LionGlass, a new family of glass engineered by researchers at Penn State, has secured its first corporate partner, a move toward bringing the ecofriendly alternative to standard soda lime silicate glass to market.
Seventeen graduate students from Penn State have been awarded research fellowships and six undergraduate students from the commonwealth have been awarded scholarships for 2024 from the Pennsylvania Space Grant Consortium (PSGC).
Penn State’s Nitin Samarth advances quantum materials research at Q-NEXT
As part of the Q-NEXT collaboration, Nitin Samarth is helping grow the capabilities of the Argonne Quantum Foundry. He’s also building a library of atom-scale materials for quantum technologies — and he’s sharing it with everyone.
Penn State and Shell USA Inc. have announced the launch of a collaboration that will support efforts across the University’s mission of research, education and community impact. An initial commitment from Shell of more than $1 million will fund initiatives focused on energy transition, decarbonization, polymer recycling and biodiversity, and the creation of an inclusive and innovative energy workforce.
The Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) has awarded $600,000 to Penn State’s Silicon Carbide Innovation Alliance (SCIA) to develop a series of educational courses, workshops, and paid academic and industrial internships focused on workforce development in Pennsylvania for the growing semiconductor industry.
Transition metal carbides (TMCs) and transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are emerging as key players with transformative potential across various industries. Originally recognized for their industrial applications like solid-state lubrication, these materials are now the focus of cutting-edge research aimed at revolutionizing electronic devices and catalytic processes.
The glass bottles we toss in the recycling bin don’t always end up where we expect. Only about 33% of glass is recycled in the United States, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, partly due to expenses like sorting bottles by color. Penn State scientists recently found that mass-produced soda-lime silicate glass from post-consumer bottles of different colors can be safely melted together in the recycling process, which could potentially lead to more bottles being recycled.
The Graduate School at Penn State welcomes 22 new National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) recipients for the 2024-25 academic year.
Rechargeable solid-state lithium batteries are an emerging technology that could someday power cell phones and laptops for days with a single charge. Offering significantly enhanced energy density, they are a safer alternative to the flammable lithium-ion batteries currently used in consumer electronics — but they are not environmentally friendly. Current recycling methods focus on the limited recovery of metals contained within the cathodes, while everything else goes to waste.
To advance soft robotics, skin-integrated electronics and biomedical devices, researchers at Penn State have developed a 3D-printed material that is soft and stretchable — traits needed for matching the properties of tissues and organs — and that self-assembles. Their approach employs a process that eliminates many drawbacks of previous fabrication methods, such as less conductivity or device failure, the team said.