Materials science and engineering

In this series, a 3-D printed multimaterial shape-memory minigripper, consisting of shape-memory hinges and adaptive touching tips, grasps a cap screw.

3-D printed structures “remember” their shapes

Heat-responsive materials may aid in controlled drug delivery and solar panel tracking.

August 26, 2016

New method developed for producing some metals

Using electricity rather than heat can reduce both energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions.

August 24, 2016

MIT graduate student George Ni holds a bubble-wrapped, sponge-like device that soaks up natural sunlight and heats water to boiling temperatures, generating steam through its pores.

Sponge creates steam using ambient sunlight

Bubble-wrapped structure requires no mirrors or lenses to focus the sun’s heat.

August 22, 2016

“This place is remarkable,” Alfredo Alexander-Katz, the Walter Henry Gale Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, says of MIT. “You can throw any crazy idea out there” and then pursue it.

Seeing nature through a molecular engineer’s eye

Alfredo Alexander-Katz probes systems in action, from clotting blood to walking molecules.

August 22, 2016

SolidEnergy Systems' battery (far right) is twice as energy-dense, yet just as safe and long-lasting as the lithium ion batteries used in consumer electronics. The battery uses a lithium metal foil for an anode, which can hold more ions and is several times thinner and lighter than traditional lithium metal, graphite, carbon, or silicon anodes. A novel electrolyte also keeps the battery from heati...

Doubling battery power of consumer electronics

New lithium metal batteries could make smartphones, drones, and electric cars last twice as long.

August 16, 2016

Mars’ Valles Marineris canyon, pictured, spans as much as 600 kilometers across and delves as much as 8 kilometers deep. The image was created from over 100 images of Mars taken by Viking Orbiters in the 1970s.

New technique may help detect Martian life

A novel interpretation of Raman spectra will help the 2020 Mars rover select rocks to study for signs of life.

August 15, 2016

Summer Scholar Grant Smith looks into a sputter deposition chamber, where he makes ultrathin films — from 2 to 10 nanometers thick — of magnetic materials suitable for spin-based electronics such as those used in computer memory systems.

Booting up spin-based device studies

Summer Scholar Grant Smith works to establish parameters for making ferromagnetic thin films in the Luqiao Liu lab.

August 15, 2016

MIT Department of Materials Science and Engineering graduate student Peter Su shows Summer Scholar Ashley Del Valle Morales how to operate a laser and detector system she will use during her summer project under Senior Research Scientist Anuradha Agarwal.

Chemical sensing at telecom wavelengths

Summer Scholar Ashley Del Valle Morales probes new a silicon carbide system in the MIT Microphotonics Center.

August 8, 2016

MIT aerospace engineers have found a way to bond composite layers, producing a material that is substantially stronger and more resistant to damage than other advanced composites. The improvement may lead to stronger, lighter airplane parts.

Carbon nanotube “stitches” strengthen composites

Method to reinforce these materials could help make airplane frames lighter, more damage-resistant.

August 2, 2016

Erica Eggleton is working this summer in the lab of MIT Professor Krystyn Van Vliet on lithium manganese oxide (LMO) electrodes for lithium ion batteries. Here, she measures out carbon powder, a binder, and LMO, the active powder used in the battery electrodes.

Analyzing lithium ion battery fatigue

Summer Scholar Erica Eggleton joins Van Vliet Lab to make and test lithium manganese oxide electrodes.

August 2, 2016

MIT Energy Initiative researchers are making technological progress across the low-carbon energy spectrum.

Addressing climate change with Low-Carbon Energy Centers

New interdisciplinary centers will advance clean technology in key areas.

July 28, 2016

Roughness- and deflection-induced excess carbon dioxide emissions on Virginia’s Interstate Highway network in 2013

Data-driven approach to pavement management lowers greenhouse gas emissions

July 26, 2016

In a new concept for battery cathodes, nanometer-scale particles made of lithium and oxygen compounds (depicted in red and white) are embedded in a sponge-like lattice (yellow) of cobalt oxide, which keeps them stable. The researchers propose that the material could be packaged in batteries that are very similar to conventional sealed batteries yet provide much more energy for their weight.

New lithium-oxygen battery greatly improves energy efficiency, longevity

New chemistry could overcome key drawbacks of lithium-air batteries.

July 25, 2016

Left to right: Roland Pellenq of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE), Katerina Ioannidou of the MIT Energy Initiative, and Franz-Josef Ulm of CEE have developed a detailed understanding of the nanoscale forces at work as cement hardens — a critical step toward developing stronger, longer-lasting, less carbon-intensive concrete for “greener” construction in the future.

Designing climate-friendly concrete, from the nanoscale up

New understanding of concrete’s properties could increase lifetime of the building material, decrease emissions.

July 21, 2016

The process of making a stack of parallel sheets of graphene starts with a chemical vapor deposition process (I) to make a graphene sheet with a polymer coating; these layers are then stacked (II), folded and cut (III) and stacked again and pressed, multiplying the number of layers. The team used a related method the team to produce scroll-shaped fibers.

Borrowing from pastry chefs, engineers create nanolayered composites

Method to stack hundreds of nanoscale layers could open new vistas in materials science.