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Materials

News and Updates

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NIST Study Uncovers a Potential Driver of Premature Solar Panel Failures

March 10, 2020

Unlike diamonds, solar panels are not forever. Ultraviolet rays, gusts of wind and heavy rain wear away at them over their lifetime. Manufacturers typically

Roll-Up TVs and Bendable Smartphones: Toward More Choices for Flexible Electronic Materials

March 6, 2020

Have you heard of foldable smartphones? How about the flexible television screen that rolls up into a box? Or the ultrathin “wallpaper” TVs that are just

Getting a closer look at living cells and batteries: a little bit of graphene goes a long way

March 6, 2020

Researchers at NIST have devised a way to eliminate a long-standing problem affecting our understanding of both living cells and batteries. When a solid and an

How Low Can You Go? Lower Than Ever Before

February 26, 2020

Silicon, the best-known semiconductor, is ubiquitous in electronic devices including cellphones, laptops and the electronics in cars. Now, researchers at the

NIST researcher in a laboratory room looking at tall vertical microscope with multicolored wires emanating from it.

A Simple Retrofit Transforms Ordinary Electron Microscopes Into High-Speed Atom-Scale Cameras

February 24, 2020

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and their collaborators have developed a way to retrofit the transmission electron

Small variations in bottlebrush polymers result in measurable changes

February 24, 2020

NIST scientists have found that very small changes in the structure of bottlebrush polymers prepared by “precision synthesis” result in measurable differences

Micrograph shows several connected trenches of metal on dark background.

Spotlight: Bottoms-Up Metal-Filling

February 19, 2020

A method worth its metal — filling microscopic holes with gold can be tricky, but NIST scientist Daniel Josell is up for the challenge. A type of medical

A Spin Wave Detective Story: NIST Researchers Verify Surprising Behavior in a 2D Magnet

February 18, 2020

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have discovered a surprising feature in two-dimensional (2D) magnets, a new class of

A man in a hard hard is holding a clipboard and looking towards a large wind turbine.

An Early Warning System for Damage in Composite Materials

February 18, 2020

A team at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has developed a tool to monitor changes in widely used composite materials known as fiber

Opposite sides of a quartz crystal resonator

Universe in the Balance

February 12, 2020

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have found a way to link measurements made by a device integral to microchip

Black and white micrograph of tiny cubes clustered together.

Spotlight: Polymer Microparticle Molds

January 26, 2020

Forget ice cube trays … we have microscopic molds for any shape we want. Scientists at NIST can now pour a polymer liquid into a template to make exact shapes —

Tracking Lab-Grown Tissue With Light

December 12, 2019

Someday, doctors would like to grow limbs and other body tissue for soldiers who have lost arms in battle, children who need a new heart or liver, and many

Group of executives performing ribbon cutting to open NIST beamlines at Brookhaven National Lab NSLS-II

New NIST Beamlines Now Open at Brookhaven for Materials Research

December 3, 2019

On Nov. 6, 2019, NIST celebrated the opening of three new X-ray beamlines at the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II) at Brookhaven National

MML Releases Updated Phase Equilibria Diagram Database (NIST SRD31)

November 27, 2019

Version 4.4 of Phase Equilibria Diagrams (Standard Reference Database 31) is now available to the research community. The database provides maps of the

Square checkerboard with 32 squares on each side surrounded by sunbeam-like lines emanating out from around the board.

NIST’s Light-Sensing Camera May Help Detect Extraterrestrial Life, Dark Matter

November 19, 2019

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have made one of the highest-performance cameras ever composed of sensors that count

woman in a blue dress and white sweater stands next to an electron microscope

Spotlight: June Lau

November 18, 2019

Closing in on a clear picture: NIST's June Lau, in collaboration with Brookhaven National Lab and Euclid Techlabs, is giving us a freeze-frame look at the

SBIR funds internationally marketable quality audit instrument

November 1, 2019

En’Urga Inc., an advanced diagnostic equipment company, recently found success with a Small Business Innovation Research award from the National Institute of

A twist and a spin: harnessing two quantum properties transforms a neutron beam into a powerful probe of material structure

October 29, 2019

By cleverly manipulating two properties of a neutron beam, NIST scientists and their collaborators have created a powerful probe of materials that have complex