Audio Materials Science

12/20/2023

Happy Holidays! *

04/04/2023

Innovative Materials and Cooling Technologies for Next-Generation Electronic Chips and Data Center Cooling

In Elison Matioli's TEDx talk "Can Materials Mimic the Human Body," he explores nature-inspired solutions to address the limitations of shrinking electronic transistors and the heat management challenges in data centers.

Apparently unpredictable yet controllable, phase change materials like vanadium oxide offer a promising alternative to traditional transistors. These materials exhibit a kind of memory of the previous excitation, stored within the structure of the material for hours, and adjust its time response to an applied voltage accordingly.

To address heat generation in electronics, Matioli's team developed micro-tubes embedded within chips to bring the heat sink closer to hot spots. An optimized network of microfluidic tubes, reminiscent of the human body's vascular system, can create a more efficient cooling system. This could potentially make the chips more powerful and reduce data centers’ environmental impact.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEdLwzRpWlY&feature=youtu.be

Prof. Dr. Elison Matioli’s research focuses on the development of new semiconductor device concepts for more efficient use of energy and less heat generation...

03/25/2023

Researchers Produced Film Material That Changes Color When Stretched
MIT's Laboratory for Bio-Inspired Photonic Engineering has pioneered a groundbreaking technique for creating large-scale, structurally colored materials that change hues when stretched. By exposing holographic recording material to light from a projector and bonding it to a reflective surface, the researchers developed stretchable, color-shifting materials that can be applied to textiles for visually dynamic fabrics or thin sheets of black silicone for light-sensitive applications. This scalable manufacturing approach, leveraging modern holography, has opened up avenues for innovation in technology and medicine. The team's technique rapidly produces detailed images, and the resulting material's nanoscale structures reconfigure when stretched, causing a change in color due to its sensitivity to strain. This work represents a simple yet highly effective method to develop large-area photonic structures.
https://youtu.be/3-BH7164GaM

Inspired by "structural color" found in nature, a team of engineers have developed a technique for producing materials that when stretched can transform thei...

03/15/2023

Viable Superconducting Material Created at Low Temperature and Low Pressure
Researchers from the University of Rochester and Georgetown University have achieved a groundbreaking feat by developing a nitrogen-doped lutetium hydride (NDLH) superconducting material that operates at 20.5ºC and 10 kilobars of pressure. Detailed in a Nature publication, this breakthrough offers promising applications in efficient energy storage and advanced computing technology. The scientists created a gas mixture containing 99% hydrogen and 1% nitrogen, which reacted with lutetium for two to three days at 200ºC, yielding a lustrous blue compound. Upon compression, the material transformed visually, transitioning from blue to pink with the onset of superconductivity, followed by a bright red non-superconducting metallic state, dubbed Reddmatter. This innovation sets the stage for superconducting consumer electronics, energy transfer lines, transportation solutions, and improved magnetic confinement in fusion. The team also envisions harnessing machine-learning algorithms to identify other potential superconducting materials from diverse element combinations.
https://youtu.be/WLtdP2D8L0A

In a historic achievement, University of Rochester researchers have created a superconducting material at both a temperature and pressure low enough for prac...

02/19/2022

Speaker Applications Using Alpine HX5 Ultra Strong Lightweight Nanocomposite. An extensive Market Update feature article on Speaker Technology was published in the January 2022 of AudioXpress magazine, highlighting a couple of exciting technologies and materials that should be on the radar of loudspeaker designers.
In that feature, Mike Klasco discusses a lightweight military aviation-grade nanocomposite from Alpine Advanced Materials, named HX5, which he explains in more detail in a dedicated online piece.
HX5 may be an interesting alternative to beryllium and high-performance aluminum alloys used in woofer, midrange, and full-range cones, and the material is an obvious candidate for enclosures and cabinets. Exciting stuff!
https://www.menloscientific.com/single-post/speaker-applications-using-alpine-hx5-ultra-strong-lightweight-nanocomposite

Speaker Applications Using Alpine HX5 Nanocomposite. This is a lightweight and ultra-strong material that should be on the radar of loudspeaker designers. I explain HX5 in more detail in a dedicated online piece, available here.

