Surface modification allows cell to absorb more light.

Inexpensive computers, cell phones, and other systems that substitute flexible plastic for silicon chips may be one step closer to reality, thanks to new research published in the journal Nature Communications.

On the scale of earth-friendly materials, you’d be hard pressed to find two that are farther apart than polyester (not at all) and cork (very). In an unexpected twist, however, scientists are figuring out how to extract a natural, waterproof, antibacterial version of the first material from the latter.

Porous silicon manufactured in a bottom-up procedure using solar energy can be used to generate hydrogen from water, according to a team of Penn State mechanical engineers, who also see applications for batteries, biosensors and optical electronics as outlets for this new material.

Anasys Instruments Corp. has licensed a Department of Energy Oak Ridge National Laboratory technology that allows for simultaneous chemical and physical characterization and could lead to advances in materials and drug development.

To Scott Muzenski, the large crack that weather and wear had caused in the driveway of a parking structure at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) presented an opportunity to test his research.

New research from North Carolina State University and UNC-Chapel Hill reveals that energy is transferred more efficiently inside of complex, three-dimensional organic solar cells when the donor molecules align face-on, rather than edge-on, relative to the acceptor. This finding may aid in the design and manufacture of more efficient and economically viable organic solar cell technology.

Teaming together with major universities on the West Coast, BASF Corporation has set up a multidisciplinary research institute with an emphasis on new inorganic materials and their applications, biosciences, and related technologies.

Researchers with the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences took what some would consider garbage and made a remarkable scientific tool, one that could someday help to correct genetic disorders or treat cancer without chemotherapy’s nasty side effects.

Gov. Nikki Haley has recognized three Clemson University professors for the global impact of their research in optical materials science, nanoscale physics and environmental nuclear chemistry.

Nanotechnology is advancing tools likened to Star Trek's "tricorder" that perform on-the-spot chemical analysis for a range of applications including medical testing, explosives detection and food safety.

Drexel University researchers are turning some of the basic tenets of chemistry and physics upside down to cut a trail toward the discovery of a new set of materials. They’re called “polar metals” and, according to many of the scientific principles that govern the behavior of atoms, they probably shouldn’t exist.