Nanoporous Tungsten Oxide Coating on Steel

Steel is strong, pliable, elastic, and highly resistant to corrosion.But like most materials, steel is not invincible. When it touches especially aggressive liquids, such as blood, it can become corroded and contaminated and cause infections in patients. This eventually renders it useless.
 
A great way to sidestep this issue is to coat the steel's surface with chemicals that prevent it from fouling. But many of the best coatings are either environmentally toxic, mechanically weak, don't stick well to the steel, or don't have a long shelf-life. Until now.
 
Scientists from Harvard University announced Oct. 20 in the journal Nature Communications that they have developed a new type of coating that sticks to steel's surface and almost instantly wicks away liquids such as blood, cultures of the bacteria E. coli, and films of algae. There's also a bonus, the team reports: It makes the steel even stronger than it was before.
 
To illustrate the liquid-slicking properties of this material, which is made from the material nanoporous tungsten oxide (TO). When dipping a normal scalpel into blood,blood leaves a thick coating on the steel, which must be rinsed away with water. When the blade is coated in this new TO material, the scalpel appears to come out totally clean, with no blood sticking to it at all.
 
The technique uses a process called electrodeposition, which simply coats one metal with a thin layer of another metal. TO is part of a family of coatings called SLIPS, which stands for slippery liquid-infused porous surfaces. This group of materials reportedly repels almost all liquids and biological agents.
 
The team says in a press release that the material could be used in a range of commercial tools and devices, including scalpels, implants, nozzles for 3D printing, and even in buildings and marine vessels.
 
More testing is needed to ensure that it works in the field and that it is capable of repelling an even wider range of liquid materials over a long period of time. Still, this shows how smartly tweaking an existing technology can enhance its use and extend its shelf life.

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Apple Watch 2 Attempts New Material--Tungsten

It is reported that Apple Inc. will open a conference at March 21st, something new relating with Apple Watch2 will be shared in addition to publishing iPhone SE and the new iPad which are concerned, such as a new generation of upgraded model.

Apple watch 2 & tungsten

In the designing, Apple Watch 2 won’t be made drastic changes, but to improve the portability of the device through introducing new materials and magnetic strap to attract new buyers. Apple reported to try new materials include tungsten, palladium, titanium and platinum.

In the function, a new health function will be introduced into the second generation model (or a new software upgrade) - when the user is detected unforeseen circumstances, the device will automatically call for help to a doctor.

About the configuration, as the upgraded model, upgrading the hardware configuration is natural essential. It is reported that Apple Watch 2 will have upgrade in the following areas:
1. Introducing A32 processor (ARM Cortex-A32 CPU), A32 is the smallest, lowest power consumption of ARM v8-A designing;
2. Networking, the second generation model may bring 3G/4G networking feature, making it handling data traffic by their own short-term;
3. Battery life, in order to solve the problem that weaker endurance of Apple Watch, Apple Inc is reported to combine with Samsung and LG to develop thinner OLED panels for fitting the larger capacity battery.
4. The camera, a Face-Time camera will be added in the body, making video calls directly on the wrist becoming possible.

Tungsten, as a typical rare metal, an important strategic resource of the state, has the very important application. Tungsten is an important part of contemporary high-tech new material, and it is widely used in fields such as electro-optical materials, special alloys, new features materials and organometallic compounds, because of its properties such as high melting point, hardness and density, good electrical conductivity and thermal conductivity, low coefficient of expansion.

 

Tungsten Oxide Metallic Smart Windows Could Function in the Future as Electronics

Tungsten oxide is one of the mostly studied cathodic coloring electrochromic material. Electrochromic property of WO3 has been made into different electrochromic device and is applied in real life. There are many advantages of electrochromic device, transmittance can change continuously in a wide range and can be adjusted manually.

A B.C. engineering lab has created metal-coated glass that transmits up to 10 per cent more light than conventional glass and opens the door to windows that function as electronics. The most immediate use of the technology is to create windows that can be programmed to absorb or reflect heat, depending on the needs of a building’s occupants, said lead investigator Kenneth Chau, a professor at the University of British Columbia Okanagan. “What’s interesting about this discovery is that it’s counterintuitive, because we always think of metals as being opaque, so it runs against our expectations,” he said. “I think one of the most important implications of this research is the potential to integrate electronic capabilities into windows and make them smart.”

Tungsten Oxide Metallic Smart Window

But weren’t we all expecting glass to get a lot smarter?

“That’s true. When you watch Iron Man movies, they have displays on glass, they do computations on glass. This is a tiny step in that direction,” he said. Films like Iron Man and Star Trek provide scientists with inspiration for scientific progress, he said. “There is a dream that we can make glass smarter. These films give us concepts to strive for; the hard work is uncovering the science to make it happen.”

Glass is a crystalline structure that is fairly transparent, but not completely, you can still see it. Thin layers of metal actually boost the amount of light that goes through. While conventional glass does not conduct electricity, the metal layer creates an object with very different properties and the possibility of adding a variety of advanced technologies to a brilliantly transparent surface. Adding electronic control to windows will allow you to change the amount of light and heat passing through to more effectively use the energy provided by the sun naturally.

