Materials Science and NanoEngineering

Rice physicists define new material blueprint for next-generation microchip encryption

In a study published in “Physical Review Letters,” a research team co-led by Rice University’s Jun-Jie Zhang and Boris Yakobson demonstrates a new class of materials. The research was conducted in collaboration with Shuai Dong, chair of the School of Physics at Southeast University in China. These materials are called autferroics and can speed up physical, true random number generators (TRNG) thousands of times while keeping signal clarity at full strength.

Rice convenes statewide scientific leadership to build momentum at inaugural Texas Materials Consortium

Rice University’s Department of Materials Science and NanoEngineering (MSNE) at the George R. Brown School for Engineering and Computing convened academic leaders, department chairs and researchers from across the state for the inaugural Texas Materials Consortium Sept. 18.

Rice materials science brings hidden history into view at Menil Collection

Researchers from Rice collaborated to help bring the installation to life.

New method turns harmful environmental waste into useful synthetic reagent

James Tour’s lab developed a method to capture the fluoride from these waste streams and recycle it into a useful reagent, silver fluoride, that could be used in other manufacturing processes.

Rice brings AI expertise to DOE-backed search for next-generation magnets

Geoffroy Hautier has joined a team led by UH in the search for next-generation permanent magnets.

Rice researchers build 3D platform to study how nerves form protective coating

Rice has developed a new platform to grow human-derived nerve cells with Schwann cells.

Rice researchers unlock new way to manufacture diamond composites, reveal dramatic response to impact

Rice researchers developed a way to stabilize diamond during high-temperature and low-pressure processing.

Rice researchers show graphene nanowrinkles can reshape electricity

Rice researchers have shown that tiny wrinkles in graphene can change the material’s electrical properties.

Accelerating discovery: Rice receives nearly $20M NSF award for AI-powered materials laboratory

Rice has received a $19.9 million NSF award to use AI, robotics and cloud-based labs to accelerate electronic and quantum materials manufacturing.

New detector design has potential to expand search for dark matter

Rice researchers’ detector concept uses engineered semiconductor materials to search for axions in a range of possible masses that has remained difficult to probe with existing experiments.

Rice researchers automate defect detection in diamond, other advanced semiconductors

Rice researchers have developed a high-throughput method to measure the quality of diamond and other wide-bandgap semiconductor materials, providing rapid feedback for improving crystal growth and device reliability.

Rice unites global quantum materials synthesis leaders in Paris for cutting-edge workshop

The Rice Center for Quantum Materials hosted a workshop on quantum materials synthesis at the Rice Global Paris Center, bringing together global researchers in physics, materials science, chemistry and quantum research to identify new directions and address urgent challenges facing the quantum materials synthesis community.

Rice’s Tringides wins prestigious Pew Biomedical Scholar award

Christina Tringides is the recipient of the highly prestigious Pew Biomedical Scholar award.

Stressed crystal creates nanoscale patterns on chip materials at room temperature

A new chip-making technique pioneered by Rice scientists exploits a material’s crystal structure to create nanoscale patterns at room temperature directly onto hard materials used in devices, including silica.

Researchers measure giant light-conversion effect in chiral carbon nanotubes

Rice scientists successfully assembled carbon nanotubes with the same chiral orientation into large high-quality crystals that can manipulate light with an efficiency two to three orders of magnitude greater than conventional materials.