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When charged particles are being shot through ultra-thin layers of material, sometimes spectacular micro-explosions occur, sometimes the material remains almost intact. This has now been explained at the TU Wien. It sounds a bit like a magic trick: Some materials can be shot through with fast, electrically charged ions without exhibiting holes afterwards.

TU Wien (Vienna) has succeeded in making a new type of material usable for chip technology. This enables faster, more efficient computers and new types of quantum devices. Our current chip technology is largely based on silicon. Only in very special components a small amount of germanium is added. But there are good reasons to use higher germanium contents in the future: The compound semiconductor silicon-germanium has decisive advantages over today's silicon technology in terms of energy efficiency and achievable clock frequencies.

New method enables measurement of glycolipids; now, for example, the relevance in cancer will be investigated So-called glycolipids, or "sweet-fatty" molecules, are a relatively unknown group among the body's diverse lipids. A method developed by an Austrian team led by chemist Evelyn Rampler of the University of Vienna has now provided deeper insights into the functioning of certain glycolipids, which are located, among other things, on the surfaces of stem cells.

Researchers at TU Vienna and FHI Berlin succeeded in monitoring a catalytic reaction with three different microscopies under exactly the same conditions in real time. In this way, information is obtained that none of the methods alone could reveal. One has to look very closely to exactly understand what processes take place on the surfaces of catalysts.

CO2 and methane can be turned into valuable products. But until now the catalysts required for such reactions quickly lose their effectiveness. TU Wien has now developed more stable alternatives. Wherever the production of harmful greenhouse gases cannot be prevented, they should be converted into something useful: this approach is called "carbon capture and utilisation".

A fingertip-sized chip replaces bulky laboratory equipment. An infrared sensor has been developed at TU Wien (Vienna) that analyses the content of liquids within the fraction of a second. In analytical chemistry, it is often necessary to accurately monitor the concentration change of certain substances in liquids on a time scale of seconds.

By Susanne Filzwieser Why do large gas bubbles in viscoelastic liquids (such as polymer and protein solutions) rise so much faster than expected? An open question with great relevance for industrial production processes. Researchers at TU Graz and TU Darmstadt have now found an explanation. Further at the end of the text It is a puzzle long known among experts and very relevant in many industrial production processes: a jump discontinuity in the rise velocity of gas bubbles in so-called viscoelastic fluids.

Through their research efforts, the team was able to finally disprove an intuitive assumption that in order for two particles of matter to merge and form larger units (i.e. aggregates or clusters), they must be attracted to each other. As early as the turn of the century, a team of soft matter physicists headed by Christos Likos of the University of Vienna predicted on the basis of theoretical considerations that this does not necessarily have to be the case.

By Susanne Filzwieser Photoinitiators ensure that liquid plastic - for example for dental fillings - hardens quickly by means of light. Thanks to a new synthesis method developed by TU Graz, these initiators can be produced cheaply, something which will open up further doors for the technology. Anyone who has ever been in the dentist's chair with a hole in their tooth is probably familiar with the procedure.

By Birgit Baustädter The clear answer at TU Graz is by diverse research and green innovations. And this is exactly how the University is working for a more sustainable future. Increasingly extreme weather events, such as torrential rain, hurricanes, droughts and intense snowfalls, clearly show that our world is in the midst of a climate crisis.

Chemists demonstrate new approach to self-assembly of colloidal nanoparticles Sometimes even small forces can make comparatively big things happen: In a study in "Angewandte Chemie", scientists from the Faculty of Chemistry at the University of Vienna showed how short peptides can trigger the self-assembly of comparatively large nanoparticles into new structures on the micrometre scale.

Three-dimensional (3D) configurations of atoms dictate all materials properties. Quantitative predictions of accurate equilibrium structures, 3D coordinates of all atoms, from a chemical graph, a representation of the structural formula, is a challenging and computationally expensive task which is at the beginning of practically every computational chemistry workflow.

By Christoph Pelzl The absorption of energy from laser light by free electrons in a liquid has been demonstrated for the first time. Until now, this process was observed only in the gas phase. The findings, led by Graz University of Technology, open new doors for ultra-fast electron microscopy. The investigation and development of materials crucially depends on the ability to observe smallest objects at fastest time scales.

By Susanne Eigner Researchers from TU Graz in Austria and the Universities of Cambridge and Surrey succeeded to track down the first step in ice formation at a surface, revealing that additional energy is needed for water before ice can start to form. Picture material for download at the end of the message Water freezes and turns to ice when brought in contact with a cold surface - a well-known fact.

T cells use their antigen receptors like sticky fingers - a team from TU Wien and MedUni Vienna was able to observe them doing so. T-cells play a central role in our immune system: by means of their so-called T-cell receptors (TCR) they make out dangerous invaders or cancer cells in the body and then trigger an immune reaction.

The acidity of molecules can be easily determined, but until now it was not possible to measure this important property for atoms on a surface. With a new microscopy technique from the Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien), this has now been achieved. The degree of acidity or alkalinity of a substance is crucial for its chemical behavior.

By Susanne Eigner Using machine learning methods, researchers at TU Graz can predict the structure formation of functionalized molecules at the interfaces of hybrid materials. Now they have also succeeded in looking behind the driving forces of this structure formation. The production of nanomaterials involves self-assembly processes of functionalized (organic) molecules on inorganic surfaces.

Quantum experiments that could previously only be performed with photons are now also possible with atoms: Beams of entangled atoms have been produced at TU Wien (Vienna). Heads or tails? If we toss two coins into the air, the result of one coin toss has nothing to do with the result of the other. Coins are independent objects.

For years, the metal nanoparticles used in catalysts have been getting smaller and smaller. Now, a research team at TU Wien in Vienna, Austria have shown that everything is suddenly different when you arrive at the smallest possible size: a single atom. Metals such as gold or platinum are often used as catalysts.

Why do metal oxide surfaces behave differently? At TU Wien, a new research method was found to answer important questions. Metal surfaces play a role as catalysts for many important applications - from fuel cells to the purification of car exhaust gases. However, their behaviour is decisively affected by oxygen atoms incorporated into the surface.