 

Chinese Scientists Had Successfully Produced the Anti Matter

The key laboratory of strong field laser physics of Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics(SIOM), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), announced that they had successfully produced the anti matter--- ultra-fast positron source by ultra-intense and ultra-short laser. It immediately triggered a widespread attention at home and abroad after reported. The research finding is also published in the Plasma Physics of International Journal. Anti matter, which makes people feel more abstract, is no longer just to be seen in the science fiction movies. Actually early in 2011, China and the United States scientists had cooperated and created the anti-helium 4, namely, anti alpha particles, it is heaviest anti matter thus far. Therefore, this study also established an important milestone for the human exploration of anti matter. To have heard so much about the anti matter news, we may feel that it’s so high-end but can’t help feel confuse too. What is anti matter? What does it do? And what is the ultra-intense and ultra-short laser?
 
What is anti matter?
 
We all know that the world has microscopic existence, all of the substances are basically composed of protons, neutrons, electrons, and so on. And most has its opposite existence, anti matter is the opposite existence of the substance, that is, the positron. It is formed by the anti particles, both will be combined with their opposite substances, then liberating the high-energy gamma rays and photon in the annihilation process. Its energy liberating in the annihilation process is far more than nuclear fusion energy, so the anti matter research is always the top issue all over the world. Ultra-fast positron source is one of the anti matters, it is obtained by the ultra-intense and ultra-short laser, which is manufactured of using femtosecond petawatt laser device by Chinese scientists. It can be well applied in the medical field such as the treatment of cancer, industrial areas such as testing material, as well as the field of high energy physics, this also means that ultra-fast positron source will play an important role in the research of Electron Positron Collider driven by laser. But when the anti matter was produced by the interaction of femtosecond petawatt laser device and high pressure gas target, it would release a lot of gamma ray. Therefore, in commonly, the tungsten alloy shielding would be set in peripheral of the device. Its high density characteristic makes it have high radiation shielding effectiveness, which can well prevent the radiation generated by the laser.
 
What is the role of anti matter?
 
Firstly, the biggest role is that to detect the material flaw, namely to use ultra-intense and ultra-short laser to produce the anti matter interior the materials, then relying on the gamma rays produced by anti matter in annihilation process to nondestructively detect the internal situations of materials, i.e., to see whether it is defective or damaged. Secondly, the high-energy produced by the annihilation of anti matter and interior substances can provide significant clean energy for mankind so as to change the current status quo of the Earth's energy shortage. Finally, with the development of scientific research and technology, the role of anti matter is not just limited to the inevitable, it can also be used to ascertain the mysteries of the universe, to study of new physical phenomena or to discovery of new physical phenomena, these are worth to be seen.
 
What is the ultra-intense and ultra-short laser?
 
We all know that when acting under the same circumstances, the shorter the time uses, the greater the power will be, so the energy thus produced will also be greater. The equipment that Chinese scientists used for successfully producing anti matter is the ultra-intense and ultra-short laser. What so-called ultra-short laser device is an ultra-high-power laser device, which refers to the strong high-energy and high-intensity. the ultra-short means short time, that is femtosecond Petawatt. Femtosecond (fs) is a unit of measurement of time. What is the idea? In simple terms, one second=1015 fs, this means that this ultra-intense and ultra-short laser reaches the femtosecond level, which is equivalent to produce 1,000 trillions watts of power. This is undoubted that it would have huge contribution to high-energy physics research and nuclear research, for nuclear fusion controlling and laser weapons manufacturing. Although the great scientific and technological progress of producing anti matter by ultra-intense and ultra-short laser will play a huge role in the future and be benefit of mankind, but for now it seems that the cost of institute, is undoubtedly enormous.
anti matterUltrafast positron sourcetungsten alloy shielding

 

Aerospace Commemorative Banknote Turned into Hot Potato, Tungsten Gold-Plated Coin Became New Favor

In November 2015, China issued a series of ordinary space commemorative coins and banknotes which is value of 10 Yuan and 100 Yuan. Because of its special commemorative significance and collection value, the space commemorative banknotes were highly sought after by people. Once launched, the citizens then rushed out to buy, because it was the first time for China to issue the theme of aerospace commemorative banknotes in the history, it can be said that it is very special and memorable, the appreciation of the value was increased more than 20 Yuan than par value.
 
But by March 11, 2016, the news reported that the value of the series of aerospace commemorative banknotes had fallen to 0, no one would like to buy. Why the price of such a series of valuable aerospace commemorative banknotes were going down and became the "hot potato", even stepping into the position that no businesses or banks are willing to receive it? It is understood that the biggest reason is that the total circulation is too large. We all know that less is more, it is also true for commemorative coins and commemorative banknotes. The circulation of this series of aerospace commemorative banknotes were exceeded about 300 million, so its appreciation of space was greatly limited.
 
When the variety of commemorative coins and commemorative banknotes were greatly and hot sought after by people, some collectors have put their eyes on the tungsten gold-plated products. The tungsten gold-plated products refer to the products that being made of the tungsten alloy and plated on its surface. It can not only be manufactured into commemorative coins, bars, but also a variety of crafts and collectibles. It can be prolonged kept, and has non-toxic and friendly environmental. Its high cost-performance and high collective potential makes it become the gold alternatives and gradually become the new favors of collection circles. This kind of commemorative coins will not meet the dilemma of no appreciation of space, and won’t cause great loss of theft and damage. Its inherent value is to be used as collection, which exists for the collection, and is made for commemorating.
aerospace commemorative coins and commemorative banknotes

 

 

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