Materials Sciences

Engineers at Ohio State University have incorporated clay and other chemicals into a paint that keeps metal from corroding — and reveals when an airplane, boat, or bridge needs to be repainted.

Though the paint is still under development, early tests have shown that it prevents corrosion just as well as commercial paints that are less environmentally friendly.

The new paint is unique because its pigment contains tiny particles of clay that capture the chemicals that cause co

One of the most widely used plastics in the world — PVC — could be on the verge of becoming more fire retardant and environmentally friendly, thanks to the work of researchers at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va.

PVC is practically ubiquitous in our society, especially in many homes. Household products from water pipes to shower curtains and house siding to window shades and wall coverings are made from poly(vinyl chloride).

Polymer chemists developed

Automotive manufacturers may soon benefit from a new breed of metals – known as functionally gradient materials – that can withstand the high temperatures of die casting without cracking under pressure, according to a researcher at the University of Missouri-Rolla.

UMR researchers, led by Dr. Frank Liou, director of the manufacturing engineering program and professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, hope to build better die-casting molds by developing materials that are both

People are just as likely to be killed, or property damaged, by the shock wave from an exploding bomb as from flying debris or flames. The rush of gases emanating from a bomb can travel more than 10 times the speed of sound, destroying everything in its path.

Two University of Rhode Island engineers have constructed a “shock tube” to simulate this rush of gas so they can test the ability of various new composite materials to withstand these extreme forces.

“What we’re

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have discovered that the addition of carbon nanotubes to a common commercial polymer, polypropylene, leads to dramatic changes in how the molten polymer flows. This process eliminates a widespread manufacturing headache known as “die-swell” in which polymers swell in undesirable directions when passing through the exit port of an extruder (a machine for producing more or less continuous lengths of plastic sections).

A major foresight project on materials technology has been launched to put Norway’s need for expertise in nano- and materials technology on the agenda.

Norway hasn’t had a general R&D strategy for materials technology or nanotechnology since the 1980’s and is far behind the USA and the rest of Europe. In 1999, Bill Clinton allocated 500 million US dollars to nano research through the Nanotech Initiative. The same year, the Norwegian White Paper on Research was presented without ment