LAB14 GmbH, a corporate network based in Germany that unites eight high-tech companies focused on nanofabrication, microfabrication, and surface analysis, has joined the MIT.nano Consortium. “The addition of LAB14 to the MIT.nano Consortium reinforces the importance of collaboration to advance the next set of great ideas,” says Vladimir Bulović, the founding faculty director of MIT.nano […]
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In industrial plants around the world, tiny bubbles cause big problems. Bubbles clog filters, disrupt chemical reactions, reduce throughput during biomanufacturing, and can even cause overheating in electronics and nuclear power plants. MIT Professor Kripa Varanasi has long studied methods to reduce bubble disruption. In a new study, Varanasi, along with PhD candidate Bert Vandereydt […]
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MIT.nano has added a new X-ray diffraction (XRD) instrument to its characterization toolset, enhancing facility users’ ability to analyze materials at the nanoscale. While many XRD systems exist across MIT’s campus, this new instrument, the Bruker D8 Discover Plus, is unique in that it features a high-brilliance micro-focus copper X-ray source — ideal for measuring […]
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Most materials have an inherent capacity to handle heat. Plastic, for instance, is typically a poor thermal conductor, whereas materials like marble move heat more efficiently. If you were to place one hand on a marble countertop and the other on a plastic cutting board, the marble would conduct more heat away from your hand, […]
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Metamaterials — materials whose properties are primarily dictated by their internal microstructure, and not their chemical makeup — have been redefining the engineering materials space for the last decade. To date, however, most metamaterials have been lightweight options designed for stiffness and strength. New research from the MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering introduces a computational design framework to […]
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You can tell a lot about a material based on the type of light you shine at it: Optical light illuminates a material’s surface, while X-rays reveal its internal structures and infrared captures a material’s radiating heat. Now, MIT physicists have used terahertz light to reveal inherent, quantum vibrations in a superconducting material, which have […]
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