has occurred,” says Hendriks.The researchers’ sensor work is based on a photonic crystal, a periodic or repeating structure that can reflect light in all directions. “A defect, or error, is then added to the crystal, which is known as a photonic crystal cavity, or PhCC for short,” says Hendriks.A PhCC allows light to be trapped in the crystal for an extended period. Hendriks: “In essence, this is something we call the Q-factor, which is a measure of how well light can be trapped in the defect over time. In our case, the light is confined to a tiny volume, which is below 1 µm3. This is known as the mode volume, and to measure tiny nanoparticles, this needs to be very small.”The researchers were able to place the PhCC on the tip of a fiber using a method developed by Andrea Fiore’s group <a href="https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0021701" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">back in 2020</a>. When a tiny particle comes close to the PhCC in the crystal, it disturbs the cavity by changing its refractive index. “So, the tiny particle changes the wavelength of the trapped light in the cavity, and we measure this change.”<h2 id="isPasted">CHALLENGES</h2><img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1714987186281-csm_Hendriks+Schematic_3e24cc23c3.png" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">The major challenge faced by the researchers was that standard cavities cannot be read out using fibers. A standard cavity on a fiber wouldn’t have worked as light from the fiber will not couple to the cavity.The dream scenario for the researchers was to optimize key factors in the device. First, a high Q-factor was required to allow for more accurate tracking of the wavelength of the cavity. Second, a small mode volume was needed as this allows for the detection of smaller particles. Third, a higher coupling efficiency was a necessity to ensure that light from the fiber can couple to the cavity and back, making it possible to measure the cavity wavelength through the fiber.To solve all these challenges, the researchers used a method developed by researchers at Stanford University to optimize factors such as the Q-factor, mode volume, and coupling efficiency at the same time.<h3 id="isPasted">Unprecedented sensitivity</h3>“Our setup provides unprecedented sensitivity in comparison to previous technologies out there,” points out Hendriks. “Using the sensor, we were able to detect in real-time single UFPs with diameters as low as 50 nanometers. In my opinion, that’s just astounding!”The next step for Hendriks and his colleagues is to suspend the cavities so that the quality factor and the coupling efficiency are even higher, which could result in nanophotonic cavities with best-in-class characteristics, but still readable through the fiber.“Our approach could be used to detect even smaller particles. Or even in other applications like single-photon emitters and nano-optomechanical sensors,” says Hendriks. “And an additional application of the new approach might even be the detection of single biological molecules.”Next up for the UFP sensor will be the European project LEARN, which aims at controlling and evaluating air quality at schools, and it will be done in collaboration with the Microsystems group at TU/e.<hr><h3>Further information</h3>The full paper entitled “Detecting single nanoparticles using fiber-tip nanophotonics” can be read&nbsp;<a href="https://opg.optica.org/optica/fulltext.cfm?uri=optica-11-4-512&id=549037" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">here</a>.</section></section>

Using an ultrasensitive photonic crystal, TU/e researchers were able to detect single particles down to 50 nanometers in diameter. The new research has just been published in the journal Optica.

A nanophotonic fiber-tip solution to detect the ultrasmall

In this episode, we discuss research coming out of George Mason University which could provide an affordable and accessible way to get clean water using spent coffee grounds as a filter!

Podcast: Don't Throw Away Coffee Grounds; They Could Solve The World's Water Crisis!

Haver &amp; Boecker's innovative wire mesh filters set new standards in medical technology, where smooth processes mean the difference between life and death. The same is true for the chemical industry. Here, filtration components must function perfectly even under extreme conditions and in contact with corrosive media. At ACHEMA 2024 from 10 to 14 June, the manufacturer will demonstrate why metal mesh is an economical and future-oriented solution for a wide range of applications in the process industry. In the run-up to the exhibition, free whitepapers are available to shed more light on these topics.The white paper "When tiny meshes master mighty tasks" focuses on medical applications. Three practical examples illustrate the uses and benefits of wire mesh in this sector.<h3>Focus on the patient's quality of life</h3>The demands placed on medical technology products are high, as human lives depend on their performance and quality. This is even more true for filter components, which are used to remove unwanted particles from liquids and gases. Or to separate specific materials. &nbsp;&nbsp;Wire mesh filters from Haver &amp; Boecker are used in the manufacture of artificial kidneys (dialysis machines) or in stents to prevent blood clots from entering blood vessels. &nbsp;<img width="349" src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1713767565611-1713767565611.jpeg" class="fr-fic fr-dii">A deep understanding of the industry and continuous development make Haver &amp; Boecker a reliable partner in the development of new medical devices.Blood filtration in dialysis machines uses materials with mesh sizes between 10 and 100 nanometers to remove toxins while preserving essential blood cells and proteins. The flow characteristics are designed to cleanse the blood efficiently without affecting the patient's blood pressure. &nbsp;Air filtration in ventilators uses HEPA or ULPA filters that trap micron-sized particles (around 0.3 µm for HEPA) to remove bacteria, viruses and other contaminants. Despite their high filtration efficiency, these filters still provide sufficient airflow for the patient to breathe. The ability to precisely determine the pore size and flow characteristics of Haver &amp; Boecker's wire mesh filters enables them to be precisely tailored to medical requirements.<img width="354" src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1713767565618-1713767565618.jpeg" class="fr-fic fr-dii">In the future, metal mesh could be used for targeted drug delivery to hard-to-reach areas of the body.For grease-free cleaning, heating to 1000 °C is no problem. Advanced manufacturing processes and regular quality controls ensure maximum efficiency and reliability of the wire mesh. &nbsp;<h3>Corrosion-resistant and sustainable</h3>The second white paper, "Efficient filtration in the chemical and pharmaceutical&nbsp;industry", also covers applications where chemical corrosion resistance and precise pore size are required for specific separation processes. The wire meshes used in these applications require high mechanical strength for long-term use under variable pressure conditions and thermal stability at different temperatures. Cleanability is also essential for reusability and durability. &nbsp;&nbsp;The white paper highlights the importance of efficient filtration processes in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries to maintain high product quality. Various filter media are considered, with metal mesh laminates standing out for their robustness, durability and versatility. Their resistance to high temperatures and corrosion makes them ideal for process gas filtration and other demanding applications. &nbsp;<img width="354" src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1713767565624-1713767565624.jpeg" class="fr-fic fr-dii">Filter elements, such as this filter plate for chemical applications, are developed by Haver &amp; Boecker and produced specifically for the application (also in large quantities).The ability to be cleaned and reused, combined with a long service life, makes a significant contribution to waste reduction and environmental protection. Compared to conventional materials such as ceramics or textiles, wire mesh filters offer significant advantages in terms of process stability and cost efficiency due to lower differential pressure and the ability to filter high throughput volumes without increasing system size. The result is superior filtration efficiency that minimizes production downtime and lowers the total cost of ownership while reducing environmental impact.&nbsp;At ACHEMA 2024 you can see the product quality for yourself in Hall 3.0, Stand F38. Take the opportunity to learn first-hand about the many applications and benefits of this technology. Our representatives will be happy to assist you in person. &nbsp;<a href="https://www.haverboecker.com/en/industries/medicine-and-pharmaceuticals/?lso=wevolver-brand-beitrag&utm_campaign=brand&utm_source=wevolver&utm_medium=beitrag&utm_content=_042024" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">More info &amp; download</a>

Innovative wire mesh filters set new standards in medical technology, where smooth processes mean the difference between life and death. The same is true for the chemical industry. Here, filtration components must function perfectly even under extreme conditions and in contact with corrosive media. 

