Haozhe “Harry” Wang, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering (ECE) at Duke University and an expert in developing new methods for manufacturing materials, continues to push the boundaries in MXene research. MXenes (pronounced max-eens) are a novel 2D class of metallic materials boasting high electrical conductivity and strong photothermal capabilities, meaning they can convert light to heat. That heat makes water evaporate, which allows the MXene to shrink, curl, bend or twist when exposed to light. 

One challenge with the manufacturing of MXenes is that they are only a few atoms thick, and defects are amplified on that scale. Using a technique called plasma-enabled atomic layer etching (plasma-ALE), Wang and members of his lab, including postdoctoral associate Xingjian Hu, can remove or replace individual surface functional groups – akin to atomic surgery.

New quantitative analysis from the Wang lab published in Matter found that the plasma-ALE process improves MXene conductivity by 80 percent and bends up to 165 degrees, which outperforms similar 2D materials.

The Wang lab’s goal is to develop MXene materials to enable more flexible, programmable and resilient soft robotics, all controlled with nothing but light.

ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, is pleased to announce a new journal, ACM AI Letters (AILET), a unique venue for rapid publication of impactful, concise, and timely communications in artificial intelligence. In keeping with ACM’s broader goals, all AILET papers will be open access, with no publication charges for the first three years. ACM AI Letters will open for submissions in summer 2025.

As waiting rooms fill up, doctors get increasingly burnt out, and surgeries take longer to schedule and more get cancelled, humanoid surgical robots offer a solution. That’s the argument that UC San Diego robotics expert Michael Yip makes in a perspective piece out July 8 in Science Robotics. 

Researchers build AI guidance for medical needle-based procedures and outline the degrees of AI guidance for each component.

80% of Brazil’s land with the highest potential for discovering new flowering plant species lies outside conservation units, but half of these high-potential areas are within protected indigenous lands

A new eel-inspired swimming robot made of soft electroactive polymer can minimize harm to wildlife and fragile structures while exploring underwater environments