One of the most common methods of improving the corrosion resistance of steel is coating it with other metals such as aluminum (Al). But the use of Al in marine applications is limited owing to its tendency to react with chloride ions in sea water, leading to corrosion. The addition of other elements, such as magnesium (Mg) and silicon (Si), to form an alloyed coating is a promising way around this problem. But Mg cannot be easily deposited as a coating using the conventional method of dipping the steel into a hot bath of metal salts.
In a recent study published in Corrosion Science, scientists have developed a new protocol for Al-Mg-Si coating of steel. “When I served in the navy, I was constantly looking at rusting machinery. Since then, I have become fully engaged in research on how to produce better anti-corrosive steels,” says Professor Myeong-Hoon Lee of the Korea National Maritime and Ocean University, who guided the study. This study was made available online on September 9, 2021 and was published in Volume 192 of the journal in November 2021.
Classified as a simple binary compound, magnesium diboride (MgB2) is also sometimes known as an intermetallic superconductor. It has a hexagonal crystal structure, which forms two-dimensional layers of boron in a graphite-like structure between the triangular layers of magnesium (as seen in the two images above).
MgB2‘s biggest claim to fame is its status as a relatively inexpensive superconductor. Among conventional superconductors (those that are phonon-mediated), it has one of the highest critical temperatures, at around 39 K. Though it had been known as a material to scientists for some time, its superconductivity was not discovered until 2001. Aside from being a high-temperature superconductor, MgB2 also has more than one superconducting energy gap, something theorized but rarely seen experimentally.
The bulk, polycrystalline form of the material can be easily made by exposing solid boron to magnesium vapor at high temperatures. Single crystals of the material are more difficult to form, but can be done so under high pressure. Thin films are often made through hybrid physical-chemical vapor deposition.
Applications (or possible applications) of MgB2 often take advantage of its superconductivity, such as in MRIs and tokamaks, but the material does have other suggested uses. The compound burns completely when ignited in oxygen, and so has been proposed for usage as a fuel in ramjets, or in blast-enhanced explosives and propellants.
Where do electronics go when they die? Most devices are laid to eternal rest in landfills. But what if they just dissolved away, or broke down to their molecular components so that the material could be recycled?
University of Illinois researchers have developed heat-triggered self-destructing electronic devices, a step toward greatly reducing electronic waste and boosting sustainability in device manufacturing. They also developed a radio-controlled trigger that could remotely activate self-destruction on demand.
The researchers, led by aerospace engineering professor Scott R. White, published their work in the journal Advanced Materials.
“We have demonstrated electronics that are there when you need them and gone when you don’t need them anymore,” White said. “This is a way of creating sustainability in the materials that are used in modern-day electronics. This was our first attempt to use an environmental stimulus to trigger destruction.”
For the first time, researchers have fabricated sensing elements known as fiber Bragg gratings inside optical fibers designed to dissolve completely inside the body. The bioresorbable fiber Bragg gratings could be used for in-body monitoring of bone fracture healing and for safer exploration of sensitive organs such as the brain.
A fiber Bragg grating is an optical element inscribed in an optical fiber, which is widely used as a sensing instrument. Although fiber Bragg gratings are commonly used for applications such as real-time monitoring of the structural health of bridges or tracking the integrity of airplane wings, until now they didn’t exhibit characteristics preferred for use in the body. With a design that allows them to break down similarly to dissolvable stitches, the new glass fibers should be safe for patients even if they accidently break, according to the researchers.
“Our work paves the way toward optical fiber sensors that can be safely inserted into the human body,” said Maria Konstantaki, a member of the research team from the Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser (IESL) of the Foundation of Research and Technology - Hellas (FORTH), Greece, that fabricated and characterized the new gratings. “Because they dissolve, these sensors don’t need to be removed after use and would enable new ways to perform efficient treatments and diagnoses in the body.”
A redesigned metastable phase of vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) shows extraordinary performance as a cathode material for magnesium batteries. The graphic compares the conventional (right) and metastable structures of V2O5.
