openMaterials

The first edition of Botacon took place last weekend in Brooklyn. The lineup of speakers was impressive and made for one of the best conferences I’ve ever attended. But one materials-related presentation stood out. Mr. Kim and John Sarik gave a talk titled “MakerBot Printable Transistors and OLEDs or I want to be Jeri Ellsworth [...]

The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments was a children’s chemistry book written in the 1960s by Robert Brent and illustrated by Harry Lazarus, showing how to set up your own home laboratory and conduct over 200 experiments. The book is controversial, as many of the experiments contained in the book are now considered too dangerous [...]

In addition to a very interesting OLED tutorial, the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (University of Wisconsin) also has online a video lab manual with step-by-step procedures, from basic to advanced, for working with nano materials. (via Erik De Bruijn)

The Materials Research Science and Engineering Center at the University of Wisconsin has available on its site a highly experimental, but apparently feasible, tutorial for producing DIY OLEDs using conductive glass and a polyvinyl alcohol solution. It presents two alternatives for the application method: a 2500rpm fan or an aluminum foil + duct tape mask. [...]

Open3DP’s Recipes are a really nice resource for those interested in experimenting with different materials for 3D printing. There’s a little bit of everything in there, from glass to porcelain to sugar. Open3dp is a website hosted by the Solheim Rapid Prototyping Laboratory in the Mechanical Engineering Department on the University of Washington campus. [...]

Teaching Resources at Middlesex University (MUTR) is a UK-based online store with a mission to support technology teachers. They provide wonderful materials at affordable prices: from expancel, carbon nanotubes, SMAs, SMPs, photochromic and thermocromic materials, paper-making sets, to motors, solar panels, electronic components, as well as traditional materials such as paper, wood, and metal - [...]