Materials science and engineering

Ruike Zhao, a postdoc in MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, says kirigami-patterned adhesives may enable a whole swath of products, from everyday medical bandages to wearable and soft electronics.

Paper-folding art inspires better bandages

Cutting kirigami-style slits in stretchy films could make for bandages, heat pads, and wearable electronics that adhere to flexible surfaces.

March 27, 2018

Diagram illustrates the crystal lattice of a proposed battery electrolyte material called Li3PO4. The researchers found that measuring how vibrations of sound move through the lattice could reveal how well ions – electrically charged atoms or molecules – could travel through the solid material, and therefore how they would work in a real battery. In this diagram, the purple pyramid-like shapes...

A new way to find better battery materials

Design principles could point to better electrolytes for next-generation lithium batteries.

March 25, 2018

MIT graduate engineering, business, science programs ranked highly by U.S. News for 2019

Graduate engineering program is No. 1 in the nation; MIT Sloan is No. 5.

March 20, 2018

An illustration depicting a kagome metal — an electrically conducting crystal, made from layers of iron and tin atoms, with each atomic layer arranged in the repeating pattern of a kagome lattice.

Physicists discover new quantum electronic material

With an atomic structure resembling a Japanese basketweaving pattern, “kagome metal” exhibits exotic, quantum behavior.

March 19, 2018

“It’s really essential for the nuclear sector, an industry that is struggling in the current economic climate, to incorporate lessons from other industries that successfully create, design, build, and distribute technology,” says Ka-Yen Yau.

From coolants to a carbon-constrained world

An early calling for clean energy propels undergraduate Ka-Yen Yau’s research on the next generation of nuclear technology.

March 15, 2018

Physicists at MIT and Harvard University have found that graphene, a lacy, honeycomb-like sheet of carbon atoms, can behave at two electrical extremes: as an insulator, in which electrons are completely blocked from flowing; and as a superconductor, in which electrical current can stream through without resistance.

Insulator or superconductor? Physicists find graphene is both

When rotated at a "magic angle," graphene sheets can form an insulator or a superconductor.

March 5, 2018

Photo of MIT's Building 10 at an angle with trees in front

MIT rates No. 1 in 12 subjects in 2018 QS World University Rankings

MIT ranked within top 5 in 19 out of 48 subject areas.

February 28, 2018

Polina Anikeeva was born in Leningrad, USSR, but grew up in St. Petersburg, Russia – the same city, whose name reverted to its original form after the fall of the Soviet Union. While in school there, she encountered two inspiring scientists who helped propel her toward a career at MIT, where she now develops cutting-edge materials to help researchers probe the mysteries of the brain in unprecede...

Seeking materials that match the brain

Polina Anikeeva explores ways to make neural probes that are compatible with delicate biological tissues.

February 18, 2018

Four faculty are among the 83 members and 16 foreign associates elected to the National Academy of Engineering.

Four MIT faculty elected to the National Academy of Engineering for 2018

New members have made advances in the development of plasticity, novel genetic evolution methods, systems modeling, and clean energy.

February 16, 2018

The team’s test device, which has been deployed on the roof of an MIT building for several months, was used to prove the principle behind their new energy-harvesting concept. The test device is the black box at right, behind a weather-monitoring system (white) and a set of test equipment to monitor the device’s performance (larger black case at left).

System draws power from daily temperature swings

Technology developed at MIT can harness temperature fluctuations of many kinds to produce electricity.

February 15, 2018

A recolored optical image obtained by MIT researchers shows a heart-shaped carbon nanotube cell. A version of the image is featured on the cover of the Feb. 14 print edition of Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics.

Getting to the heart of carbon nanotube clusters

MIT researchers create predictable patterns from unpredictable carbon nanotubes.

February 14, 2018

Jennifer Rupp's current ceramics research applications range from battery-based storage for renewable energy, to energy-harvesting systems, to devices used to store data during computation.

Jennifer Rupp: Engineering practical ceramics

Assistant professor in EECS is developing materials with novel structures and useful applications, including renewable energy and information storage.

February 9, 2018

Animals have evolved all manner of adaptations to get the nutrients they need. For nectar-feeding bats, long snouts and tongues let them dip in and out of flowers while hovering in mid-air. To help the cause, their tongues are covered in tiny hairs that serve as miniature spoons to scoop and drag up the tasty sap.

Hairy tongues help bats drink up

New model predicts how hairs on a bat’s tongue draw up nectar.

February 7, 2018

MIT engineers working with scientists in Kuwait have found that volcanic rocks, when pulverized into a fine ash, can be used as a sustainable additive in concrete structures.

Cities of the future may be built with locally available volcanic ash

Study finds adding volcanic ash reduces the overall energy required to manufacture concrete.

February 6, 2018

New software identified five different families of microstructures, each defined by a shared “skeleton” (blue), that optimally traded off three mechanical properties.

Automating materials design

With new approach, researchers specify desired properties of a material, and a computer system generates a structure accordingly.

February 2, 2018

MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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