news 2022

Researchers including Göttingen University analyse resources, demographics and disruption in energy transition Research led by University of Queensland (UQ) and including the University of Göttingen analysed the effects of decarbonisation strategies by linking global resource inventories with demographic systems to generate a matrix showing the risks and benefits.

Modern solar cells work with thin layers of semiconductors that convert sunlight into electrical energy. The key to increasing their efficiency even further lies in the composition and structure of the material. Due to the way the material is manufactured, it can have defects that have a disruptive effect.

A team from the Friedrich Schiller University Jena has set up a new streak camera on ID16B, which can measure very fast kinetic phenomena present in light emission after receiving an X-ray pulse. The camera is now available to the user community to study complex carrier dynamics with spatio-temporal resolutions.

Researchers find new material with significant potential for electronics applications Diodes allow directed flows of current. Without them, modern electronics would be inconceivable. Until now, they had to be made out of two materials with different characteristics. A research team at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has now discovered a material that makes it possible to create a diode with a simple change in temperature.

In a pilot project, machine learning is helping to develop materials for hydrogen storage, for example. Artificial intelligence is opening up new possibilities in the development of new materials. Particularly in the search for materials for special applications such as high-entropy alloys, which contain several components in roughly equal proportions, machine learning could support research.

Although just cute little creatures at first glance, the microscopic geckos and octopuses fabricated by 3D laser printing in the molecular engineering labs at Heidelberg University could open up new opportunities in fields such as microrobotics or biomedicine. The printed microstructures are made from novel materials - known as smart polymers - whose size and mechanical properties can be tuned on demand and with high precision.

New insights into quantum phenomena at phase transitions In the past, quantum phenomena could be investigated only in the realm of just a few atoms. A research team from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the Technical University of Dresden (TUD) has now discovered conditions for which quantum entanglement dominates on much larger scales.

In order to exploit the promising potential of silicon (Si) as anode material in lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), it is necessary to overcome existing challenges such as capacity losses during battery operation. A team from MEET Battery Research Center, BACCARA International Graduate School at the University of Münster, and Helmholtz Institute Münster of Forschungszentrum Jülich demonstrated that coating silicon thin-film anodes with aluminum fluoride (AlF 3 ) leads to an enhanced cycling stability.

Research team led by Göttingen University observes formation of "dark" moiré interlayer excitons for the first time An international research team led by the University of Göttingen has, for the first time, observed the build-up of a physical phenomenon that plays a role in the conversion of sunlight into electrical energy in 2D materials.

Lithium metal and solid-state batteries are considered as batteries of the future. While scientists continue to develop the technology of the different battery types, their production still involves numerous challenges. A new production line at MEET Battery Research Center at the University of Münster now enables cell construction of these new battery types and expands production research at the site.

Molecular machines control a sizeable number of fundamental processes in nature. Embedded in a cellular environment, these processes play a central role in the intracellular and intercellular transportation of molecules, as well as in muscle contraction in humans and animals. In order for the entire organism to function, a well-defined orientation and arrangement of the molecular machines is essential.

A research team led by the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has taken an in-depth look at the internal workings of batteries during charging and discharging. Their findings may help optimize charging processes. When an electric car is being charged, the charge indicator moves quickly at first, be then much more slowly at the end.

Research team at Göttingen University develops new method for X-ray microscopy X-rays make it possible to explore inside human bodies or peer inside objects. The technology used to illuminating the detail in microscopically small structures is the same as that used in familiar situations - such as medical imaging at a clinic or luggage control at the airport.

Very thin wires made of a topological insulator could enable highly stable qubits, the building blocks of future quantum computers. Scientists see a new result in topological insulator devices as an important step towards realising the technology's potential / publication in 'Nature Nanotechnology' An international group of scientists have demonstrated that wires more than 100 times thinner than a human hair can act like a quantum one-way street for electrons when made of a peculiar material known as a topological insulator.

Incorporating various minerals in collagen puts these composite materials under stress and makes them particularly hard and strong What engineers discovered only about 100 years ago has been used by nature for as long as vertebrates have existed. Just as steel wires under strain increase the fracture resistance of prestressed concrete, bones become particularly hard and strong because their collagen fibres are under stress due to embedded mineral nanoparticles.

Scientists combine materials science invention with newly developed 3D printing technology Because of its outstanding transparency as well as its stability in contact with heat or chemicals, glass is relevant for many high-tech applications. However, conventional processes for shaping glass are often tedious, energy-intensive and quickly reach their limits for small and complicated components.

Compared to laboratory cells or aged but still intact commercial cells, shredded battery materials represent an even more complex sample. Active materials of both electrodes, inactive materials and electrolyte residues cannot be easily analysed separately.

02/24/2022 Würzburg researchers have highlighted and quantified a three-fold coupling between exciton, photon, and phonon in a microcavity with embedded two-dimensional materials. Atomically thin two-dimensional (2D) materials can provide highly interesting excitonic properties, which render them an attractive platform to explore polaritonic physics.

The project "HygroShape" is using a new approach in digital design and manufacturing to program wood as a natural material [Picture: University of Stuttgart / ICD, Robert Faulkner] Elegantly curved seating furniture that is delivered in a flat-pack and assumes its shape overnight all by itself - this may sound like a dream to those who ever puzzled over the assembly instructions from a furniture store.

Researchers at Leipzig University have succeeded in moving tiny amounts of liquid at will by remotely heating water over a metal film with a laser. The currents generated in this way can be used to manipulate and even capture tiny objects. This will unlock groundbreaking new solutions for nanotechnology, the manipulation of liquids in systems in tiny spaces, or in the field of diagnostics, by making it possible to detect the smallest concentrations of substances with new types of sensor systems.