12/31/2021

Happy New Year!
Here’s to New Discoveries and Infinite Possibilities!
https://www.menloscientific.com/materials

08/08/2021

Semiconductor Surface States Bend Light Wavelength
Electrical engineers from the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering have developed a more efficient way of converting light from one wavelength to another, opening the door for improvements in the performance of imaging, sensing and communication systems. The UCLA-led team has devised a solution to enhance wavelength-conversion efficiency by exploring a generally undesirable but natural phenomenon called semiconductor surface states. "Incoming light can hit the electrons in the semiconductor lattice and move them to a higher energy state, at which point they are free to jump around within the lattice. The electric field created across the surface of the semiconductor further accelerates these photo-excited, high-energy electrons, which then unload the extra energy they gained by radiating it at different optical wavelengths, thus converting the wavelengths,” explains Deniz Turan, the study's lead author. "Through this new framework, wavelength conversion happens easily and without any extra added source of energy as the incoming light crosses the field," he adds.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-24957-1

07/24/2021

MoS2 Superconductivity Breakthrough
For the first time, researchers at the Swiss Nanoscience Institute (University of Basel) have equipped an atomically thin semiconductor with superconducting contacts. "In a superconductor, the electrons arrange themselves into pairs, like partners in a dance — with weird and wonderful consequences, such as the flow of the electrical current without a resistance," explains Dr Andreas Baumgartner. "In the semiconductor molybdenum disulfide, on the other hand, the electrons perform a completely different dance, a strange solo routine that also incorporates their magnetic moments. Now we would like to find out which new and exotic dances the electrons agree upon if we combine these materials."
This video from the Swiss Nanoscience Institute shows the elaborate fabrication process:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsjOtEsh7qA

For the first time, SNI researchers (University of Basel) have equipped an atomically thin semiconductor with superconducting contacts. In this video, they s...

05/02/2021

Lithium-ion batteries, with its high power density to weight ratio, are found in almost every portable device, leading the rechargeable battery market worldwide. They were first commercialized in 1992 by Sony Corporation. Lithium is the most electropositive metal and the least dense solid element at room temperature. Electric vehicles and renewable energy technology greatly benefit from its properties. However, lithium technology raises concerns about its long-term sustainability — related to the material’s toxicity, availability and safety — that has been a much-discussed issue over the past years.
https://youtu.be/5xm2rLlJeg4

Made out of lightweight lithium and carbon, lithium ion batteries are favored for many rechargeable purposes. They have a high-energy density and can be rech...

04/04/2021

Sound diffusing panels are made from materials able to scatter the sound energy into several directions, creating a more uniform sound field in the room over a broad frequency range. Porosity is not a desired property of these materials as it contributes to sound absorption and not diffuse reflection. The surface shape and mathematical patterns are the crucial elements while designing diffusors. Choice of material is the second most important consideration. Solid wood is a natural choice, but an ideal spreading of sound energy can be achieved with planned patterns using advanced natural composites such as Sappi Symbio. These premium cellulose fibers delivered as granules benefit from a natural look, warm touch, high rigidity with low density, and can be used in standard processing equipment, such as injection moulding and extrusion.
https://www.sappi.com/symbio

03/28/2021

Metallic glass is an emerging class of high-performance materials whose unique properties are derived from its amorphous microstructure (absence of long-range order). The exceptionally high strength and elastic limit of these metallic glasses compared to their crystalline polymorphs allows them to store a substantially high elastic energy. But these resilient materials can also be easily shaped like plastics into complex configurations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bd370rlvT5M&t=39s

Yale Professor Jan Schroers and his graduate students have developed some unique uses for metallic glasses, a particularly tough metallic alloy that can be m...

03/22/2021

Natural fiber composites are cost effective, lightweight and eco-friendly solutions. Different material constituents absorb different frequency ranges, so the composites can be engineered to a wide range of sound absorbing and noise control applications. Sound absorption depends on properties such as porosity, since acoustic energy is converted to heat at the pores’ walls due to thermal and viscous losses.
https://www.audiomaterialsscience.com