X-ray diffraction (XRD) is an analysis technique to determine the crystal structure of crystalline materials. You do this by bombarding the material with X-rays. This is radiation with a wavelength of about 1 Angstrom (10-10 m), in the same order of magnitude as the distance between atoms in a crystal. Where a normal mirror reflects … Continue reading Structure determination with X-ray diffraction
Subtle or robust? Wine is an interplay of the type of grapes, the soil, the climate, the time of picking and the craftmanship of winemaking. During the winemaking process, the many components of the grapes are transferred into the wine, and yeasts take care of the conversion of sugars from the grapes into ethanol. As … Continue reading Materials for red wine
Bring nature into your home with wood! With knots – places where a side branch grew on the tree – and grains as an expression of the natural look, and the warm appearance of the material. Wood is a natural composite material, with cellulose fibres embedded in a matrix of lignin and hemicellulose – all … Continue reading Wood, a sustainable natural composite material
About five years ago the Dutch book Kennismaken met materialen saw the light of day. A book that has found its way into large and small companies, educational and research institutes, universities, bookstores and libraries, as a reference work but also as a (business) gift for many interested parties. The described examples in the world … Continue reading Book Meet materials has been published – in English!
Just outside the earth’s atmosphere, the sun shines with a power of 1367 watts on a square meter of surface facing the sun. This sunlight radiates continuously from the sun to the earth. On a cloudless day in summer, 1000 watts per square meter arrive at the earth’s surface in the Netherlands – the earth’s … Continue reading Solar energy: from sunlight to electricity
Nuclear power plants for energy generation use the solid ceramic material uranium oxide UO2 as “fuel”. If the uranium isotope 235U in the nuclear reactor is bombarded with slow neutrons, this produces an unstable uranium isotope 236U that very quickly decomposes into large nuclei with a mass number around 142 and around 92, such as … Continue reading Nuclear energy
In an internal combustion engine in your car, the fuel – petrol, diesel, LPG – reacts directly with oxygen. The larger volume of combustion gases pushes a piston back and forth, and a crankshaft converts this back-and-forth movement into a rotating movement for the car wheels. Chemical energy from the fuel is converted into useful … Continue reading Electrochemistry of the fuel cell
The end of the teenage years of the 21st century is in sight. A good moment to look back at the past decades, which were characterised by a multitude and variety of technological developments. Without having the illusion of being complete, here are some highlights from this period. Consider microtechnology for ICT, but also new … Continue reading Technological developments over the last 50 years
If you want to measure the corrosion progress or the performance of a fuel cell, impedance spectroscopy is a suitable technique. This allows you, for example, to monitor processes within electrochemistry such as corrosion over time by taking measurements at regular intervals. Materials science meets electrical engineering. Suppose you are an electrician and you want … Continue reading Impedance spectroscopy: monitoring of electrochemical processes
Lasers are everywhere around us, and are indispensable in our daily lives in applications such as metal cutting and welding, in DVD players and laser printers, to send signals through glass fibers, or to sinter particles to each other in 3D printing manufacturing processes. And where would science fiction movies like Star Wars be without … Continue reading Laser: social medium avant la lettre
