| 10 Apr 2018 |
Structural Processes in Adaptive Hydrogel Determined for First Time
Jülich/Aachen, 11 April 2018 – Scientists from Forschungszentrum Jülich and RWTH Aachen University have been able to determine the structural processes in an adaptive hydrogel for the first time. With the aid of X-ray scattering experiments and computer simulations, they were able to show the changes in size and structure of the hydrogel in reaction to external stimuli. The results could lead to new applications in technology and medicine.
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"Time-resolved structural evolution during the collapse of responsive hydrogels: The microgel-to-particle transition"
Rico Keidel, Ali Ghavami, Dersy M. Lugo, Gudrun Lotze, Otto Virtanen, Peter Beumers, Jan Skov Pedersen, Andre Bardow, Roland G. Winkler, Walter Richtering
Science Advances, 06 Apr 2018, Vol. 4, no. 4, eaao7086, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aao7086
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| 23 Jan 2018 |
Supercomputers Shed Light on the Cause of Alzheimer’s
Forschungszentrum Jülich, 23 January 2018 – Deposits from certain protein building blocks – amyloid beta (Aβ) – are viewed as a typical sign of Alzheimer’s disease. How these amyloid plaques are formed exactly has yet to be explained in detail, however. Using computer simulations, Jülich researchers have now been able to demonstrate that the form and distribution of intermediate products in the formation process, known as oligomers, play an important role in the "clumping" of proteins.
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Pathways of Amyloid-β Aggregation Depend on Oligomer Shape
Bogdan Barz, Qinghua Liao, and Birgit Strodel
Journal of the American Chemical Society 2018 140 (1), 319-327, DOI: 10.1021/jacs.7b10343
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| 17 Jan 2018 |
Researching Electrochemistry Live
Jülich, 17 January 2018 – Scientists from Jülich, the USA and the Czech Republic have developed an experimental set-up enabling electrochemical processes at solid-liquid interfaces to be monitored "live" and with unprecedented precision. As a result, numerous research problems can now be investigated with much higher accuracy than before, such as why lithium-ion batteries deteriorate or which catalyst materials would be most suitable for maximizing fuel conversion efficiency.
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Interfacial Electrochemistry in Liquids Probed with Photoemission Electron Microscopy;
Slavomír Nemšák, Evgheni Strelcov, Tomáš Duchoň, Hongxuan Guo, Johanna Hackl, Alexander Yulaev, Ivan Vlassiouk, David N. Mueller, Claus M. Schneider, and Andrei Kolmakov;
J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2017, 139 (50), pp 18138–18141; DOI: 10.1021/jacs.7b07365
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| 17 Nov 2017 |
Saving Energy: Storing Data with Topological Magnets
Jülich, 17 November 2017 – Storing, reading, and writing information quickly, using as little energy as possible, and densely on a tiny space are basic requirements for present-day and future information storage devices. Magnetic materials, as employed in billions of hard drives, are extensively tested information carriers. Physicists from Forschungszentrum Jülich have now shown that the magnetic orientation in certain insulators can be controlled even better with the aid of electric fields.
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Jan-Philipp Hanke, Frank Freimuth, Chengwang Niu, Stefan Blügel, Yuriy Mokrousov; Mixed Weyl semimetals and low-dissipation magnetization control in insulators by spin-orbit torques;
Nature Communications 8, 1479 (2017), DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-01138-7
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| 25 Aug 2017 |
Porphyrins - Molecular All-Rounders Show Unexpected Charge Transfer
Jülich/Graz/Trieste, 25 August 2017 – Porphyrins play an important role in many biological systems. They are involved in oxygen transport in the human body and also in photosynthesis. At the same time, the organic molecule is regarded as a promising candidate for a wide range of technical applications. Porphyrins are extremely versatile molecules, which enable a variety of electronic, magnetic, and conformational properties to be tailored. Scientists from Forschungszentrum Jülich, the Universities of Graz and Trieste, and the Elettra synchrotron in Trieste used state-of-the art theoretical and experimental techniques to describe in detail the NiTPP/Cu(100) interface where an unexpected charge transfer involving the organic molecule and metal substrate was observed. Their findings will contribute to the design of future organic solar cells and molecular switches.
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G. Zamborlini, D. Lüftner, Zh. Feng, B. Kollmann, P. Puschnig, C. Dri, M. Panighel G. Di Santo, A. Goldoni, G. Comelli, M. Jugovac, V. Feyer, and C. M. Schneider;
Multi-orbital charge transfer at highly oriented organic/metal interfaces;
Nature Communications (2017), DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-00402-0
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| 24 Aug 2017 |
Non-identical Twins For Data Storage of the Future
24 August 2017 – Physicists from Forschungszentrum Jülich and a mathematician from RWTH Aachen University have calculated that in thin metal layer systems, not only the tiny magnetic vortices known as skyrmions, but also their antiparticles, so-called "anti-skyrmions", can occur. These are also made up of vortex-shaped, well-ordered spin structures, but differ in the orientation of their spin. Using supercomputing methods, the scientists were furthermore able to suggest a material system to prove the existence of anti-skyrmions experimentally.
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Markus Hoffmann, Bernd Zimmermann, Gideon P. Müller, Daniel Schürhoff, Nikolai S. Kiselev, Christof Melcher, Stefan Blügel;
Antiskyrmions stabilized at interfaces by anisotropic Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions;
Nat. Comm. 8 (2017) 308, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-00313-0
Chiming Jin, Zi-An Li, András Kovács, Jan Caron, Fengshan Zheng, Filipp N. Rybakov, Nikolai S. Kiselev, Haifeng Du, Stefan Blügel, Mingliang Tian, Yuheng Zhang, Michael Farle, Rafal E Dunin-Borkowski;
Control of morphology and formation of highly geometrically confined magnetic skyrmions;
Nat. Comm. 8 (2017) 15569, DOID: doi:10.1038/ncomms15569.
Bart Verberck;
Magnetic skyrmions: On a wedge;
Nat. Phys. 13 (2017) 629, DOI:10.1038/nphys4200.
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| 17 Jul 2017 |
RASER: Ultraprecise Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Making Use of Parahydrogen
Jülich, 17 July 2017 – Scientists from Forschungszentrum Jülich and RWTH Aachen University have discovered a phenomenon similar to the laser effect with which the structure of organic molecules can be examined at previously unmatched levels of precision. In contrast to a laser, this "raser" (radiowave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) is pumped with parahydrogen and does not operate at light frequencies, instead oscillating continuously at various radio frequencies of around 100 kHz. A precise fingerprint of the molecular structure can thus be obtained.
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Para-hydrogen raser delivers sub-millihertz resolution in nuclear magnetic resonance
Martin Suefke, Sören Lehmkuhl, Alexander Liebisch, Bernhard Blümich, Stephan Appelt
Nature Physics 13, 568-572 (2017), DOI: 10.1038/NPHYS4076
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