Scientists have unraveled details of the mechanism of mechanical reinforcement in glassy polymer nanocomposites.1 Measurements in the interfacial layer ~2–4 nm around nanoparticles revealed that Young’s modulus, which defines the relationship between
Filter Research Highlights
Area of Research
Misfit heterojunctions formed by van der Waals (vdW) epitaxial growth of one crystalline metal chalcogenide monolayer on another was demonstrated for the first time to form p-n junctions that exhibit a photovoltaic response.
The detection of local phase transitions remains challenging, and to date most techniques can detect properties that change at macroscopic scales or at atomic scales, but virtually no technique offers the ability to monitor and map bias-induced phase trans
Giant elastic tunability—the Young’s modulus changes reversibly over 30% under applied electric fields—was discovered in BiFeO3 epitaxial thin films through an atomic force microscopy study utilizing band-excitation piezroresponse spectroscopy.
Contradicting theoretical expectations, researchers discovered that increased molecular weight of a polymer significantly reduces the influence of nanoparticles on macroscopic properties of polymer nanocomposite.