Nanowerk July 10, 2019 It is estimated that as much as two-thirds of energy consumed in the U.S. each year is wasted as heat. Researchers at the University of Utah have demonstrated that they can go well beyond the theoretical “blackbody limit”. They produced a 5mm-by-5mm chip of two silicon wafers with a nanoscopic gap between them. While the chip was in a vacuum, they heated one surface and cooled another surface, which created a heat flux that can generate electricity. The technology could be used to not only cool down portable devices like laptops and smartphones but also to […]
Tag Archives: Advanced manufacturing
Printing self-powered sensor systems on plastic
Nanowerk April 22, 2019 An international team of researchers (China, USA – MIT) has developed a proof-of-concept wearable wristband which consists of inkjet-printed electrical interconnects, silicon solar cells for energy harvesting/conversion, printable MnO2-based planar supercapacitors for energy storage, and fully printable SnO2 gas sensor for ethanol/acetone detection. With the supercapacitors serving as photovoltaic energy storage units and providing power for the functional devices during intermittent light illumination, simultaneous functionality without external charging modules can be realized, which is highly desirable for wearable and portable electronics. They synthesized and prepared different functional nanoparticles into printable inks for the fabrication of supercapacitors […]
Toward novel computing and fraud detection technologies with on-demand polymers
Science Daily April 1, 2019 Researchers in France have constructed synthetic polymers with fully controlled primary structures using solid-phase iterative chemistry, a process that was originally developed to make peptides. In the last few years, the team has been making precisely tailored polymers for data-storage applications. In these polymers, each monomer or subunit stands for a specific piece of information. So far, the researchers have created tiny data storage devices made of layered sequence-coded polymers. Recently observed that the molecular bits that they contain occupy much smaller volumes than do the nucleotides in DNA. They believe that within the next […]
Critical materials: Researchers eye huge supply of rare-earth elements from mining waste
Science Daily March 14, 2019 Large amounts of REEs (Rare-Earth Elements) exist in phosphogypsum (PG), a waste product from producing phosphoric acid, used in the production of fertilizers and other products, from phosphate rock. To extract REEs from PG waste a team of researchers in the US (Rutgers University, Idaho National Laboratory, industry, UC Davis, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory) doped synthetic phosphogypsum with six rare-earth elements — yttrium, cerium, neodymium, samarium, europium and ytterbium. They found that a mixture of chemicals produced by the bacterium Gluconobacter oxydans was efficient in recovering REEs by bioleaching. Bioleaching is less harmful to the […]
New 3D printer shapes objects with rays of light
Science Daily January 31, 2019 A team of researchers in the US (UC Berkeley, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory) has developed printer called “replicator” that relies on a resin composed of liquid polymers mixed with photosensitive molecules and dissolved oxygen. Light activates the photosensitive compound which depletes the oxygen. Only in those 3D regions where all the oxygen has been used up do the polymers form the “cross-links” that transform the resin from a liquid to a solid. Unused resin can be recycled by heating it in an oxygen atmosphere. A lot of the underlying theory behind the printer can be […]
Cannibalistic materials feed on themselves to grow new nanostructures
Science Daily August 31, 2018 A team of researchers in the US (Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Pennsylvania State University, Drexel University) has shown that by thermal exposure and electron-beam irradiation, hexagonal TiC single adlayers form on defunctionalized surfaces of Ti3C2 MXene at temperatures above 500 °C, generating new 2D materials Ti4C3 and Ti5C4, with the substrate being the source material. The work could lead to the development of bottom-up synthesis methods using substrates terminated with similar hexagonal-metal surfaces, for controllable synthesis of larger-scale and higher quality single-layer transition metal carbides… read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Bacteria-powered solar cell converts light to energy, even under overcast skies
Science Daily July 5, 2018 Researchers in Canada have genetically engineered E. coli to produce large amounts of lycopene that is particularly effective at harvesting light for conversion to energy. The pigment‐producing cells are coated with TiO2 nanoparticles and the mixture is applied to a glass surface. With the coated glass acting as an anode at one end of their cell, they generated a current density of 0.686 milliamps per square centimetre — an improvement on the 0.362 achieved by others in the field. According to the researchers the hybrid materials can be manufactured economically and sustainably. With sufficient optimization, […]
Berkeley engineers develop origami electronics from cheap, foldable paper
UC Berkeley July 6, 2018 An international team of researchers (USA – UC Berkeley, Redstone Arsenal, China) has developed a direct‐write laser‐patterning technology to engrave random shapes of metal‐carbide–graphene composites (MCG) on different types of paper (A4, wiper, filter paper, etc.). These commercial papers are soaked with solutions containing metal ions in gelatin media, which is the major component of the “jelly”. The MCG–paper substrates are applied in a 3D foldable energy generator, electrochemical sensors, and supercapacitors. They see many potential applications for the new, disposable paper electronics, circuitry to detect heavy metal contamination could be “written” on paper to […]
Scientists breed bacteria that make tiny high-energy carbon rings
Science Daily April 6, 2018 Researchers at Caltech used directed evolution to evolve a new function in Escherichia coli bacteria, to produce a high-energy carbon compound, bicyclobutanes, a group of chemicals that contain four carbon atoms arranged so they form two triangles that share a side. The carbon rings are useful starting materials for creating other chemicals and materials… read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Genetically engineered E. coli can make industrial chemicals from feedstock
RIKEN Research April 6, 2018 Researchers in Japan genetically modified Escherichia coli and used the bacterium and glucose harvested from feedstock to produce maleate, a salt or ester of maleic acid. The process requires much less energy, and process works under ordinary temperatures and pressures. The research opens the door to more environmentally friendly industrial-scale production of maleate which is a key adhesion promoter for materials like galvanized steel and nylon, as well a drug stabilizer…read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE