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Materials

Materials characterization

News and Updates

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NIST Releases Expanded "Fractography" Guide for Analyzing, Understanding Brittle Material Failures

September 16, 2016

Studying the fractures of industrially important materials such as ceramics and glasses provides important clues on why these materials can fail and how to make

Double Vision: New NIST Technique Can See Nanoscale 'Tree' and Microscale 'Forest' Simultaneously

March 3, 2015

A close-up view of an individual tree won't tell you much about what's going on in the forest, or even what's going on in the tree's upper branches. The same

New Imaging Technique Finds Formation of Aluminum Alloys to Blame for Next-Gen Battery Failures

March 3, 2015

Researchers working at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the University of Maryland, and Sandia National Laboratories, have for the

NIST-Funded Researcher Wins Honor for Food Safety Test

December 4, 2014

News article courtesy the University of Maryland A. James Clark School of Engineering University of Maryland (UMD) Fischell Department of Bioengineering

Optical micrographs of severe corrosion on steel alloy samples exposed to ethanol and acetic acid vapors

NIST Corrosion Lab Tests Suggest Need for Underground Gas Tank Retrofits

July 29, 2014

A hidden hazard may lurk beneath many of the roughly 156,000 gas stations across the United States. The hazard is corrosion in parts of underground gas storage

High school student Jessica Young checking the packing density of random aggregates of plastic spheres in a cylinder.

Snowballs to Soot: The Clumping Density of Many Things Seems to Be a Standard

June 10, 2014

Particles of soot floating through the air and comets hurtling through space have at least one thing in common: 0.36. That, reports a research group at the

NCNR Neutrons Highlight Possible Battery Candidate

May 20, 2014

Analysis of a manganese-based crystal by scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Schematic showing metal-organic framework materials on a surface. Their expansion, which is induced by an infrared laser, is detected using the tip of an atomic force microscope.

Looking Inside: Assessing the Chemical Composition of a Metal-Organic Framework with Nanoscale Resolution

March 11, 2014

Researchers from the NIST Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology (CNST), in collaboration with researchers from University of Lyon, France, have applied a

NIST Analysis Helps the U.S. Chemical Safety Board Pinpoint Root Cause of Pressure Vessel Failure

January 7, 2014

In 2009, a violent rupture of a 50-foot pressure vessel used to produce synthetic crystals at the NDK Crystal facility in Belvidere, Illinois fatally injured a

New NIST Nanoscale Indenter Takes Novel Approach to Measuring Surface Properties

July 23, 2013

Researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of North Carolina have demonstrated a new design for an instrument

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

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

Typical phase equilibria diagram developed at NIST

Prices are Down, Value is Up: The Newly Expanded ACerS-NIST Database

July 11, 2012

One of the most influential collections of materials data at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is now not only bigger than ever but also

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

X-Ray Probe Finds New Organic Transistors Do Well in Hot Water

April 17, 2012

Materials scientists from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), working with an international research team, have helped prove the

NIST Measurements May Help Optimize Organic Solar Cells

March 6, 2012

Organic solar cells may be a step closer to market because of measurements taken at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the U.S. Naval

NIST Reveals Switching Mechanism in Promising Computer Memory Device

February 21, 2012

Sometimes knowing that a new technology works is not enough. You also must know why it works to get marketplace acceptance. New information from the National

NIST Provides Octagonal Window of Opportunity for Carbon Capture

February 7, 2012

Filtering carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, from factory smokestacks is a necessary, but expensive part of many manufacturing processes. However, a

Unusual 'Collapsing' Iron Superconductor Sets Record for Its Class