"The purpose of this innovation is to develop advanced multilayered coating architectures to protect graphite substrates from hot hydrogen attack. The concept consists of coating the graphite substrate with metallic and non-metallic layers consisting of ZrC; Nb, Mo, and/or Nb-Mo alloy; and/or Mo₂C using a CVD process.

The coating architecture is designed with several factors in mind. First, a diffusion barrier coating must be developed to prevent or slow down the diffusion of the hydrogen through the ZrC coating to the graphite substrate during the operational life of the component. Second, the ZrC coating must be strengthened suitably to minimize the creep of the coating. Third, the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) mismatch between the ZrC coating and the Gr substrate must be minimized to prevent coating debonding. Fourth, the elements forming the coating should have high melting points and possess low neutron absorption cross-section for nuclear applications. "
  

"Argonne scientists used their Mira supercomputer to identify and improve a new mechanism for eliminating friction, which fed into the development of a hybrid material that exhibited superlubricity at the macroscale for the first time.

Researchers were amazed by what the computer simulations revealed. When the lubricant materials-graphene and diamond-like carbon (DLC)-slid against each other, the graphene began rolling up to form hollow cylindrical "scrolls" that helped to practically eliminate friction. These so-called nanoscrolls represented a completely new mechanism for superlubricity, a state in which friction essentially disappears. "
  

• Porous rough titanium coatings
• Additive manufacturing technologies
• Thin HA coatings"

"Although thermoelectric materials (TE) are well known and have been used for many years, even in the field of space engineering, the problem is that even [though] they are reliable, their performance is quite small and they are expensive. The most common materials used in commercial TE devices are based on lead (Pb), bismuth (Bi), tellurium (Te) and selenium (Se), which have several problems, as instability, toxicity or scarcity. So, the design of efficient TE materials to produce electricity from heat from industrial processes in a cleaner and more competitive way is one of the current challenges in materials science.

In this work, published at Advanced Materials, CiQUS researchers have demonstrated that rock salt structure-epitaxial CrN thin film, show an enhancement up to 250% of the thermoelectric figure of merit (a measure of the conversion efficiency) was reported in single-crystalline films of CrN at room temperature compared to bulk CrN."
  

"Flexible electronic devices such as organic Photovoltaics or OLED displays require encapsulation envelopes with extreme gas permeation barrier properties to achieve the required life time stability. A low cost manufacturing process for gas permeation barrier foils remains a critical success factor for massive market introduction of flexible electronic devices.

PECVD processing under atmospheric pressure is a technology with great promises, but the gas moisture barriers produced with this technology were not adequate for flexible electronic applications. Fujifilm recently developed a next generation of atmospheric PECVD technology and succeeded to use this new technology for the production of high quality moisture barrier films on PET foil."
  

"Today, ALD is being deployed through-out the computer chip at a rapidly increasing pace. By electronic materials advisory firm Linx Consulting's estimate, the global market for organometallic and organosilane ALD precursors was worth about $325 million last year and should jump almost $100 million this year alone. Linx expects it to approach $1 billion by 2019.

One new application is as a spacer in a process known as self-aligned multiple patterning. Suresh Rajaraman, global business director for advanced deposition materials at Air Products & Chemicals, explains that multiple patterning is an example both of the growing utility of ALD and of how the semiconductor industry solves the seemingly intractable problems that arise as chip geometry shrinks."
  

"Scientists already know how to coat components with diamond-like carbon to minimize friction. But now Fraunhofer researchers have developed a laser arc method with which layers of carbon almost as hard as diamond can be applied on an industrial scale at high coating rates and with high thicknesses. By applying carbon coatings to engine components such as piston rings and pins, fuel consumption can be reduced. "Systematic application of our new method could save more than 100 billion liters of fuel each year over the next ten years," says Prof. Andreas Leson from the Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology IWS in Dresden, referencing a study that was published in the journal Tribology International in 2012.

In a similar style to old-fashioned film projectors, the laser arc method generates an arc between an anode and a cathode (the carbon) in a vacuum. The arc is initiated by a laser pulse on the carbon target. This produces a plasma consisting of carbon ions, which is deposited as a coating on the workpiece in the vacuum. To run this process on an industrial scale, a pulsed laser is vertically scanned across a rotating graphite cylinder as a means of controlling the arc." 
  

"One of the barriers to using graphene at a commercial scale could be overcome using a method demonstrated by researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Graphene, a material stronger and stiffer than carbon fiber, has enormous commercial potential but has been impractical to employ on a large scale, with researchers limited to using small flakes of the material.

Now, using chemical vapor deposition, a team led by ORNL's Ivan Vlassiouk has fabricated polymer composites containing 2-inch-by-2-inch sheets of the one-atom thick hexagonally arranged carbon atoms. The findings, reported in the journal Applied Materials & Interfaces, could help usher in a new era in flexible electronics and change the way this reinforcing material is viewed and ultimately used "
  

"After debuting the world's first solar air battery last fall, researchers at The Ohio State University have now reached a new milestone. In the Journal of the American Chemical Society, they report that their patent-pending design-which combines a solar cell and a battery into a single device-now achieves a 20 percent energy savings over traditional lithium-iodine batteries. 

The 20 percent comes from sunlight, which is captured by a unique solar panel on top of the battery, explained Yiying Wu, professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Ohio State. The solar panel is now a solid sheet, rather than a mesh as in the previous design. Another key difference comes from the use of a water-based electrolyte inside the battery. Because water circulates inside it, the new design belongs to an emerging class of batteries called aqueous flow batteries. It is the first aqueous flow battery with solar capability. Or, as Wu and his team have dubbed it, the first "aqueous solar flow battery."
  

"Atmospheric vs. vacuum deposition in the flexible electronics era: Flexible and printed electronics are now a reality, as more and more devices with flexible form factors are being brought to market, while atmospheric additive deposition is already offering lower manufacturing costs and superior performance in many applications. This still leaves many applications where the merits of vacuum deposition outweigh the benefits of atmospheric processing, leading component and device manufacturers to choose vacuum processes over printing, or sometimes a combination of both, when that seems to be the ideal combination." 
  

"Over the past several years, we have observed a few trends regarding precision flat optics. More and more customers are making the assumption of quality, in turn making delivery more important than pricing for the most part. The assumption of quality needs to be substantiated with more questions to ensure that the proper metrology and levels of verification are used. Increasingly, the demand is for thinner and thinner optics, along with tighter surface flatness and higher levels of cleanliness.

To simplify the process when purchasing flat optics, the author discusses the top six factors from a manufacturer's perspective, all of which affect the three major areas of the purchasing decision: quality, delivery and cost."