News by Subject Chemistry & Physics

Scientists at Berkeley Lab have made a new material that is both liquid and magnetic, opening the door to a new area of science in magnetic soft matter. The new material could lead to a revolutionary class of printable liquid devices for a variety of applications from artificial cells that deliver targeted cancer therapies to flexible liquid robots that can change their shape to adapt to their surroundings.

Researchers have created a new type of tiny 3D-printed robot that moves by harnessing vibration from piezoelectric actuators, ultrasound sources or even tiny speakers. Swarms of these 'micro-bristle-bots' might work together to sense environmental changes, move materials -- or perhaps one day repair injuries inside the human body.

Scary movies about dolls that can move, like Anabelle and Chucky, are popular at theaters this summer. Meanwhile, a much less menacing animated doll has chemists talking. Researchers have given a foil 'paper doll' the ability to move and do sit-ups with a new material called polymer covalent organic frameworks (polyCOFs). They report their results in ACS Central Science.

In a new publication in Nature, University of Utah chemists Jolene Reid and Matthew Sigman show how analyzing previously published chemical reaction data can predict how hypothetical reactions may proceed, narrowing the range of conditions chemists need to explore. Their algorithmic prediction process, which includes aspects of machine learning, can save valuable time and resources in chemical research.

Scientists at Linkoping University working with colleagues from China have shown how to achieve efficient perovskite light-emitting diodes (LEDs). In an article published in Nature Communications, they provide guidelines on fabricating high-quality perovskite light emitters, and consequently high-efficiency perovskite LEDs.

Researchers from Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Ghent University (UGent) and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have pioneered a novel, dynamic, reprogrammable material -- by using green LED light and, remarkably, darkness as the switches to change the material's polymer structure, and using only two inexpensive chemical compounds.

Over the last 15 years, researchers at The University of Texas at Dallas and their international colleagues have invented several types of strong, powerful artificial muscles using materials ranging from high-tech carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to ordinary fishing line. In a new study published July 12, 2019 in the journal Science, the researchers describe their latest advance, called sheath-run artificial muscles, or SRAMs.

Research conducted by Brazilian and Italian scientists ordered the structure of polythiophene to enhance the optical and electronic properties of this organic conductive polymer.