Researchers unveil a secret of stronger metals

May 21, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Forming metal into the shapes needed for various purposes can be done in many ways, including casting, machining, rolling, and forging. These processes affect the sizes and shapes of the tiny crystalline grains that make up the bulk metal, whether it be steel, aluminum or...

Mixing laser- and x-ray-beams

May 21, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Unlike fictional laser swords, real laser beams do not interact with each other when they cross – unless the beams meet within a suitable material allowing for nonlinear light-matter interaction. In such a case, wave mixing can give rise to beams with changed colors and...

Bacterial enzyme produces biodegradable polymer

May 21, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Researchers discovered a bacterial enzyme, structurally characterized at the Advanced Light Source (ALS), that synthesizes a biopolymer whose repeating units are linked together in a way that had not been previously observed (ACS Central Science, "A Synthetic Gene Library Yields a Previously Unknown Glycoside Phosphorylase...

Washable and recyclable solar cell-infused textiles

May 21, 2022 (Nanowerk News) In previous studies, solar cells have been installed on the surfaces, layered on top, or weaved into the threads of textiles. During the three-year Sun-powered Textiles project, researchers at Aalto University’s departments of physics and design developed a method of adhering solar cells to textiles...

Light-controlled reactions at the nanoscale

May 19, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Controlling strong electromagnetic fields on nanoparticles is the key to triggering targeted molecular reactions on their surfaces. Such control over strong fields is achieved via laser light. Although laser-induced formation and breaking of molecular bonds on nanoparticle surfaces have been observed in the past, nanoscopic...