Physicists engineer new property out of
“white” graphene
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MIT researchers and colleagues report the creation of a new ultrathin material with ferroelectricity, a property that could give the material important applications in computer memory and more. Here Kenji Yasuda (left), an MIT postdoctoral fellow, and Xirui Wang, an MIT graduate student in physics, stand in the MIT lab key to the work. Photo courtesy Kenji Yasuda and Xirui Wang |
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Ferroelectricity in ultrathin material could have applications in computer memory, more
Ultrathin materials made of a single layer of atoms have riveted scientists’ attention since the discovery of the first such material—graphene—about 17 years ago. Among other advances since then, researchers including those from a pioneering lab at MIT have found that stacking individual sheets of the 2D materials, and sometimes twisting them at a slight angle to each other, can give them new properties, from superconductivity to magnetism.
Now MIT physicists from the same lab and colleagues have done just that with boron nitride, known as “white graphene” in part because it has an atomic structure similar to its famous cousin. The team has shown that when two single sheets of boron nitride are stacked parallel to each other, the material becomes ferroelectric, in which positive and negative charges in the material spontaneously head to different sides, or poles. Upon the application of an external electric field, those charges switch sides, reversing the polarization. Importantly, all of this happens at room temperature.
The new material, which works via a mechanism that is completely different from existing ferroelectric materials, could have many applications.
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Living Sensors Probe Mysteries of the Gut |
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Xinyue Liu and Maria Eugenia Inda hold some of the equipment they and MIT colleagues used to create living sensors for studies of the gut. Liu is an MIT graduate student; Inda is an MIT postdoctoral fellow. Photo courtesy Xinyue Liu and Maria Eugenia Inda |
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Work could lead to better understanding of microbiome, detection of disease, more
Research into the human gut and the microbes key to its work—the gut microbiome—has boomed over the last decade or so because scientists have learned that the overall system has a much larger impact on our bodies than previously thought. Imbalances of chemicals produced in the gut, for example, have been linked to diseases including Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, and even hyperactivity in kids. Meanwhile, scientists are also working to create better diagnostics and therapies for diseases specific to the gut, like colon cancer.
“The challenge is that the gut is like a black box. We still don’t fully understand it because it’s difficult to access and study,” says Maria Eugenia Inda, a Pew Postdoctoral Fellow at MIT’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS).
Inda and colleagues report a new approach to solve that problem in the journal Advanced Functional Materials. Their work involves encapsulating living bacteria in a tiny, flexible disc of hydrogel that is ingested. Those bacteria, in turn, can detect compounds that could indicate disease. After eventual excretion of the disc, the bacteria within the disc can be analyzed to determine what they’ve detected and in what concentrations.
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Designing better batteries for electric vehicles |
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As researchers consider materials for solid-state batteries, they also may want to consider how those materials could impact large-scale manufacturing.
The urgent need to cut carbon emissions is prompting a rapid move toward electrified mobility and expanded deployment of solar and wind on the electric grid. If those trends escalate as expected, the need for better methods of storing electrical energy will intensify.
“We need all the strategies we can get to address the threat of climate change,” says Elsa Olivetti PhD ’07, the Esther and Harold E. Edgerton Associate Professor in Materials Science and Engineering. “Obviously, developing technologies for grid-based storage at a large scale is critical. But for mobile applications — in particular, transportation — much research is focusing on adapting today’s lithium-ion battery to make versions that are safer, smaller, and can store more energy for their size and weight.”
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We invite your company to become a member of the MRL Industry Collegium. As a member, your company will receive:
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To join the collegium contact:
Mark Beals
Associate Director, MRL
617-253-2129
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Cambridge, MA 02139
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