Photovoltaic cells made of organic materials are light and flexible, which is why they are considered very promising. An international research network led by TU Graz is now aiming to increase the stability of the materials. Solar cells made of silicon have been around for 70 years. Organic solar cells, on the other hand, are quite new, but open up new possibilities for emission-free electricity production. These solar cells made of organic compounds achieve efficiencies of up to 19 percent,…

Coatings made from a wood by-product can keep our glasses and windshields clear. Researchers have developed a way to turn a waste material from wood into a bio-based transparent film that can be used for anti-fogging or anti-reflective coatings on glasses or vehicle windows. In addition to offering an alternative to the toxic synthetic materials currently used, this approach transforms a waste product into a valuable carbon sink. Lignin is an abundant waste product in paper and pulp production that…

… and could transform face mask efficiency. University of Liverpool researchers develop a new material that captures coronavirus particles and could transform the efficiency of face masks. A research team at the University of Liverpool has developed a new material that captures coronavirus particles and could transform the efficiency of face masks and other filter equipment to stop the spread of COVID-19 and other viruses. In a paper published in the journal Nature Communications, the team showed that the new material…

Studying prehistoric production processes of birch bark tar using computational modelling reveals what kinds of cognition were required for the materials produced by Neanderthal and early modern humans.  Researchers of Team Langejans in the Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) department (TU Delft) recently published two papers on one of the world’s oldest transformative technologies, publishing their findings in Nature Scientific Reports. Measuring complexity Birch bark tar is the first time we see evidence of creating a new material, said Dr….

There is a largely untapped energy source along the world’s coastlines: the difference in salinity between seawater and freshwater. A new nanodevice can harness this difference to generate power. A team of researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has reported a design for a nanofluidic device capable of converting ionic flow into usable electric power in the journal Nano Energy. The team believes that their device could be used to extract power from the natural ionic flows at seawater-freshwater…

For realizing carbon neutrality, the demand for the development of direct methanol/formic acid-fuel cell technology has been increasing. In this technology, methanol or formic acid is used as an e-fuel for generating electricity. The fuel cells generate electricity via proton transfer; however, conventional proton-exchange membranes suffer from the “crossover phenomenon,” where the fuel molecules are also transferred between anodes and cathodes. Thereafter, the fuel molecules are unnecessarily oxidized and the electrodes are deactivated. In this study, the researchers developed a…

A new study, modeling the potential of solar-powered vehicles in the urban context in 100 cities across the world, shows that solar energy provides a range between 11 and 29 km per day, reducing charging needs by half. Despite the rapid adoption of electric vehicles, the transport sector is still responsible for around a third of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions worldwide. Therefore, to achieve decarbonization targets, it is required to significantly decrease the emissions associated with mobility. Integrating photovoltaic…

A group of researchers have made a significant breakthrough which could revolutionize next-generation electronics by enabling non-volatility, large-scale integration, low power consumption, high speed, and high reliability in spintronic devices. Details of their findings were published in the journal Physical Review B on August 25, 2023. Spintronic devices, represented by magnetic random access memory (MRAM), utilize the magnetization direction of ferromagnetic materials for information storage and rely on spin current, a flow of spin angular momentum, for reading and writing data. Conventional…

Fraunhofer IPMS develops photonic microsystems that modulate light using small, controllable mirrors to create unique images and structures. These so-called spatial light modulators (SLM) are micromirror arrays with up to several million mirrors on a semiconductor chip. They have applications in semiconductor manufacturing, microscopy and holography, and have brought the Institute to the forefront of international research in this field. In its own laboratories and the 1500 m² clean room, Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems IPMS develops a wide variety…

Two-dimensional materials like graphene show fascinating properties such as superconductivity, extraordinary strength and exotic quantum phenomena. Scientists at Forschungszentrum Jülich, together with partners from the Indian Institute of Technology in Patna and the Australian University of Newcastle, have now created a special material of this kind that exhibits a metallic character. It consists of just one atomic layer of molybdenum atoms and is also referred to as “molybdenene”. The scientists succeeded in producing a thin sheet of the metal molybdenum,…

Embedded with organic crystals, hybrid membranes use “smart separation” approach that is more effective and environmentally sustainable. A team of NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) researchers has developed a new kind of self-cleaning, hybrid membrane that provides a solution that overcomes significant challenges that have, until now, limited desalination technologies. The most energy-efficient desalination technologies are based on membrane desalination. However, the membranes used for desalination are prone to fouling, the accumulation of scale that results in decreased membrane performance, shorter…

Paper published in ‘Nature Communications’ details how applying magnetic forces to individual ‘microroller’ particles spurs collective motion—with counterintuitive results. Engineering researchers at Lehigh University have discovered that sand can actually flow uphill. The team’s findings were published today in the journal Nature Communications. A corresponding video shows what happens when torque and an attractive force is applied to each grain—the grains flow uphill, up walls, and up and down stairs. (Two clips, GIF1 and GIF2, also show the uphill granular flow.) “After using equations that describe the flow of granular…

Turning mixed plastic into useful chemicals. Almost 80% of plastic in the waste stream ends up in landfills or accumulates in the environment. Oak Ridge National Laboratory scientists have developed a technology that converts a conventionally unrecyclable mixture of plastic waste into useful chemicals, presenting a new strategy in the toolkit to combat global plastic waste. The technology, invented by ORNL’s Tomonori Saito and former postdoctoral researcher Md Arifuzzaman, uses an exceptionally efficient organocatalyst that allows selective deconstruction of various…

The Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT will be presenting the latest research results in additive manufacturing technology at the Fraunhofer joint stand at formnext in Frankfurt am Main from November 7 to 10, 2023. Among other things, the Aachen engineers will be showing additively manufactured sensors that are printed directly onto components and that can provide real-time data for predictive maintenance. A new process makes it possible to seamlessly insert sensors into a component during the additive manufacturing process…

Storing renewable energy as hydrogen could soon become much easier thanks to a new catalyst based on single atoms of platinum. The new catalyst, designed by researchers at City University Hong Kong (CityU) and tested by colleagues at Imperial College London, could be cheaply scaled up for mass use. Co-author Professor Anthony Kucernak, from the Department of Chemistry at Imperial, said: “The UK Hydrogen Strategy sets out an ambition to reach 10GW of low-carbon hydrogen production capacity by 2030. To…

An upconversion organic light-emitting diode (OLED) based on a typical blue-fluorescence emitter achieves emission at an ultralow turn-on voltage of 1.47 V, as demonstrated by researchers from Tokyo Tech. Their technology circumvents the traditional high voltage requirement for blue OLEDs, leading to potential advancements in commercial smartphone and large screen displays. Blue light is vital for light-emitting devices, lighting applications, as well as smartphone screens and large screen displays. However, it is challenging to develop efficient blue organic light-emitting diodes…