Wire mesh filters: precision and reliability for the process industry

To save on fuel and reduce aircraft emissions, engineers are looking to build lighter, stronger airplanes out of advanced composites. These engineered materials are made from high-performance fibers that are embedded in polymer sheets. The sheets can be stacked and pressed into one multilayered material and made into extremely lightweight and durable structures.But composite materials have one main vulnerability: the space between layers, which is typically filled with polymer “glue” to bond the layers together. In the event of an impact or strike, cracks can easily spread between layers and weaken the material, even though there may be no visible damage to the layers themselves. Over time, as these hidden cracks spread between layers, the composite could suddenly crumble without warning.Now, MIT engineers have shown they can prevent cracks from spreading between composite’s layers, using an approach they developed called “nanostitching,” in which they deposit chemically grown microscopic forests of carbon nanotubes between composite layers. The tiny, densely packed fibers grip and hold the layers together, like ultrastrong Velcro, preventing the layers from peeling or shearing apart.In experiments with an advanced composite known as thin-ply carbon fiber laminate, the team demonstrated that layers bonded with nanostitching improved the material’s resistance to cracks by up to 60 percent, compared with composites with conventional polymers. The researchers say the results help to address the main vulnerability in advanced composites.“Just like phyllo dough flakes apart, composite layers can peel apart because this interlaminar region is the Achilles’ heel of composites,” says Brian Wardle, professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT. “We’re showing that nanostitching makes this normally weak region so strong and tough that a crack will not grow there. So, we could expect the next generation of aircraft to have composites held together with this nano-Velcro, to make aircraft safer and have greater longevity.”Wardle and his colleagues have <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsami.3c17333" target="_blank">published their results</a> today in the journal ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces. The study’s first author is former MIT visiting graduate student and postdoc Carolina Furtado, along with Reed Kopp, Xinchen Ni, Carlos Sarrado, Estelle Kalfon-Cohen, and Pedro Camanho.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1713566912216-MIT-Nanostitch-02-press.jpg" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Nanostitching involves “growing” a forest of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (CNT) on a wafer of silicon, through a process of chemical vapor deposition. The CNT-deposited wafer (to the left in grid “a”) is then inverted and pressed onto a larger composite ply (b), and lifted away, leaving the CNTs on the composite’s surface (c). A second ply is placed over the first, with the CNTs between, “stitching” the plies together. Image: Courtesy of the researchers<h2>Forest growth</h2>At MIT, Wardle is director of the necstlab (pronounced “next lab”), where he and his group <a href="https://news.mit.edu/2016/carbon-nanotube-stitches-strengthen-composites-0803" target="_blank">first developed</a> the concept for nanostitching. The approach involves “growing” a forest of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes — hollow fibers of carbon, each so small that tens of billions of the the nanotubes can stand in an area smaller than a fingernail. To grow the nanotubes, the team used a process of chemical vapor deposition to react various catalysts in an oven, causing carbon to settle onto a surface as tiny, hair-like supports. The supports are eventually removed, leaving behind a densely packed forest of microscopic, vertical rolls of carbon.The lab has previously shown that the nanotube forests can be grown and adhered to layers of composite material, and that this fiber-reinforced compound improves the material’s overall strength. The researchers had also seen some signs that the fibers can improve a composite’s resistance to cracks between layers.In their new study, the engineers took a more in-depth look at the between-layer region in composites to test and quantify how nanostitching would improve the region’s resistance to cracks. In particular, the study focused on an advanced composite material known as thin-ply carbon fiber laminates.