Chains of molecules known as conducting polymers are versatile materials that can work like electronic circuits. Potential uses include flat panel displays, solar panels, sensing devices and transistors, to name just a few. Their invention won three scientists the Nobel Prize in chemistry.

But to make useful devices from conducting polymers requires a degree of chemical wizardry that often proves elusive. University of Illinois at Chicago chemistry professor Luke Hanley has found a new and

Gaiker y Santa Ana de Bolueta Abrasión, S. A., have developed a novel, rapid and efficient method to reduce abrasion in industrial parts.

The considerable wear suffered by industrial parts and equipment and by extracting tools that come into contact with abrasive materials forces companies to make periodic maintenance breaks in normal activity, thus causing considerable losses in time and money.

Santa Ana de Bolueta Abrasión, S. A., together with Gaiker, have developed a novel metho

Researchers at the University of Warwick’s Warwick Process Technology Group are leading a programme called “Hydrofueler” to develop technology to connect petrol stations to the normal natural gas supply to fuel hydrogen powered vehicles. The 2.8 million euro EC funded three year research programme has already drawn interest from Exxon Mobil, and BMW.

One of the problems with using hydrogen powered cars is how do you keep their fuel cells supplied with a ready source of hydrogen? The Warwick

A revolutionary new car, which averages more than 200 miles per gallon in the city, is being developed at the University of Southampton.
Postgraduate research student Dennis Doerffel has turned a hatchback into a hybrid electric car. It uses the latest lithium ion batteries linked to a small petrol engine, which cuts in automatically if more power or range is required.

He said: “More than 90 per cent of all car journeys are less than 50 miles long. That is the range of the battery and it

New materials will have applications in electronic and optoelectronic devices, electrocatalysis, electroanalysis and sensors

Scientists at the University of California, Riverside have synthesized a large family of semiconducting porous materials that have an unprecedented and diverse chemical composition.

The new materials show several different properties such as photoluminescence, ion exchange, and gas sorption. They also have a large surface area and uniform pore sizes. I

In laboratory tests, Penn State environmental engineers have shown that wastewater from a Pennsylvania confectioner, apple processor, and potato chip maker can produce hydrogen gas worth $80,000 a year or more. Steven Van Ginkel, doctoral candidate, and Dr. Sang-Eun Oh, postdoctoral researcher in environmental engineering, conducted the tests.

“In addition to hydrogen, which can be used as a fuel and industrial feedstock, methane, the main component of natural gas, can be generated from the

Consumer demand for lighter, more powerful handheld devices such as laptop computers and mobile phones is growing year on year. The EUREKA project 3D STRUCTURES has addressed one of the key requirements – cheaper and lighter batteries that last longer.

French lead partner SCPS (Societé de Conseil et de Prospective Scientifique S.A.) has developed a new kind of conductive metallic foam capable of replacing heavy metallic parts. A cylindrical block of foam is immersed in an aqueous solution t

Data gathered by Penn State engineers in a volunteer effort at the World Trade Center tragedy, suggests that simple, inexpensive microphones dropped into the rubble of a collapsed building may be able to aid search and rescue teams despite ground level noise.

Dr. Thomas B. Gabrielson, associate professor of acoustics and senior research associate at Penn State’s Applied Research Laboratory, says, “In conventional survivor searches, noise generating activities at the surface must be stopped

Penn State engineers have developed a low- cost, high-torque rotary motor, based on “smart” materials, that can be configured in a wide range of formats, including one as flat and thin as a CD case.

The inventors say that, in the flat format, the motor could be used to drive changes in the camber of airplane wings or fins, essentially shape-shifting the curvature of the wing or fin surface.

In other formats, the motor could work in tightly integrated spaces where other motors can

Jefferson Lab is once again taking center stage, as Lab scientists, engineers and technicians mobilize to provide 81 niobium cavities for 23 cryomodules for the Spallation Neutron Source under construction in Oak Ridge, Tennessee

Thermos bottles usually don’t weigh nearly five tons or measure almost 26 feet end-to-end. But these aren’t run-of-the-mill containers for soup or coffee. Rather, they’re the complex, state-of-the-art supercooled components in which particle beams are

An experiment conducted by the Department of Energy’s Jefferson Lab generates THz radiation 20,000 times brighter than anyone else; breakthrough lights way for application development

Experiment generates THz radiation 20,000 times brighter than anyone else; breakthrough lights way for application development

An experiment conducted with Jefferson Lab’s Free-Electron Laser has shown how to make a highly useful form of light — called terahertz radiation — 20,000 times brigh

Jefferson Lab’s Free-Electron Laser used to explore the fundamental science of how and why nanotubes form, paying close attention to the atomic and molecular details

Scientists and technologists of all stripes are working intensively to explore the possibilities of an extremely strong and versatile cylinder so tiny that millions — which in bunches look like an ebony snowflake — could fit easily on the tip of a pin. The objects in question are known as carbon nanotubes, first discov

Testing Begins This Winter

The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) are testing a Web-based system for weather forecasting and winter road treatment that could soon save lives, cut costs, and help keep millions of drivers on the move. Highway officials and road crews in Des Moines and Ames, Iowa, will test the Maintenance Decision Support System (MDSS) February 3 to April 4.

Motor vehicle accidents involving bad weather

Oxford University researchers have devised a novel coil design for magnetic resonance (MR) application, devised specifically for deep organ MR where sensitive imaging and spectroscopy have been previously difficult.

Deep organ magnetic resonance requires maximised sensitivity and magnetic field homogeneity over a relatively large field of view (FOV). However, it is difficult to maximise both sensitivity and magnetic field homogeneity simultaneously. The sensitivity can be maximised by reduci

Currently there is great talk of renewable energies and, amongst these solar energy is highly important. In order to harness and utilise this form of energy there are many technologies available of which one is solar panels. These panels are made up of photoelectric cells (the 80-100 little square units in any one panel).

Photoelectric cells are classified according to the power they produce, given that total power production of any panel can be limited by just one photoelectric cell of lowe

Physicists from the St. Petersburg State Institute of Technology have invented an unusual method for improving concrete. The researchers believe that the concrete structure will become more uniform, and concrete products will obtain unprecedented durability and water-resistance if, while hardening, concrete is exposed to the influence of electromagnetic field of a strictly determined frequency.

The actual process is as follows: the concrete blocks while they are still in the mould ar