Fast ‘green’ process revives essential battery components for reuse. How many rechargeable lithium-ion batteries are you wearing? How many are in your general vicinity? Probably more than a few, and they’re great for powering all the things important to modern lives: cellphones, watches, computers, cars and so much more. But where they go when they fail is a growing problem. Rice University scientists believe they have a partial solution that relies on the unique “flash” Joule heating process they developed to produce graphene…

We want modern technology to become smaller and more energy-efficient without losing quality. Technical innovation is needed to achieve this. For several years, the Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems IPMS has been researching a novel energy-efficient actuator system for micro loudspeakers. The prototype now presented has surpassed expectations: High volume and excellent sound quality meet high energy efficiency in practical tests. The results were now presented in the Nature Journal Microsystems & Nanoengineering. The research team led by Dr Bert…

A new study reveals the profound properties of a simple metal alloy. Scientists have measured the highest toughness ever recorded, of any material, while investigating a metallic alloy made of chromium, cobalt, and nickel (CrCoNi). Not only is the metal extremely ductile – which, in materials science, means highly malleable – and impressively strong (meaning it resists permanent deformation), its strength and ductility improve as it gets colder. This runs counter to most other materials in existence. The team, led…

Using a new analytical method, Empa researchers have tracked viruses as they pass through face masks and compared their failure on the filter layers of different types of masks. The new method should now accelerate the development of surfaces that can kill viruses, the team writes in the journal Scientific Reports. Using high pressure, the apparatus pushes artificial saliva fluid, colored in red, with test particles through a stretched mask. This is how the researchers simulate the process of a…

Nature in city environs has a positive effect on people’s well-being. At the same time biological diversity in urban areas continues to shrink, for example because of increasing building density. In the “Ecolopes” project, researchers led by the Technical University of Munich (TUM) are searching for specific solutions which will make it possible to create green infrastructure with a higher degree of biological diversity in urban areas. As a key discipline, architecture has a considerable influence on the built areas…

Contactless manipulation method could be used in industries such as robotics and manufacturing. University of Minnesota Twin Cities researchers have discovered a new method to move objects using ultrasound waves. The research opens the door for using contactless manipulation in industries such as manufacturing and robotics, where devices wouldn’t need a built-in power source in order to move. The study is published in Nature Communications, a peer-reviewed, open-access scientific journal. While it’s been demonstrated before that light and sound waves…

… and how we can prevent it. Detailed model highlights how important girder end design is for improving resilience. Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have carried out a detailed simulation showing how a common type of bridge fails during large-scale earthquakes. They modeled “I-shaped girder” bridges, looking at the step-by-step mechanism by which they yield and deform under lateral forces, starting at the ends. Reinforcing ribs were shown to be effective against lateral forces and improve load-bearing capacity. Their work…

Together with industrial partners, the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT has developed a novel system for producing high-resolution microcomponents by photo-crosslinking. Thanks to their work in the project “High productivity and detail accuracy in additive manufacturing by combining UV polymerization and multiphoton polymerization – HoPro-3D,” polymer microstructures can now be produced economically and customized in one machine. The experts at the Fraunhofer ILT worked together with LightFab GmbH from Aachen, Bartels Mikrotechnik GmbH from Dortmund and Miltenyi Biotec GmbH…

International research team discovers novel quantum state. Water that simply will not freeze, no matter how cold it gets – a research group involving the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) has discovered a quantum state that could be described in this way. Experts from the Institute of Solid State Physics at the University of Tokyo in Japan, Johns Hopkins University in the United States, and the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems (MPI-PKS) in Dresden, Germany, managed to cool…

New Fraunhofer safety technology reduces transportation accidents. Warehouses are home to heavy volumes of traffic. The numbers of industrial trucks (pallet trucks, forklift vehicles and the like) traversing their aisles are growing especially large – in facilities that are themselves increasing in size all the time. Under these conditions, accidents become an inevitability even if numerous safety measures are put in place. Now, optical sensors on industrial trucks might provide warehouse staff with better protection as they do their jobs….

Effective thermal management with programmable materials. Energy is scarce – and like all scarce things, it comes at a price. That is why Germany needs to greatly reduce its energy consumption. There is significant potential for this in the area of heating and cooling energy which accounts for a large proportion of Germany’s energy consumption. Innovative materials that can be programmed to control heat transition can be a valuable tool in this scenario. The use of materials like these could,…

Until now, it has been extremely tedious to perform measurements with high sensitivity and high spatial resolution using X-ray light in the tender energy range of 1.5 – 5.0 keV. Yet this X-ray light is ideal for investigating energy materials such as batteries or catalysts, but also biological systems. A team from HZB has now solved this problem: The newly developed monochromator optics increase the photon flux in the tender energy range by a factor of 100 and thus enable…

Photovoltaics are more efficient when they operate at lower temperatures, which can be achieved in solar farms that space out arrays and use the wind to their advantage. A bright, sunny, cloudless day might seem like the optimal setting for solar cells. But too much sun, and too much heat, can actually reduce the efficiency of photovoltaics. As operating temperature rises by 1 degree Celsius, traditional silicon-based solar cells will lose about 0.5% efficiency. In a typical photovoltaic plant, where…

There is a new quality in laser material processing: With a liquid crystal modulator, the beam profile of a laser can be freely programmed with high temporal resolution, but also split into identical copies. When this quality is combined with inline process monitoring and intelligent control, zero-defect manufacturing could become reality. In the EU project METAMORPHA, the partners will develop a system with all the fine details. The module will be tested in three applications with major industrial partners. The…

A soft and flexible electronic “e-skin,” so sensitive it can detect the minute temperature difference between an inhaled and an exhaled breath, could form the basis of a new form of on-skin biosensor. The ultrathin material is also sensitive to touch and body motion, suggesting a wide array of potential applications. “The skin plays a vital role in our interactions with the world,” says Vincent Tung from KAUST, who led the work. “Recreating its properties in an e-skin could have…

The system regulates its own temperature in response to environmental disturbances. Researchers have developed a synthetic system that responds to environmental changes in the same way as living organisms, using a feedback loop to maintain its internal conditions. This not only keeps the material’s conditions stable but also makes it possible to build mechanisms that react dynamically to their environment, an important trait for interactive materials and soft robotics. Living systems, from individual cells up to organisms, use feedback systems…