“This is an emerging composite technology, where each layer, or ply, is about 50 microns thin, compared to standard composite plies that are 150 microns, which is about the diameter of a human hair. There’s evidence to suggest they are better than standard-thickness composites. And we wanted to see whether there might be synergy between our nanostitching and this thin-ply technology, since it could lead to more resilient aircraft, high-value aerospace structures, and space and military vehicles,” Wardle says.<h2>Velcro grip</h2>The study’s experiments were led by Carolina Furtado, who joined the effort as part of the MIT-Portugal program in 2016, continued the project as a postdoc, and is now a professor at the University of Porto in Portugal, where her research focuses on modeling cracks and damage in advanced composites.In her tests, Furtado used the group’s techniques of chemical vapor deposition to grow densely packed forests of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes. She also fabricated samples of thin-ply carbon fiber laminates. The resulting advanced composite was about 3 millimeters thick and comprised 60 layers, each made from stiff, horizontal fibers embedded in a polymer sheet.She transferred and adhered the nanotube forest in between the two middle layers of the composite, then cooked the material in an autoclave to cure. To test crack resistance, the researchers placed a crack on the edge of the composite, right at the start of the region between the two middle layers.“In fracture testing, we always start with a crack because we want to test whether and how far the crack will spread,” Furtado explains.The researchers then placed samples of the nanotube-reinforced composite in an experimental setup to test their resilience to “delamination,” or the potential for layers to separate.“There’s lots of ways you can get precursors to delamination, such as from impacts, like tool drop, bird strike, runway kickup in aircraft, and there could be almost no visible damage, but internally it has a delamination,” Wardle says. “Just like a human, if you’ve got a hairline fracture in a bone, it’s not good. Just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean it’s not impacting you. And damage in composites is hard to inspect.”To examine nanostitching’s potential to prevent delamination, the team placed their samples in a setup to test three delamination modes, in which a crack could spread through the between-layer region and peel the layers apart or cause them to slide against each other, or do a combination of both. All three of these modes are the most common ways in which conventional composites can internally flake and crumble.The tests, in which the researchers precisely measured the force required to peel or shear the composite’s layers, revealed that the nanostitched held fast, and the initial crack that the researchers made was unable to spread further between the layers. The nanostitched samples were up to 62 percent tougher and more resistant to cracks, compared with the same advanced composite material that was held together with conventional polymers.“This is a new composite technology, turbocharged by our nanotubes,” Wardle says.“The authors have demonsrated that thin plies and nanostitching together have made significant increase in toughness,” says Stephen Tsai, emeritus professor of aeronautics and astronautics at Stanford University. “Composites are degraded by their weak interlaminar strength. Any improvement shown in this work will increase the design allowable, and reduce the weight and cost of composites technology.”The researchers envision that any vehicle or structure that incorporates conventional composites could be made lighter, tougher, and more resilient with nanostitching.“You could have selective reinforcement of problematic areas, to reinforce holes or bolted joints, or places where delamination might happen,” Furtado says. “This opens a big window of opportunity.”

