Everyone wants smaller, cheaper, longer-lasting batteries. Find one that also has greater safety and stability, and you have the Holy Grail of better batteries. Lithium-ion batteries have been the hands-down favorite for smartphones, tablets, laptops, cameras and rechargeable power tools for decades. But they also have drawbacks, such as “thermal runaway” in which a battery…
Scientists make strong, super-tough carbon sheets at low temperature
An international research team led by scientists at Beihang University in China and The University of Texas at Dallas has developed high-strength, super-tough sheets of carbon that can be inexpensively fabricated at low temperatures. The team made the sheets by chemically stitching together platelets of graphitic carbon, which is similar to the graphite found in the…
Video of the Day: UT Dallas Team’s Microscopic Solution May Save Researchers Big Time
Researchers at the University of Texas in Dallas have claimed that they’ve figure out how to prevent the tip of a scanning tunneling microscope from crashing into the surface of a material during imaging or lithography. They found that there was a small electronic barrier that controls the rate of tunneling, and so they figured out…
Physicists Decipher Electronic Properties of Materials in Work That May Change Transistors
University of Texas at Dallas physicists have published new findings examining the electrical properties of materials that could be harnessed for next-generation transistors and electronics. Dr. Fan Zhang, assistant professor of physics, and senior physics student Armin Khamoshi recently published their research on transition metal dichalcogenides, or TMDs, in the journal Nature Communications. Zhang is a…
Discovery Could Energize Development of Longer-Lasting Batteries
A University of Texas at Dallas researcher has made a discovery that could open the door to cellphone and car batteries that last five times longer than current ones. Dr. Kyeongjae Cho, professor of materials science and engineering in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science, has discovered new catalyst materials for lithium-air…
Engineers Create Structures Tougher Than Bulletproof Vests
Researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas have created new structures that exploit the electromechanical properties of specific nanofibers to stretch to up to seven times their length, while remaining tougher than Kevlar. These structures absorb up to 98 joules per gram. Kevlar, often used to make bulletproof vests, can absorb up to 80…