Credit: Justin Andrews, Texas A&M University
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A team of scientists, led by Texas A&M University, USA, chemist Sarbajit Banerjee, has discovered a metal-oxide magnesium battery cathode material, that could be used to produce batteries that promise higher density of energy storage on top of transformative advances in safety, cost and performance in comparison to their ubiquitous lithium-ion (Li-ion) counterparts.
The team’s solution relies on a redesigned form of an old Li-ion cathode material, vanadium pentoxide, which they proved is capable of reversibly inserting magnesium ions. They reconfigured the atoms to provide a different pathway for the magnesium ions to travel along, which creates a viable cathode material in which they can readily be inserted and extracted during discharging and charging of the battery.
This is achieved by limiting the location of the magnesium ions to relatively uncomfortable atomic positions by design, based on the way the vanadium pentoxide is made – a property known as metastability. This metastability helps prevent the magnesium ions from getting trapped within the material and promotes complete harvesting of their charge-storing capacity with negligible degradation of the material after many charge-recharge cycles.
The development could be a turning point in the field as it highlights the inherent advantages of using more imaginative, metastable materials like this new form of vanadium pentoxide.
Scientists have successfully tested an ultra-thin invisibility cloak made of microscopic rectangular gold blocks that can conform to the shape of an object and is undetectable with visible light.
The researchers from the US Department of Energy, Berkeley Lab and the University of California UC Berkeley created the cloak. It’s microscopic in size, but the researchers claim that the principles behind the technology should enable it to be developed full scale.
To create the cloak, the researchers used a thin layer of material called a metasurface made of magnesium fluoride, which was covered in millions of tiny golden antennae – each approximately 1/1000th the width of a human hair.
Each antenna is then designed to react with the light and scatter it back. ‘They actually delay the light, delay the reflection, in such a way that every point of your face would reflect light as if from a flat surface, like a mirror,’ as author, Xiang Zhang, director of Berkeley Lab’s Materials Sciences Division, told The Washington Post. The cloak can be turned on or off by switching the polarisation of the nanoantennas.
Lead author, Professor Xingjie Ni, Penn State University said, ‘The technology could eventually be used for military applications like making large objects like vehicles or aircraft or even individual soldiers invisible.’
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RECIPE FOR THESE 2 WEEKS OF BLISS SRS BLISS BALLS are currently featured in my stories. I can repost anytime 4 you tho. These are actually great because they are so rich with cacao that it means I wont eat 3 a day. Phew! ALSO! Please subscribe to my mailing list, link on my profile! Ill be sharing moon conversations and sending out illustrated recipes every full moon! Next one coming early March! Blessings and Salutations! ♡☆°•○
My latest project of digital art. Illustration and gift work for @7-percent’s story ‘Magnesium’, which can be found here.
I love to insert the boys into Granada Holmes settings and I tried to give them a bit of an amused look / style because I thought it would fit and they deserve some happy times.
This project was a bit difficult, because the screenshots from the Granda episode were blurry. But the fact that there are a lot of towels made it possible, because those profit from a blurry smooth look in the end, I guess.
Do not post my art on other sites/social media or use in any other way without my written permission.
OMG…. I had no idea you were doing this! What a wonderful surprise! This is wonderful visualisation of the scene. Any moment now, the owner of the Hammam is going to arrive with those glasses of sherbet!
My #iherbhaul, magnesium for muscular and joint pain, breast pain, PMS, PMDD, cramps, restless leg syndrome, tingling and twitching in legs, hands and face, anxiety, tachicardia and migraine. Fish oil for depression and mood swings for its antiinflamatory effect. How cool is having #hypothyroidism?
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Reponiendo básicos de #Iherb, magnesio para el dolor muscular y articular, dolor de pechos, SPM, PMDD, calambres, síndrome de piernas inquietas, hormigueo y espasmos en piernas, manos y cara, ansiedad, taquicardia y migraña. Aceite de pescado para la depresión y cambios de humor por su efecto antiinflamatorio ¿A que mola tener #hipotiroidismo?