This schematic shows an engineered material with composite layers. Layers of carbon fibers (the long silver tubes) have microscopic forests of carbon nanotubes between them (the array of tiny brown objects). These tiny, densely packed fibers grip and hold the layers together, like ultrastrong Velcro, preventing the layers from peeling or shearing apart. Image: Courtesy of the researchers, edited by MIT News

In research that may lead to next-generation airplanes and spacecraft, MIT engineers used carbon nanotubes to prevent cracking in multilayered composites.

"Nanostitches" enable lighter and tougher composite materials

This article was discussed in our <a href="https://www.wevolver.com/profile/the.next.byte" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Next Byte podcast</a>.&nbsp;<iframe height="200px" width="100%" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="https://player.simplecast.com/43cda683-a88c-47b4-8a89-45b950f15e08?dark=false" class="fr-draggable" data-gtm-yt-inspected-9="true" data-lf-form-tracking-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-yt-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-vimeo-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true"></iframe> The full article will continue below.<hr><h3 id="isPasted">Background</h3>Global water pollution presents a formidable challenge, with traditional remediation methods often falling short due to their inefficacy, high costs, and environmental burden. This context <a href="https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2023/NR/D3NR03592A" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">underscores</a> the urgent need for innovative solutions that are both effective and sustainable. <h3>The Team and Their Inspiration</h3>"CoffeeBots" are a <a href="https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/local/virginia/rusty-coffee-cleaning-water-george-mason-university/65-0de9e05b-b8ed-4b5c-863d-de7323f75a09" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">collaborative invention</a> by Jeff Moran, an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at George Mason University, Amit Kumar Singh, a postdoctoral researcher at GMU, and Tarini Basireddy, an undergraduate student at Johns Hopkins University. Together, they engineered a low-cost and environmentally friendly solution to address severe water contamination issues using everyday materials. <iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cDSJA1JBTNk?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https://www.wevolver.com" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable" data-lf-form-tracking-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-yt-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-vimeo-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-gtm-yt-inspected-9="true" id="838150768" title="Magnetically-Propelled CoffeeBots for wastewater decontamination">&nbsp;</iframe><h3>Technical Details of CoffeeBots</h3>Composition and Manufacturing: CoffeeBots <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDSJA1JBTNk" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">consist</a> of spent coffee grounds coated with iron oxide nanoparticles. The synthesis of these nanoparticles employs green chemistry principles, ensuring an eco-friendly production process. The nanoparticles adhere to the coffee grounds, leveraging the grounds’ natural porous and hydrophobic surface, which is ideal for adsorbing oil and microplastics.Functionalization: Further enhancing their pollutant-binding capabilities, CoffeeBots are <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDSJA1JBTNk" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">functionalized</a> with ascorbic acid. This addition targets the removal of methylene blue dye, a common pollutant in industrial wastewater. The ascorbic acid acts both as a bioadsorbent and a reducing agent, facilitating the breakdown of the dye into less harmful compounds.Magnetic Navigation and Recovery: The integration of iron oxide nanoparticles allows for the magnetic manipulation of CoffeeBots. This feature enables the remote guidance of CoffeeBots through contaminated waters and their subsequent retrieval via magnetic forces once the cleanup task is completed. This magnetic property not only simplifies the operation but also allows for the reuse of CoffeeBots, significantly <a href="https://www.gmu.edu/news/2024-01/mason-engineers-develop-rusty-coffee-grounds-remove-pollutants-water" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reducing</a> the cost and environmental impact of the cleanup process.Performance and Efficiency: In practical applications, CoffeeBots demonstrate a high efficacy in capturing and removing oil, microplastics, and dye pollutants from seawater. Their movement, driven by external magnetic fields, increases their contact with pollutants, enhancing the efficiency of pollutant uptake compared to static methods. Laboratory tests confirm that CoffeeBots can be recycled multiple times without significant loss of functionality, <a href="https://www.gmu.edu/news/2024-01/mason-engineers-develop-rusty-coffee-grounds-remove-pollutants-water" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">showcasing</a> their durability and long-term usability. <h3>Significance of the Solution</h3>CoffeeBots <a href="https://www.gmu.edu/news/2024-01/mason-engineers-develop-rusty-coffee-grounds-remove-pollutants-water" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">exemplify</a> a breakthrough in water purification technology by combining low-cost materials, innovative nano-engineering, and environmental sustainability. This technology not only addresses the immediate need for effective water purification but also aligns with global sustainability goals by repurposing waste products and minimizing chemical inputs. <iframe width="640" height="360" style="border:1px solid #e6e6e6;" src="https://www.wusa9.com/embeds/video/responsive/65-7e8fe0e0-65f0-4168-aee7-1a883a848df4/iframe" allowfullscreen="true" webkitallowfullscreen="true" mozallowfullscreen="true" class="fr-draggable" data-lf-form-tracking-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-yt-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-vimeo-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-gtm-yt-inspected-9="true">&nbsp;</iframe> <h3>Future Prospects and Applications</h3>Ongoing research <a href="https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/local/virginia/rusty-coffee-cleaning-water-george-mason-university/65-0de9e05b-b8ed-4b5c-863d-de7323f75a09" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">aims</a> to extend the capabilities of CoffeeBots, including the exploration of solar-activated propulsion mechanisms that would eliminate the need for external magnetic controls, thereby enhancing the autonomy of the CoffeeBots for more extensive and less supervised water treatment operations. <h3>Conclusion</h3>The creation of CoffeeBots by the team at George Mason University marks a meaningful advancement in nano- and environmental engineering. By harnessing simple yet innovative materials and methods, they have developed a promising solution to combat the pervasive issue of water pollution. As this technology evolves, it holds the <a href="https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2023/NR/D3NR03592A" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">potential</a> to revolutionize water purification practices globally, offering a potential beacon of hope for millions affected by polluted water sources.

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All objects consist of atoms, which are made up of protons and neutrons in the atomic nucleus, surrounded by electrons. Once one enters this universe of the smallest things – the quantum world – it all gets very complicated very quickly. When researchers want to know exactly how atoms are connected and form solid objects, they come up against limits. No computer is powerful enough to calculate material properties precisely when many different atoms are involved. A researcher from the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) has now investigated a way to do this via digital quantum simulation. This requires a quantum computer with initially only a few functioning computing and memory units, qubits, which could already answer questions about materials research – using quantum computing to ultimately even improve itself."In contrast to problems that can be solved with increased computing power alone, the complexity of quantum systems exceeds the capabilities of all supercomputers available today, combined. This means that we are currently unable to find explanations for phenomena from the quantum world, including conductivity, magnetism and superconductivity," says Benedikt Fauseweh from the <a href="https://www.dlr.de/en/sc" target="_blank">DLR Institute for Software Technology</a>. "Quantum physics is fundamental to understanding our world, especially solid-state physics." In solids, atoms or molecules are so close together that they hardly move at all. Metals, semiconductors, ceramics and many plastics are solids.<h2>A visionary idea – but quantum computers still make mistakes</h2>The concept of simulating quantum phenomena on a quantum computer is more than 40 years old. In 1982, the US-American physicist Richard Feynman (1918 to 1988) proposed using the principles of quantum mechanics itself to simulate the behaviour of quantum systems. “The development of modern quantum computers is bringing Feynman’s visionary idea closer to reality. Of course, it remains the dream of all physicists to describe all of nature in its full complexity,” says Fauseweh. But we are not there yet; quantum computers still make errors in complex calculations because their qubits (computing and storage units) are not stable or cannot be controlled, leading to incorrect results. Nevertheless, researchers are looking for ways to run sophisticated simulations on quantum computers.<h2>Large number of qubits not required</h2>Fauseweh has described this in the scientific journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-46402-9" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Nature Communications</a> and included worldwide research results. His analysis shows that a large number of qubits is not necessarily required for the simulation of complex quantum systems: "If we use too many qubits, the results are no longer useful due to errors in the quantum computer," explains Fauseweh. "We have to identify precisely those applications that still deliver a correct result even with errors in the quantum computer." So, with quality before quantity, digital quantum simulations could soon solve the mysteries of solid-state research: why do interactions between many particles prevent their movement in solids? Why, for example, do some materials not heat up as expected in a magnetic field? How do materials change their properties when they are irradiated with lasers? "It is also exciting that we can use quantum computers in materials research to make quantum computers themselves better."Different technologies for quantum computers certainly complement one another.<a href="https://www.dlr.de/en/latest/news/2022/03/computing-with-light" target="_blank">&nbsp;Photonic quantum computers</a> or quantum computers with <a href="https://www.dlr.de/en/latest/news/2023/02/atomic-shells-become-computational-building-blocks" target="_blank">neutral atoms</a>, for example, would be particularly suitable for some applications, while quantum computers with<a href="https://www.dlr.de/en/latest/news/2022/04/contract-awarded-as-part-of-the-dlr-quantum-computing-initiative" target="_blank">&nbsp;ion traps</a>, with <a href="https://www.dlr.de/en/latest/news/2022/04/how_diamonds_become_qubits" target="_blank">nitrogen vacancies in diamond</a> or other <a href="https://www.dlr.de/en/latest/news/2023/04/quantum-computers-out-of-the-lab-into-the-world" target="_blank">solid-state spins</a>, would suit others. These hardware technologies are being developed in the <a href="https://www.dlr.de/en/research-and-transfer/featured-topics/quantum-technologies/the-dlr-quantum-computing-initiative-qci" target="_blank">DLR Quantum Computing Initiative (DLR QCI)</a>.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1712996854792-image-1920-0e0e1372dc051ff5fc2e347f9452228c.jpeg" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Goal – improving materials. Quantum computers can simulate solid-state structures that even the best supercomputers cannot calculate. They can therefore help to improve materials for high-tech applications such as photovoltaic systems. Credit: © DLR. All rights reserved<h2 id="isPasted">Analogue simulations reach their limit</h2>In recent decades, researchers have used analogue quantum simulations to assist them – with a quantum platform that serves as a substitute for the actual system. The behaviour of the substitute quantum platform is adjusted so that it corresponds to that of the system under investigation. In this way, it is possible to simulate quantum systems that supercomputers had already failed to – and with this the advantages of quantum simulation become apparent. Analogue quantum simulation has been a common method until now. "However, it has the disadvantage that these machines are not flexible. They can only do one type of simulation," says Fauseweh. "What we want is the universality of a digital quantum computer. That is the most important advantage we expect from the different approaches."

Crystal lattice of a solid (symbolic image). When researchers want to know exactly how atoms are connected and form solid objects, they come up against limits. Digital quantum simulations could soon solve the mysteries of solid-state research. Credit: stock.adobe.com

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