On crystal surfaces, nanotubes self-guide themselves into dense structures with exciting potential applications as sensors or integrated circuits

USC researchers have found that sapphire surfaces spontaneously arrange carbon nanotubes into useful patterns — but only the right surfaces. Nanotubes are one-atom thick sheets of carbon rolled into seamless cylinders. They can be used to work as chemical sensors and transistors, like devices made from carbon’s close chemical cousin,

Using a new electrically-assisted microbial fuel cell (MFC) that does not require oxygen, Penn State environmental engineers and a scientist at Ion Power Inc. have developed the first process that enables bacteria to coax four times as much hydrogen directly out of biomass than can be generated typically by fermentation alone.

Dr. Bruce Logan, the Kappe professor of environmental engineering and an inventor of the MFC, says, “This MFC process is not limited to using only carbohydra

Relief from soaring prices at the gas pump could come in the form of corncobs, cornstalks, switchgrass and other types of biomass, according to a joint feasibility study for the departments of Agriculture and Energy.

The recently completed Oak Ridge National Laboratory report outlines a national strategy in which 1 billion dry tons of biomass – any organic matter that is available on a renewable or recurring basis – would displace 30 percent of the nation’s petroleum consu

Zhiyu Hu believes it is possible to match nature’s highly efficient method to convert chemicals into thermal energy at room temperature, and he has data and a published paper to support his theory.

In a paper scheduled to appear in the May 18 print issue of the American Chemical Society’s Energy & Fuels, Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Hu describes a novel method to achieve spontaneous ignition and sustained combustion at room temperature. He achieves this “nano-c

The deterrent effect of cameras that record the licence plates of cars passing through red lights at junctions reduces the numbers of accidents that cause injuries.

Current estimates suggest that by 2020 road traffic injury is likely to become the third greatest cause of death and disability in the world. Drivers running (‘jumping’) red lights are a leading cause of crashes at traffic-light controlled junctions, and incidents involving one car crashing into the side of another carr

The Cidetec Technological Centre continues to invest in nanotechnology development with its participation in the European NAPA (Emerging Nanopatterning Methods) project. The research institution is directing a working subgroup to develop new thermoplastic polymers for applications in nanopatterning and nanolithography.

The main objective of the European NAPA integrated project is to provide low-cost processes and tools that meet the needs of nanoprinting processes and required for

Basic building blocks of nanotech, carbon nanotubes will help carry the $850 billion electronics industry forward

A Case Western Reserve University engineer has created the “seeds” that can grow into today’s and tomorrow’s computer and phone chips.

In a development that could lead to smaller but more powerful computers and electronic communication devices, Massood Tabib-Azar, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at Case, and engineering graduate s

Mechanical engineers at Purdue University have new findings offering promise for modifying household refrigeration technology with small devices to cool future weapons systems and computer chips.

The devices, called “micro-channel heat sinks,” circulate coolant through numerous channels about three times the width of a human hair. Such devices might be attached directly to electronic components in military lasers, microwave radar and weapons systems, as well as in future computers t

Many potential applications

Picture a flower that opens when facing the sunlight. In work that mimics that sensitivity to light, an MIT engineer and German colleagues have created the first plastics that can be deformed and temporarily fixed in a second, new shape by illumination with light having certain wavelengths. These programmed materials will only switch back to their original shape when exposed to light of specific different wavelengths.

The work, to be reported

Fatronik Technological Centre has put the finishing touches to the development of a portable climbing robot capable of carrying out precision operations and originally designed for the aeronautics sector.

Despite being a highly technological industry, most aeronautical assemblies are still little automated, given the ever greater size of aeroplanes and the need to have large and expensive means of production.

Given this problem, Fatronik has designed a solution that is

Imagine a firefighter scrambling through a burning building, searching for survivors of a devastating explosion. Injured people on the far side of a brick wall, but out of reach. However, the partner on the other side promptly smashes through the wall, clears a path so both can help the survivors. Science fiction perhaps? No, this is exactly the scenario that partners in the PELOTE project have been working on.

Libor Preucil, from the Czech Technical University in Prague and coor

The potential applications for flexible plastic electronics are enormous — from electronic books to radio frequency identification (RFID) tags to electronics for cell phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and laptop computers — but certain technological hurdles must be overcome before we see such widespread use.

Now a Northwestern University team of materials chemists report a breakthrough in the race to find the right materials for producing cost-effective, high-performan

An improved method for depositing nanoporous, conducting polymer films on miniaturized device features has been demonstrated by researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

Described in the April 6 issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society,* the method may be useful as a general technique for reproducibly fabricating microdevices such as sensors for detecting toxic chemicals.

Unlike most polymers, conducting polymers have the elec

A new type of transistor structure, invented by scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has broken the 600 gigahertz speed barrier. The goal of a terahertz transistor for high-speed computing and communications applications could now be within reach. The new device – built from indium phosphide and indium gallium arsenide – is designed with a compositionally graded collector, base and emitter to reduce transit time and improve current density. With their pseud

The SINTEF Group, in co-operation with the re-cycling company Tomra now goes beyond cash deposits for bottles and cans to recycling plastic, glass and metal. Newly developed, patented technology makes it possible to sort different types of plastic, different colours of glass as well as metal – easily, effectively and inexpensively. A new, inexpensive gas-detector that contributes to a better indoor climate, is another area of use.

Although many things can be recycled or reused,

Scientists develop a breed of sensors that can survive extremes of heat and pressure

Scientists have developed a new breed of sensors which can survive incredible levels of pressure and heat and that are helping researchers work out how to make buildings that could survive massive explosions. Professor Julian Jones, of Heriot-Watt University, will reveal the next generation of sensing devices at the Institute of Physics conference Physics 2005 in Warwick, heralding a new range of me