The findings, based on a single electrochemical process, could help cut emissions from the hardest-to-decarbonize industries, such as steel and cement. In the race to draw down greenhouse gas emissions around the world, scientists at MIT are looking to carbon-capture technologies to decarbonize the most stubborn industrial emitters. Steel, cement, and chemical manufacturing are especially difficult industries to decarbonize, as carbon and fossil fuels are inherent ingredients in their production. Technologies that can capture carbon emissions and convert them into…

Redox-flow battery eliminates costly and inefficient membrane. Jimmy Jiang envisions a future where every house is powered by renewable energy stored in batteries. In his chemistry lab, Jiang and his students at the University of Cincinnati have created a new battery that could have profound implications for the large-scale energy storage needed by wind and solar farms. Innovations such as UC’s will have profound effects on green energy, Jiang said. Batteries store renewable energy for when it’s needed, not just…

Precisive real-time prediction of the movement of nearby vehicles or the future trajectory of pedestrians is essential for safe autonomous driving. A research team led by City University of Hong Kong (CityU) recently developed a novel AI system that improves predictive accuracy amid dense traffic and increases computational efficiency by over 85%, offering great potential for enhancing the safety of autonomous vehicles. Professor Wang Jianping, in the Department of Computer Science (CS) at CityU, who led the study, explained the…

KIMS-POSTECH joint research team develops a unified microstructure segmentation approach. The research team led by Dr. Se-Jong Kim and Dr. Juwon Na of the Materials Data Management Center in the Materials Digital Platform Division together with the research team led by Professor Seungchul Lee of POSTECH has developed a technology that can automatically identify and quantify materials microstructure from microscopic images through human-in-the-loop machine learning. KIMS is a government-funded research institute under the Ministry of Science and ICT. Microscopic imaging…

Researchers at the University of California San Diego have developed a new type of material that could offer a sustainable and eco-friendly solution to clean pollutants from water. Dubbed an “engineered living material,” it is a 3D-printed structure made of a seaweed-based polymer combined with bacteria that have been genetically engineered to produce an enzyme that transforms various organic pollutants into benign molecules. The bacteria were also engineered to self-destruct in the presence of a molecule called theophylline, which is…

Freeze casting processes can be used to produce highly porous and hierarchically structured materials that have a large surface area. They are suitable for a wide variety of applications, as electrodes for batteries, catalyst materials or in biomedicine. Now a team led by Prof. Ulrike G. K. Wegst, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA and Dr. Francisco García Moreno from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin have now used the newly developed X-ray tomoscopy technique at the Swiss Light Source of the Paul Scherrer…

Materials researchers significantly improve the performance of hydrogel actuators. Robots made of metal and other solid materials are already widely used in industry. But they are too rigid and cumbersome for fine-motor activities and interaction with people, such as in nursing or medicine. Intensive research is therefore already being carried out into robots made of soft materials: inspiration from nature, such as jellyfish, earthworms, fish or the human body should enable “soft robots” that can move flexibly and adapt to…

Collaboration between Duke and Purdue explores the fabrication and optoelectronic characterization of multilayered perovskites. By controlling the arrangement of multiple inorganic and organic layers within crystals using a novel technique, researchers at Duke University and Purdue University have shown they can control the energy levels of electrons and holes (positive charge carriers) within a class of materials called perovskites. This tuning influences the materials’ optoelectronic properties and their ability to emit light of specific energies, demonstrated by their ability to…

EPFL and University of Manchester researchers unlock secrets of nanofluidics using a 2D material and light. A discovery in the field of nanofluidics could shake up our understanding of molecular behavior on the tiniest scales. Research teams at EPFL and the University of Manchester have revealed a previously hidden world by using the newly found fluorescent properties of a graphene-like 2D material, boron nitride. This innovative approach enables scientists to track individual molecules within nanofluidic structures, illuminating their behavior in…

Automated status monitoring for high-pressure storage systems. Strict safety precautions are needed if hydrogen is to be used safely. The latest fuel cell vehicles carry hydrogen in gaseous form in pressurized tanks. These core elements of the H2 drive system must remain safe even under maximum operational loads. To prevent hazardous situations from occurring, regular maintenance of the high-pressure storage systems is mandatory. However, the tank inspection that is currently required consists merely of an external visual inspection. In the…

Germany’s first cryogenic measuring setup for statistical quality measurement of qubit devices on whole 200- and 300-mm wafers has started operation at Fraunhofer IAF. The on-wafer prober can characterize devices based on semiconductor quantum dots and quantum wells as well as superconductors at measurement temperatures below 2 K. Fully automated operation will allow researchers to build up a quantitatively relevant database and advance the industrial production of high-quality devices for quantum computing and quantum sensing in Europe. With the newly…

Flexibility, durability and trust… The accessibility of RISC-V has started a revolution and, thanks to its open architecture, allows developers to design processors tailored to specific requirements. The Fraunhofer IPMS also offers a processor IP based on the RISC V instruction set architecture. The institute has extensive RISC-V expertise, which is used in research projects and is actively developed. The open-source instruction set architecture (ISA) called “Reduced Instruction Set Computer V” (RISC-V) was designed with the aim of emphasizing energy…

In a world experiencing increased heat stress, a zero-carbon-emission cooling technology that consumes no electricity, operating instead by shedding heat directly into outer space, would be a groundbreaking advance. However, poor standardization and a lack of transparency is hampering this promising technology, known as radiative cooling. Best practice guidelines[1], outlined by KAUST leading radiative-cooling researcher Qiaoqiang Gan, could help set the research field back on track. Radiative-cooling devices offer electricity-free cooling by radiating heat within a narrow wavelength range called…

European project tackles first actions… Individual mobility must become greener – this could briefly summarize the requirements for the future development of vehicles. The European Union, with its Green Deal, has set a goal of net zero emission cars, which is driving the growing market for electric vehicles. However, electrical mobility is often criticized for the environmental impact of the battery value chain and insufficient recycling activities. The European HiQ-LCA project aims to change this situation by enabling more reliable…

Sandia researchers develop molecule that reduces wear and tear. A team at Sandia National Laboratories developed a molecule that helps change the way some materials react to temperature fluctuations, which makes them more durable. It’s an application that could be used in everything from plastic phone cases to missiles. Polymers, which include various forms of plastics, are made up of many smaller molecules, bonded together. This bond makes them especially strong and an ideal product to be used to protect…

In recent years, some car manufacturers have already presented the first vehicle models with photovoltaics integrated into the roof. The roof is the easiest surface to use for on-board solar power generation. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE have now gone one step further. As part of two publicly funded research projects, they have integrated solar cells into the standard sheet metal hood of a regular passenger car. Coupled with the research institute’s MorphoColor® technology, the…