Because it doesn’t need expensive energy storage for times without sunshine, the technology could provide communities with drinking water at low costs. MIT engineers have built a new desalination system that runs with the rhythms of the sun. The solar-powered system removes salt from water at a pace that closely follows changes in solar energy. As sunlight increases through the day, the system ramps up its desalting process and automatically adjusts to any sudden variation in sunlight, for example by dialing…

First toroidal micro-robot to swim autonomously in viscous liquids. Researchers from Tampere University in Finland and Anhui Jianzhu University in China have made a significant breakthrough in soft robotics. Their groundbreaking study introduces the first toroidal, light-driven micro-robot that can move autonomously in viscous liquids, such as mucus. This innovation marks a major step forward in developing micro-robots capable of navigating complex environments, with promising applications in fields such as medicine and environmental monitoring. A peek through an optical microscope…

Laser direct writing (LDW) employing multi-photon 3D polymerisation is a scientific and industrial lithography tool used in various fields such as micro-optics, medicine, metamaterials, programmable materials, etc., due to the fusion of high-throughput and fine features down to hundreds of nm. Some limitations of technology applicability emerge from photo-resin properties as any material modifications can strongly affect its printability due to applied photoexcitation conditions. In a paper published at Light: Advanced Manufacturing, a team of scientists, led by Professor Mangirdas…

Rice researchers show magnetic relaxation serves as lever for superparamagnetic beads’ self-assembly. Particles larger than ordinary molecules or atoms yet still small enough to be invisible to the naked eye can give rise to many different kinds of useful structures such as tiny propellers for microrobots, cellular probes and steerable microwheels for targeted drug delivery. A team of Rice University chemical engineers led by Lisa Biswal has found that exposing a certain class of such particles ⎯ micron-sized beads endowed with…

A multi-country, government-led initiative dedicated to advancing the global transition to a sustainable, bio-based economy, unveiled a new Global Biomass Resource Assessment, providing groundbreaking data on current and future sustainable biomass supplies around the world. The results from this new global sustainable supply assessment will allow scientists, policymakers, and industry leaders to explore potential sources of biomass as a foundation for a circular and sustainable global bioeconomy, supporting clean fuels, chemicals, materials and other products. The assessment was conducted by…

Plastic waste, harmful to the environment, has been increasing continually in Germany in recent years. Packaging generates particularly high volumes of waste. Plant-based coatings for paper packaging could provide a sustainable alternative in the future. In the BioPlas4Paper project, researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Engineering and Thin Films IST and project partners have used a coating process known as plasma polymerization to create water-repellent and plant-based barrier coatings on paper, thereby im-proving the paper’s resistance to the effects…

Production of fine chemicals such as those used in pharmaceuticals is typically complex and laborious. An interdisciplinary team of Fraunhofer researchers worked together across different projects to devise a method modeled on a cascade, in which multiple successive stages of synthesis proceed without interruption. This is made possible through the use of novel catalysts in specially adjusted flow-through reactors. The new method makes the process of manufacturing drugs more efficient and conserves energy. In this way, the modular technology platform…

Fraunhofer researchers and their partners have developed an innovative and eco-friendly method of producing soda, essential for a wide range of industries, in the Green Soda project. The process is based on bipolar electrodialysis of brine. Ion exchange processes and the addition of carbon dioxide result in green soda. The technology will also help to strengthen manufacturing in Germany as an industrial location. Sodium carbonate, also known as soda ash, is an essential material used in many different industrial sectors….

First battery cell winding system of its kind. The further development and evolution of existing storage systems is a key prerequisite for the energy transition. The Center for Digitalized Battery Cell Manufacturing (ZDB) at the Fraunhofer IPA and acp systems AG have joined forces to commission a winding system for cylindrical battery cells featuring flexible formats and design. It serves as an innovative research and production platform to test new cell formats and components along with tab designs and also…

… a material vital for electronics. When Valery Levitas left Europe in 1999, he packed up a rotational diamond anvil cell and brought it to the United States. He and the researchers in his group are still using a much-advanced version of that pressing, twisting tool to squeeze and shear materials between two diamonds to see in situ, within the actual experiment, what happens and verify the researchers’ own theoretical predictions. How, for example, do crystal structures change? Does that…

The number of tidal power and other offshore renewable energy installations is set to grow significantly around the UK coastline over the coming decades. However, launching state-of-the-art devices into often turbulent ocean flows has the potential to pose a range of challenges for the tidal energy industry, including uncertainty around how they may interact with the environment. To address that, a team of scientists used a combination of aerial drone technology and boat-based surveys to map out the complex tidal…

How to balance the piezoelectric coefficient and carrier concentration of material for ultrahigh piezocatalysis? Piezocatalysis, which is able to convert natural mechanical energy into electrochemical energy, is considered a promising green and sustainable technology. The efficiency is limited by factors such as the piezoelectric properties of the material, the carrier concentration and mobility, and the number of reactive sites. Low carrier concentration will limit the applicability of the material as a piezoelectric catalyst; however, high carrier concentration may affect the…

Nanomembrane allows efficient sieving of ions from liquids. Filters play an important role in many areas of life – from coffee filters to the purification of liquids. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research have now produced a filter made of a novel, mussel-like material. The filter, which is only around 20 millionths of a millimeter thick, is able to filter ions and molecules with high efficiency. Everyone knows it from their childhood days in the sandpit: sand…

Manganese is earth-abundant and cheap. A new process could help make it a contender to replace nickel and cobalt in batteries. Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries are growing in adoption, used in devices like smartphones and laptops, electric vehicles, and energy storage systems. But supplies of nickel and cobalt commonly used in the cathodes of these batteries are limited. New research led by the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) opens up a potential low-cost, safe alternative in manganese,…

… Replaces Gas and Oil Heating Systems in Apartment Buildings. The Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE is developing easy-to-use and reproducible solutions for replacing gas and oil heating systems in existing multi-family homes with partners in the project “LC R290”. The research focus is on heat pumps that use the refrigerant propane (R290). With a consortium of twenty companies from the heating and housing industries, the research institute has developed initial implementation concepts for heating systems that will…

New measurement technology enables high-speed 3D recordings for crash tests. The Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF has been developing systems for the high-speed capture of 3D data for many years. With goCRASH3D, the Jena team is now presenting a new system that records 3D data during crash tests inside the test vehicle. It shows the deformation and movement of vehicle components during a collision in a way that was previously not possible or only possible to…