A century-old puzzle on the apparent contradiction that some materials disorder as they are cooled gains universality following new observations of closed-loop phase behaviour in a block-copolymer ...

Self-assembling materials are the building blocks for bottom-up nanofabrication processes, but many self-assembled nanostructures contain defects and lack sufficient long-range order for certain ...

CORRECTION: This story was updated on June 13, 2014, to correct the structure of the new biobased polymer. Missing methylene groups have been added to the phenylene linking group. By combining ...

With blazing speed and seemingly limitless digital memory, the personal computers of the early 1990s rocketed past those that ranked as state-of-the-art just a couple of years earlier. Within a few ...

All matter consists of one or more phases -- regions of space with uniform structure and physical properties. The common phases of H2O (solid, liquid and gas), also known as ice, water and steam, are ...

What is Block Copolymer Lithography? Block copolymer lithography is a nanofabrication technique that utilizes the self-assembly properties of block copolymers to create ordered nanostructures. Block ...

How do nanostructures keep plastics transparent while improving toughness and light control? PMMA, polycarbonate, COC ...

The advantages of cyclic block copolymers (CBCs) over other optical-grade plastics as well as the material’s benefits in an array of medical applications were outlined during a presentation at the ...

Polypropylene (PP) is a rigid crystalline thermoplastic used in everyday objects. There are various types of PP available: homopolymer, copolymer, impact, etc. Its mechanical, physical, and chemical ...