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Material Measurement Laboratory

Materials Science and Engineering Division

News and Updates

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Understanding How Glasses 'Relax' Provides Some Relief for Manufacturers

April 26, 2011

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Wesleyan University have used computer simulations to gain basic insights into a...

Microreactors: Small Scale Chemistry Could Lead to Big Improvements for Biodegradable Polymers

March 30, 2011

Using a small block of aluminum with a tiny groove carved in it, a team of researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the...

Faster CARS, Less Damage: NIST Chemical Microscopy Shows Potential for Cell Diagnostics

October 13, 2010

A paper by researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) may breathe new life into the use of a powerful—but tricky—diagnostic...

Micro Rheometer is Latest Lab On a Chip Device

August 31, 2010

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have demonstrated a microminiaturized device that can make complex viscosity...

'Instant Acid' Method Offers New Insight into Nanoparticle Dispersal in the Environment and the Body

June 9, 2010

Using a chemical trick that allows them to change the acidity of a solution almost instantly, a team at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST...

Experimental hydrogel scaffolds prepared at NIST for culturing bone cells clearly show the dependence of bone mineralization on the stiffness of the gel.

Scaffold Gradients: Finding the Right Environment for Developing Cells

May 25, 2010

People often have strong opinions on the "right" firmness of mattresses for themselves, and, as it turns out, some cell types have similar preferences for their...

New Study Helps Explain the Surprising Behavior of Tiny 'Artificial Muscles'

April 27, 2010

Using neutron beams and atomic-force microscopes, a team of university researchers working with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) may...

A quantum-mechanics-based simulation demonstrates how a new NIST instrument can delicately pull a chain of atoms apart.

NIST Researchers Holding Steady in an Atomic-Scale Tug-of-War

March 30, 2010

How hard do you have to pull on a single atom of--let's say--gold to detach it from the end of a chain of like atoms?* It's a measure of the astonishing...

This atomic-force microscopy image shows wrinkling in a single-wall carbon nanotube membrane; the inset shows an optical reflection micrograph of the membrane without any strain.

NIST Scientists Address 'Wrinkles' in Transparent Film Development

March 30, 2010

A closer look at a promising nanotube coating that might one day improve solar cells has turned up a few unexpected wrinkles, according to new research...

NIST Scientists Quantify Nanoparticle-Protein Interactions

January 12, 2010

A research team at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has quantified the interaction of gold nanoparticles with important proteins found...

Therapeutic Nanoparticles Give New Meaning to Sugar-Coating Medicine

September 22, 2009

A research team at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) studying sugar-coated nanoparticles for use as a possible cancer therapy has...

cross-section of an organic photovoltaic cell

NIST Scientists Study How to Stack the Deck for Organic Solar Power

July 28, 2009

A new class of economically viable solar power cells—cheap, flexible and easy to make—has come a step closer to reality as a result of recent work at the...

Unexpectedly Long-Range Effects in Advanced Magnetic Devices

June 30, 2009

A tiny grid pattern has led materials scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Institute of Solid State Physics in Russia...

Between a polycrystalline material's grains (saffron layers) exist disorderly areas called grain boundaries

NIST Finds 'A Touch of Glass' in Metal, Settles Century-Old Question

June 16, 2009

Better predictions of how many valuable materials behave under stress could be on the way from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), where...

NIST Study Finds a Decade of High-Payoff, High-Throughput Research

May 20, 2009

In its first decade of work, a research effort at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to develop novel and improved "combinatorial"...

New Reference Material Supports Improved Quality Control for Polymers Industry

March 10, 2009

In a tour de force of measurement science, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed and issued for sale a new...

Illustration of preservatives surrounding and protecting complex molecules

Probing and Controlling 'Molecular Rattling' May Mean Better Preservatives

February 24, 2009

For centuries, people have preserved fruit by mixing it with sugar, making thick jams that last for months without spoiling. Now scientists at the National...

Taking the Stress Out of Magnetic Field Detection

January 27, 2009

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have discovered that a carefully built magnetic sandwich that interleaves layers of a...

Insights into Polymer Film Instability Could Aid High Tech Industries

January 13, 2009

While exploring the properties of polymer formation, a team of scientists at the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) has made a fundamental...

Single wall carbon nanotubes enclosed in bile acid shells self assembled into a sheaf of long ordered fibrils each composed of several nanotube rods.

'Two-Faced' Bioacids Put a New Face on Carbon Nanotube Self-Assembly

January 13, 2009

Nanotubes, the tiny honeycomb cylinders of carbon atoms only a few nanometers wide, are perhaps the signature material of modern engineering research, but...

SEM image demonstrates a pseudo 2D network of carbon nanotubes deposited like paper fibers in a thin, sparse sheet.

Paperwork: Buckypapers Clarify Electrical, Optical Behavior of Nanotubes

October 14, 2008

Using highly uniform samples of carbon nanotubes—sorted by centrifuge for length—materials scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology...

Illustration of restacking organic semiconductors

Bottoms Up: Better Organic Semiconductors for Printable Electronics

September 3, 2008

Researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Seoul National University (SNU) have learned how to tweak a new class of polymer...

ribbon of protein stands in the foreground against a computer-simulation of a stress field in a glassy material

Candy-Coating Keeps Proteins Sweet

August 19, 2008

Sugar-frosting isn't just for livening up boring bran flakes; it can also preserve important therapeutic proteins. Researchers at the National Institute of...

3d Nanostructures with Magnetic Materials

June 24, 2008

Materials scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a process to build complex, three-dimensional nanoscale...

Microwave Synthesis Connects With the (Quantum) Dots

June 10, 2008

Materials researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a simplified, low-cost process for producing high-quality...

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