Molecular Foundry

Single-phase body-centered cubic (bcc) refractory medium- or high-entropy alloys can retain compressive strength at elevated temperatures but suffer from extremely low tensile ductility and fracture toughness. We examined the strength and fracture ...

Researchers at Berkeley Lab have made the first real-time movies of copper nanoparticles as they evolve to convert carbon dioxide and water into renewable fuels and chemicals. Their new insights could help advance the next generation of solar fuels.

Crystals reveal the hidden geometry of molecules to the naked eye. Scientists use crystals to figure out the atomic structure of new materials, but many can't be grown large enough. Now, a team of researchers report a new technique in the January 19 issue of Nature that can discover the crystalline structure of any material.

The chemical and energy industries depend upon catalysts to drive the reactions used to create their products. Many important reactions use heterogeneous catalysts—meaning that the catalysts are in a different phase of matter than the substances they are reacting with, such as solid platinum reacting with gases in an automobile's catalytic converter.

The Quantum Systems Accelerator (QSA) pioneers studies to build and co-design the next generation of programmable quantum devices. An interdisciplinary team of scientists from QSA institutions, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), and the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), in collaboration with Los Alamos National Laboratory, conducted a series of experiments with a new type of…

🦋 Making progress in the world of algae-based biomaterials.

Quantum states are incredibly delicate, and easily destroyed. But the perfect solution could lie in warped crystals.

Scientists have measured the highest toughness ever recorded, of any material, while investigating a metallic alloy made of chromium, cobalt, and nickel (CrCoNi). Not only is the metal extremely ductile—which, in materials science, means highly malleable—and impressively strong (meaning it resists permanent deformation), its strength and ductility improve as it gets colder. This runs counter to most other materials…

CrCoNi-based alloys have very high fracture toughness at 20 kelvin.

Bertozzi, who shared the 2022 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, received her Ph.D. from Berkeley. She later became a professor in the College of Chemistry, where she conducting her seminal work.

Scientists said Thursday they have collaborated to create engineered microbes to make recyclable plastics that can replace the current non-recyclable products made by petrochemicals.

In 2021, lanthanide-doped nanoparticles made waves—or rather, an avalanche—when Changwan Lee, then a Ph.D. student in Jim Schuck's lab at Columbia Engineering, set off an extreme light-producing chain reaction from ultrasmall crystals developed at the Molecular Foundry at Berkeley Lab. Those same crystals are back again with a blink that can now be deliberately and indefinitely controlled.

In the body, crystals—made of things such as calcium or a collection of urine—form masses that can cause pain and serious health conditions. A University of Houston crystals expert, Jeffrey Rimer, Abraham E. Dukler Professor of Chemical Engineering, known globally for his seminal breakthroughs using innovative methods to control crystals to help treat malaria and kidney stones, is reporting a new method to control…

UC Berkeley faculty are fast-tracking the development of new and creative climate solutions.

Coating something rare—tiny shards of diamond—with the main ingredient in sand might sound unusual, but the end result turns out to have a number of valuable applications. The trick is, nobody knows for sure how the two materials bond.

Getting something for nothing doesn't work in physics. But it turns out that, by thinking like a strategic gamer, and with some help from a demon, improved energy efficiency for complex systems like data centers might be possible.

AAAS is the largest scientific society in the world and publisher of the journal Science

As semiconductor devices become ever smaller, researchers are exploring two-dimensional (2D) materials for potential applications in transistors and optoelectronics. Controlling the flow of electricity and heat through these materials is key to their functionality, but first we need to understand the details of those behaviors at atomic scales.

Scientists have measured the highest toughness ever recorded, of any material, while investigating a metallic alloy made of chromium, cobalt, and nickel. Not only is the metal exceptionally strong and ductile, its properties become enhanced as it gets colder. This runs counter to most other materials in existence.

The silicon-based computer chips that power our modern devices require vast amounts of energy to operate. Despite ever-improving computing efficiency, information technology is projected to consume around 25% of all primary energy produced by 2030. Researchers in the microelectronics and materials sciences communities are seeking ways to sustainably manage the global need for computing power.