Materials Science and Engineering

This diagram shows how an electrical voltage can be used to modify the oxygen concentration, and therefore the phase and structure, of strontium cobaltites. Pumping oxygen in and out transforms the material from the brownmillerite form (left) to the perovskite form (right).

Switchable material could enable new memory chips

Small voltage can flip thin film between two crystal states — one metallic, one semiconducting.

January 20, 2016

Donald Sadoway (right) of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, David Bradwell MEng ’06, PhD ’11, and their collaborators have developed a novel molten-metal battery that is low-cost, high-capacity, efficient, long-lasting, and easy to manufacture — characteristics that make it ideal for storing electricity on power grids today and in the future.

A battery made of molten metals

New battery may offer low-cost, long-lasting storage for the grid.

January 12, 2016

A donkey grazes in a pasture near solar panels at Sanctuary Dairy Farm Ice Cream in Sunapee, New Hampshire.

Concentrating dawn-to-dusk solar energy

MOSAIC award spurs MIT research into concentrator solar cells that can run in shade and full sun with power control and wavelength separation.

January 11, 2016

The layer-by-layer solar thermal fuel polymer film comprises three distinct layers (4 to 5 microns in thickness for each). Cross-linking after each layer enables building up films of tunable thickness.

A new way to store solar heat

Material could harvest sunlight by day, release heat on demand hours or days later.

January 7, 2016

This diagram illustrates the principle behind the proposed energy-harvesting system. Two metal electrodes made of lithium-alloyed silicon form a sandwich around a layer of electrolyte, a polymer that ions (charged atoms) can move across. When the sandwich is bent, unequal stresses cause lithium ions to migrate across the electrolyte, producing a compensating electron current that can be harnessed ...

Harnessing the energy of small bending motions

New device could provide electrical power source from walking and other ambient motions.

January 6, 2016

MIT graduate students (l-r) Ritchie Chen, Kelsey Stoerzinger and Scott Grindy, won Silver Awards at the Materials Research Society 2015 Fall Meeting in Boston.

Grad students honored for their research at Materials Research Society meeting

Three MIT graduate students win Silver Awards for work on catalysts, hydrogels, and magnetic nanoparticles.

January 5, 2016

Angela Belcher (pictured), MIT professor of biological engineering and materials science and engineering; Paula Hammond, professor and head of the MIT Department of Chemical Engineering; Po-Yen Chen PhD ’15 (now at Brown University); and others have shown that a novel, high-efficiency, low-cost solar cell can be made using lead recovered from an abundant, old-technology source: lead-acid car bat...

Solar energy from discarded car batteries

An MIT development could benefit both the environment and human health.

December 22, 2015

(Clockwise from top left)
Angela M. Belcher; Sangeeta N. Bhatia; H. Robert Horvitz; and Emery N. Brown.

Four MIT faculty named 2015 fellows of the National Academy of Inventors

Belcher, Bhatia, Brown, and Horvitz recognized for demonstrating a prolific spirit of innovation and invention resulting in a tangible impact on society.

December 18, 2015

Rediscovering fundamental innovation

Eugene Fitzgerald explores the innovation dynamics that produce new technological and economic paradigms.

December 3, 2015

Representatives from the Americas, Europe, and Africa gathered at MIT for the first International Workshop on Alternative Potash, Nov. 10-12.

Potash: A silent crisis brews

Farmers in Africa and other tropical areas in the Southern Hemisphere are stripping potassium from soils without replacing it.

November 24, 2015

Powering science

The MIT High Performance Research Computing Facility powers MIT research behind the scenes.

November 20, 2015

Close-up image of part of the shell of a chiton (Acanthopleura granulata) shows the two kinds of sensory organs that cover the shell surface. The eyes are the dark bumps with shiny centers. The exact function of other sensory organs called aesthetes (small bumps with black centers) is not yet known.

Armor plating with built-in transparent ceramic eyes

Tiny sea creatures feature transparent optical systems as tough as their shells.

November 19, 2015

Why MIT.nano?

Doug Spreng ’65 believes nanotechnology could hold the biggest payoffs — for everyone.

November 13, 2015

MIT Libraries explore 17th-century postal archive in "Signed, Sealed, and Undelivered"

2,600 recently rediscovered early modern letters to be analyzed in groundbreaking international digital humanities project.

November 10, 2015

MIT postdoc Davide Ciceri holds a microfluidic device he designed to study leaching of potassium from the silicate mineral potassium feldspar.

Leaching study boosts potash alternative

Microfluidic experiments show feldspar releases potassium at a higher rate than expected, suggesting new possibilities for using ground rocks in agriculture.