Materials Science

When travelling at hypersonic speeds, the heat generated can threaten the structural integrity of aircraft as temperatures soar to between 2,000 and 3,000°C. Until now ultra-high temperature ceramics (UHTCs) developed to provide protection for craft and projectiles travelling at five times the speed of sound (Mach 5) or above have not been sufficiently effective. However, a carbide coating developed by researchers at the University of Manchester and Central South University (CSU) China is proving to be 12 times better than conventional Zirconium carbide (ZrC), an extremely hard refractory ceramic material commercially used for cutting tools. [ 234 more words ]

http://materialsscience.news/2017/08/hypersonic-coating-developed-heat-mitigation-flight/

Hypersonic coating developed for heat mitigation in flight A ceramic coating has been created for that will enable hypersonic travel and delivery by civil and military aircraft and rockets.

Researchers have developed a new 3-D printing method to create objects that change shape when exposed to heat. The researchers created the objects by printing layers of shape memory polymers with each layer designed to respond differently when exposed to heat. “This new approach significantly simplifies and increases the potential of 4-D printing by incorporating the mechanical programming post-processing step directly into the 3-D printing process,” said Professor Jerry Qi of the George W. [ 225 more words ]

http://materialsscience.news/2017/04/objects-created-3-d-printing-can-change-shape-permanently-response-heat/

Objects created by 3-D printing that can change shape permanently in response to heat Researchers have developed a new 3-D printing method to create objects that can transform into different shapes as a result of heat.

A more powerful membrane has been created which can better purify drinking water. Graphene-oxide membranes have demonstrated the potential of filtering out small nanoparticles, organic molecules, and even large salts but were not capable of sieving common salts in desalination processes. Graphene-oxide membranes can become slightly swollen when immersed in water allowing smaller salts to flow through the membrane along with water, while larger ions or molecules are blocked. [ 93 more words ]

http://materialsscience.news/2017/04/production-clean-drinking-water-made-possible-scalable-membrane/

The production of clean drinking water made possible by a scalable membrane The promise of graphene-oxide membranes in achieving effective water filtration has been realised with the development of a membrane capable of sieving common salts.