EurekAlert February 1, 2021 Lithium batteries are typically assembled in a dry room that controls moisture because lithium salts in the electrolytes are highly reactive with moisture, which has a significant effect on the battery performance. Researchers in South Korea fabricated impurity scavenging separator membrane (ISM) using a powerful H2O and HF scavenging material. The material was synthesized by a urethane reaction between porous silica (p-SiO2) and (3-isocynatopropyl) triethoxysilane (ICPTES). The p-SiO2 reaction with ICPTES suppressed the acidification of the electrolyte with water and resulted in maintaining the shape of the SiO2 particles. The multifunctional separator exhibited high capacity retention […]
Tag Archives: Advanced manufacturing
Direct coherent multi-ink printing of fabric supercapacitors
Phys.org January 29, 2021 Fiber-shaped supercapacitors are a desirable high-performance energy storage technology for wearable electronics. The traditional method for device fabrication is based on a multistep approach to construct energy devices, which can present challenges during fabrication, scalability, and durability. An international team of researchers (China, USA – University of Colorado, Carnegie Mellon University, Singapore) has developed an all-in-one coaxial fiber-shaped asymmetric supercapacitor (FASC) device using direct coherent multi-ink writing, 3-D printing technology by designing the internal structure of the coaxial needles and regulating the rheological property and feed rates of the multi-ink. The device delivered a superior areal […]
Research could dramatically lower cost of electron sources
Phys.org February 1, 2021 An international team of researchers (USA – Los Alamos National Laboratory, Rice University, Northwestern University, France) has discovered efficient, regenerative, and low-cost electron sources based on solution-processed halide perovskites thin films when they are excited with light with energy equal to or above their bandgap. They measured a quantum efficiency up to 2.2% and a lifetime of more than 25 h. Importantly, even after degradation, the electron emission could be completely regenerated to its maximum efficiency by deposition of a monolayer of alkali antimonide and tellurides (Cs2Te, K2CsSb, Cs3Sb). The electron emission from halide perovskites can be […]
DNA origami enables fabricating superconducting nanowires
Science Daily January 19, 2021 An international team of researchers (Israel, Germany, USA – Columbia University, Brookhaven National Laboratory) used DNA origami as the platform to build superconducting nanoarchitectures which involves two major components: a circular single-strand DNA as the scaffold, and a mix of complementary short strands acting as staples that determine the shape of the structure. The DNA nanowires were dropcast onto a substrate with a channel and coated with superconducting niobium nitride to convert them into conductive wires. The nanowires were suspended over the channel to isolate them from the substrate during the electrical measurements. Superconducting wires […]
3D-printed ‘invisible’ fibres can sense breath, sound, and biological cells
Nanowerk October 2, 2020 Researchers in the UK 3D printed the composite fibres which are made from silver and/or semiconducting polymers. It creates a core-shell fibre structure, with a high-purity conducting fibre core wrapped by a thin protective polymer sheath, a few micrometres in diameter. The printing technique can also be used to make biocompatible fibres of a similar dimension to biological cells, which enables them to guide cell movements and ‘feel’ this dynamic process as electrical signals. The sensor was used for testing respiratory conditions such as normal breathing, rapid breathing, and simulated coughing. It significantly outperformed comparable commercial […]
Bacteria fed on a customized diet produce biodegradable polymers for alternative packaging in the cosmetics industry
Fraunhofer Research October 1, 2020 To create biologically based, biodegradable polymers as a replacement for plastic packaging in the cosmetics industry researchers in Germany are cultivating bacteria fed on a variety of waste materials, ranging from wood waste and oil and sugar residues to glycerol from biodiesel production. They cause the bacteria to produce specific intracellular storage granules, polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs). The PHA is sent in the form of a white powder is turned into granules and then into a polymer film. Initial testing on small sheets of the polymer material for characteristics such as thermal stability, plasticity, and various barrier […]
Anti-reflective nanocoating inspired by fly eyes
Nanowerk September 16, 2020 Insect eyes have an anti-reflective coating which has been shown to provide anti-adhesive functionality. Researchers in Switzerland demonstrated a clear link between the morphology and function of the nanocoatings on Drosophila corneas. They found that nanocoatings that consist of individual protrusions have better anti-reflective properties, whereas partially merged structures have better anti-adhesion properties. Using biochemical analysis and genetic modification techniques they reverse engineered the protein Retinin and corneal waxes as the building blocks of the nanostructures and established low-cost production of Retinin. Mixing this synthetic protein with waxes they forward engineered various artificial nanocoatings with insect-like […]
Stanford engineers reprogram yeast cells to become microscopic drug factories
EurekAlert September 2, 2020 A team of researchers in the US (Stanford University, industry) engineered baker’s yeast to produce the medicinal alkaloids hyoscyamine and scopolamine, starting from simple sugars and amino acids. They combined functional genomics to identify a missing pathway enzyme, protein engineering to enable the functional expression of an acyltransferase via trafficking to the vacuole, heterologous transporters to facilitate intracellular routing, and strain optimization to improve titres. Their integrated system positions more than twenty proteins adapted from yeast, bacteria, plants, and animals across six sub-cellular locations to recapitulate the spatial organization of tropane alkaloid biosynthesis in plants. Once […]
Ultra-thin camera lenses of the future could see the light of day
Nanowerk June 11, 2020 The fabrication of state-of-the-art metasurfaces typically involves several expensive, time-consuming, and potentially hazardous processing steps. Researchers in Sweden have developed a method to construct phase-gradient metasurfaces from an exposed standard electron beam resist. They demonstrated the advantages of the method by constructing high-performance flat optics for the entire visible wavelength range. The method dramatically cuts the required processing time, cost, and reduces safety hazards. The method could be a step towards large-scale production of metasurfaces…read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Configurable circuit technology poised to expand silicon photonic applications
Science Daily May 28, 2020 Researchers in the UK have designed and fabricated building blocks for the configurable circuits in the form of erasable directional couplers (DCs) using ion implanted waveguides. Once the configurable/one-time programmable (OTP) silicon photonic circuit is programmed, its signal routing is retained without the need for additional power consumption. This technology can potentially enable a multi-purpose design of photonic chips for a range of different applications and performance requirements, as it can be programmed for each specific application after chip fabrication. Proof-of-principle demonstrators in the form of generic 1×4 and 2×2 programmable switching circuits were fabricated […]