An increasing number of electric cars are being sold, consequently raising the quantity of produced electric motors. At the end of their useful life, these electric motors are shredded and then recycled. The individual components and assemblies cannot be reused. So far, there has been a lack of sustainable value retention strategies for remanufacturing and recycling electric motors as part of a modern circular economy. In the REASSERT project, researchers at the Fraunhofer IPA are working alongside industry partners to…

Residue-free and sustainable removal of contaminants. In Germany, there are around three million buildings that are contaminated with the toxic wood preservatives lindane and pentachlorophenol (PCP). Previous measures for minimizing contamination include insulating contaminated areas or disposing of treated wooden building materials as hazardous waste. However, these measures are neither sustainable nor cost-efficient. In the CycloPlasma project, researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics IBP are developing a new type of process to remove these decades-old contaminants — in…

A research group has developed a high-speed, high-sensitivity terahertz-wave detector operating at room temperature, paving the way for advancements in the development of next generation 6G/7G technology. Details of their breakthrough were published in the journal Nanophotonics on November 9, 2023. The enhancement of current communications speeds will rely on terahertz (THz) waves. THz waves are electromagnetic waves within the THz range, which falls between the microwave and infrared portions of the electromagnetic spectrum, typically spanning frequencies from 300 gigahertz to 3…

An international research group has engineered a novel high-strength flexible device by combining piezoelectric composites with unidirectional carbon fiber (UDCF), an anisotropic material that provides strength only in the direction of the fibers. The new device transforms kinetic energy from the human motion into electricity, providing an efficient and reliable means for high-strength and self-powered sensors. Details of the group’s research were published in the journal Small on Dec.14, 2023. Motion diction involves converting energy from the human motion into measurable electrical…

Li-fi, a communication technology harnessing visible light for data transmission, has a potential to surpass Wi-Fi’s speed by over 100 times and boasts a high bandwidth, facilitating the simultaneous transmission of copious information. Notably, Li-fi ensures robust security by exclusively transmitting data to areas illuminated by light. Most importantly, it capitalizes on existing indoor lighting infrastructure, such as LEDs, eliminating the need for separate installations. However, implementing visible light communication (VLC) in practical lighting systems posed an issue of diminished…

Installation of a tungsten divertor for long pulse operations. The aim is to opera The Korean artificial sun, KSTAR, has completed divertor upgrades, allowing it to operate for extended periods sustaining high-temperature plasma over the 100 million degrees. The Korea Institute of Fusion Energy announced the successful installation of the newly developed tungsten divertor for KSTAR. KSTAR, now equipped with the new divertor, commenced a plasma experiment on the 21st of December 2023. The divertor, a crucial plasma-facing component installed…

… by magnetization direction. First direct observation of anisotropic magneto-Thomson effect. 1. NIMS has succeeded in directly observing the “anisotropic magneto-Thomson effect,” a phenomenon in which the heat absorption/release proportional to an applied temperature difference and charge current (i.e., Thomson effect) changes anisotropically depending on the magnetization direction in magnetic materials. This research is expected to lead to further development of basic physics and materials science related to the fusion area of thermoelectrics and spintronics, as well as to development…

High-frequency terahertz waves have great potential for a number of applications including next-generation medical imaging and communication. Researchers at Linköping University, Sweden, have shown, in a study published in the journal Advanced Science, that the transmission of terahertz light through an aerogel made of cellulose and a conducting polymer can be tuned. This is an important step to unlock more applications for terahertz waves. The terahertz range covers wavelengths that lie between microwaves and infrared light on the electromagnetic spectrum….

Researchers at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME), Argonne National Laboratory, and the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia have developed a new computational tool to describe how the atoms within quantum materials behave when they absorb and emit light. The tool will be released as part of the open-source software package WEST, developed within the Midwest Integrated Center for Computational Materials (MICCoM) by a team led by Prof. Marco Govoni, and it helps scientists better understand and engineer…

New process enhances sustainability of pig iron production. Researchers of KIT and Partners Demonstrate a Process that Reduces Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Conventional Steel Production. Researchers of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the SMS group have developed a new process to reduce CO2 emission of worldwide steel production by several hundred million tons per year. It is based on modernizing blast furnace technology with moderate investments and has already been demonstrated successfully in a pilot plant. The researchers report…

Research Group from Friedrich Schiller University Jena, University of Leipzig, and University of Vienna Develops a Glass Material That Precisely Separates Gases. Separating carbon dioxide molecules from gas mixtures requires materials with extremely fine pores. Researchers from Friedrich Schiller University Jena, in cooperation with the University of Leipzig and the University of Vienna, have now found a novel way to do this: they transformed crystalline metal-organic framework compounds into glass. In doing so, they managed to reduce the pore size…

UCLA-led team maps medium- and high-entropy alloys and identifies potential to tune their properties, making them both stronger and more flexible. Alloys, which are materials such as steel that are made by combining two or more metallic elements, are among the underpinnings of contemporary life. They are essential for buildings, transportation, appliances and tools — including, very likely, the device you are using to read this story. In applying alloys, engineers have faced an age-old trade-off common in most materials:…

Researchers at Nagoya University in Japan have used artificial intelligence to discover a new method for understanding small defects called dislocations in polycrystalline materials, materials widely used in information equipment, solar cells, and electronic devices, that can reduce the efficiency of such devices. The findings were published in the journal Advanced Materials. Almost every device that we use in our modern lives has a polycrystal component. From your smartphone to your computer to the metals and ceramics in your car….

How the industry positions itself for cheap, sustainable and highly performant batteries. A new Fraunhofer ISI Lithium-Ion battery roadmap focuses on the scaling activities of the battery industry until 2030 and considers the technological options, approaches and solutions in the areas of materials, cells, production, systems and recycling. The study examines three trends in particular: The production of performance-optimized, low-cost and sustainable batteries. The market for lithium-ion batteries continues to expand globally: In 2023, sales could exceed the 1 TWh…

Bayreuth scientists produce superhard multifunctional carbon nitrides. In a groundbreaking piece of research, scientists have synthesised long-sought carbon nitrogen compounds and unlocked the potential of carbon nitrides as a new class of superhard multifunctional materials that could rival diamond. The work has now been published in the journal Advanced Materials. Since 1989, when a prediction of a carbon-nitrogen compound C₃N₄ with exceptional mechanical properties, potentially surpassing diamond in hardness was reported in the journal Science, researchers worldwide have been working…

Researchers at North Carolina State University have now identified a welding technique that can be used to join composite metal foam (CMF) components together without impairing the properties that make CMF desirable. CMFs hold promise for a wide array of applications because the pockets of air they contain make them light, strong and effective at insulating against high temperatures. CMFs are foams that consist of hollow, metallic spheres – made of materials such as stainless steel or titanium – embedded…