News by Subject Chemistry & Physics

An international team of scientists, led by the Helmholtz Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), have found a new compound of plutonium with an unexpected, pentavalent oxidation state, using the ESRF, the European Synchrotron., Grenoble, France This new phase of plutonium is solid and stable, and may be a transient phase in radioactive waste repositories. The results are published this week in Angewandte Chemie as a Very Important Paper (VIP).

Tungsten diselenide emits light with very special properties. Nobody could tell why -- but now, scientists at TU Wien (Vienna) have solved the riddle: a combination of atomic defects in the material and microscopic distortion is responsible for the remarkable effect.

Tokyo, Japan - Scientists from Tokyo Metropolitan University have created a new layered superconducting material with a conducting layer made of bismuth, silver, tin, sulfur and selenium. The conducting layer features four distinct sublayers; by introducing more elements, they were able to achieve unparalleled customizability and a higher "critical temperature" below which superconductivity is observed, a key objective of superconductor research. Their design strategy may be applied to engineer new and improved superconducting materials.

Physicists at Stockholm University and the Max Planck Institute for Physics have turned to plasmas in a proposal that could revolutionise the search for the elusive dark matter.

EPFL physicists have for the first time successfully observed a single quantum of vibrational energy at ambient conditions, involving the oscillation of more than 100 billion atoms. The work opens up new possibilities for the study of quantum phenomena and ultrafast quantum technologies at room temperature.

Pressure improves the ability of materials to turn heat into electricity and could potentially be used to create clean generators, according to new work from a team that includes Carnegie's Alexander Goncharov and Viktor Struzhkin published in Nature Materials.