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Material Measurement Laboratory

Materials Science and Engineering Division

News and Updates

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Lighten Up! New NIST Research Facility Gives Material Help to Automakers

August 26, 2014

Want to make more fuel-efficient cars and trucks? Build them out of lighter materials. Sounds easy, but it's not. Automakers have decades of experience with the...

Lithium Sulfur: A Battery Revolution on the Cheap?

June 3, 2014

Whip together an industrial waste product and a bit of plastic and you might have the recipe for the next revolution in battery technology. Scientists from the...

MML Researcher R. Joseph Kline Receives Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers

January 15, 2014

Material Measurement Laboratory researcher R. Joseph Kline was recently named among the 102 recipients of the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists...

What's the Matter? Q-Glasses Could Be a New Class of Solids

August 6, 2013

There may be more kinds of stuff than we thought. A team of researchers has reported possible evidence for a new category of solids, things that are neither...

Multiple views of NIST's photoelectrochemical hydrogen cell.

NIST Demonstrates Significant Improvement in the Performance of Solar-Powered Hydrogen Generation

May 14, 2013

Using a powerful combination of microanalytic techniques that simultaneously image photoelectric current and chemical reaction rates across a surface on a...

Shaking Things Up: NIST Researchers Propose New Old Way to Purify Carbon Nanotubes

April 30, 2013

An old, somewhat passé, trick used to purify protein samples based on their affinity for water has found new fans at the National Institute of Standards and...

Schematic shows self-quenched platinum deposition on a gold surface.

Novel NIST Process Is a Low-Cost Route to Ultrathin Platinum Films

December 12, 2012

A research group at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has developed a relatively simple, fast and effective method of depositing uniform...

Typical BCARS composite image of a polyethylene blend

Mix Masters: NIST Scientists Image the Molecular Structure of Polymer Blends

November 27, 2012

Using an enhanced form of "chemical microscopy" developed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), researchers there have shown that they...

In this computer model, small, pre-selected nanotube "seeds" are grown to long nanotubes of the same twist or "chirality" in a high-temperature gas of small carbon compounds.

'Cloning' Could Make Structurally Pure Nanotubes for Nanoelectronics

November 14, 2012

Researchers from the University of Southern California (USC) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have demonstrated a technique for...

September Workshop to Explore the Measurement Needs of the Flexible Electronics Industry

September 5, 2012

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), in concert with the FlexTech Alliance, will hold a workshop on "Flexible Printed Electronics...

New NIST-led Consortium Aims to Improve Process for Making 'Soft Materials'

July 11, 2012

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is launching a new consortium that will take the measure of a growing and increasingly important class...

Fabrication Method Can Affect the Use of Block Copolymer Thin Films

May 2, 2012

A new study by a team including scientists from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) indicates that thin polymer films can have different...

May Workshop Examines Impact of Advanced Imaging Technology on Tissue Engineering Research

April 17, 2012

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), in cooperation with the Multi-Agency Tissue Engineering Science (MATES) working group, is sponsoring...

Two for One: Simultaneous Size and Electrochemical Measurement of Nanomaterials

March 6, 2012

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have done a mash-up of two very different experimental techniques—neutron scattering...

Stretching Exercises: Using Digital Images to Understand Bridge Failures

January 10, 2012

With a random-looking spatter of paint specks, a pair of cameras and a whole lot of computer processing, engineer Mark Iadicola of the National Institute of...

Scanning electron microscope image of a typical sample of the NIST single-wall carbon nanotube soot standard reference material.

NIST Releases First Certified Reference Material for Single-Wall Carbon Nanotubes

December 20, 2011

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has issued the world's first reference material for single-wall carbon nanotube soot. Distantly...

A TEM image of annealed cobalt iron alloy

New Magnetic-Field-Sensitive Alloy Could Find Use in Novel Micromechanical Devices

November 22, 2011

Led by a group at the University of Maryland (UMd), a multi-institution team of researchers has combined modern materials research and an age-old metallurgy...

Are Electron Tweezers Possible? Apparently So.

November 8, 2011

Not to pick up electrons, but tweezers made of electrons. A recent paper* by researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the...

Shaping Up: Controlling a Stem Cell's Form Can Determine Its Fate

September 13, 2011

"Form follows function!" was the credo of early 20th century architects making design choices based on the intended use of the structure. Cell biologists may be...

Iron 'Veins' Are Secret of Promising New Hydrogen Storage Material

August 30, 2011

With a nod to biology, scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have a new approach to the problem of safely storing hydrogen in...

Armchair Science: DNA Strands That Select Nanotubes Are First Step to a Practical ‘Quantum Wire’

August 2, 2011

DNA, a molecule famous for storing the genetic blueprints for all living things, can do other things as well. In a new paper,* researchers at the National...

Illustration of nanomechanical measurements

Nanomechanics: New Test Measures Key Properties of Polymer Thin Films and Membranes

July 19, 2011

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have demonstrated a measurement technique that reliably determines three fundamental...

Scanning electron microscope image of a gas sensor segment fabricated of a semiconducting nanowire of gallium nitride.

Nanowire-based Sensors Offer Improved Detection of Volatile Organic Compounds

June 21, 2011

A team of researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), George Mason University and the University of Maryland has made nano-sized...

NIST Workshop Highlights Planned Consortium for Soft Material Manufacturing Research

May 18, 2011

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is holding a special industry workshop on June 2 and 3, 2011, at the NIST laboratories in Gaithersburg...

Measurement Methods for Complex Fluid Formulation

May 5, 2011

On May 3, 2011, the Complex Fluids Group and the Microrheometry Project hosted a meeting with manufacturers (in the United States and United Kingdom) to discuss...

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