Physicists see light waves moving through a metal

Oct 27, 2022 (Nanowerk News) When we encounter metals in our day-to-day lives, we perceive them as shiny. That’s because common metallic materials are reflective at visible light wavelengths and will bounce back any light that strikes them. While metals are well suited to conducting electricity and heat, they aren’t...

Nanoglues stabilize metal atoms for catalysis

Oct 28, 2022 (Nanowerk News) In a study published in Nature ("Functional CeOx nanoglues for robust atomically dispersed catalysts"), a research team led by Prof. ZENG Jie from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and international collaborators developed a novel “nanoglue”...

A soil-inspired multifunctional nanostructured chemical system

Oct 28, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Soil is a dynamic system of microbe-material interactions and environmental responsiveness. The soil-microbe complex is an integrated and adaptable system that can reshape its state according to the external environment. Inspired by these characteristics of soil, researchers have designed a chemical system in which chemical...

What if ceramics were ductile?

Oct 27, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Making of ductile ceramics is a hard task. Plasticity in ceramics is rarely observed and typically requires special conditions such as extreme temperatures to be plausible. Therefore, instead on denting, your ceramic coffee mug will fracture into pieces when dropped on a hard floor. In...