Soon, electric passenger ferries skimming above the surface across the seas may become a reality. At Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, a research team has created a unique method for further developing hydrofoils that can significantly increase the range of electric vessels and reduce the fuel consumption of fossil-powered ships by 80 per cent.   While the electrification of cars is well advanced, the world’s passenger ferries are still powered almost exclusively by fossil fuels. The limiting factor is battery…

Hot-carrier multijunction solar cells maintain a high conversion efficiency with nonoptimal materials, broadening the scope of candidates for their design. Solar energy is a clean and renewable source of energy. Solar cells usually consist of a semiconductor material that absorbs sunlight and generates electricity. However, the amount of sunlight that can be converted into electricity is limited. Standard single-junction solar cells are theoretically limited to a maximum power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 30 percent. This is the famous “Shockley–Queisser limit,”…

Researchers have analysed the properties of an organic polymer with potential applications in flexible electronics and uncovered variations in hardness at the nanoscale, the first time such a fine structure has been observed in this type of material. The field of organic electronics has benefited from the discovery of new semiconducting polymers with molecular backbones that are resilient to twists and bends, meaning they can transport charge even if they are flexed into different shapes. It had been assumed that…

Nanosheets are finely structured two-dimensional materials and have great potential for innovation. They are fixed on top of each other in layered crystals, and must first be separated from each other so that they can be used, for example, to filter gas mixtures or for efficient gas barriers. A research team at the University of Bayreuth has now developed a gentle, environmentally-friendly process for this difficult process of delamination that can even be used on an industrial scale. This is…

The Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute (HHI) and drone manufacturer Wingcopter have successfully deployed the SUCOM drone communication system on the African continent for the first time, specifically in Malawi. The mobile radio-based system enables safe control of drones, even despite being out of sight of the person controlling them. Wingcopter plans to expand the local delivery drone program into a permanent operation with additional local pilots by the planned completion of SUCOM testing in Malawi at the end of the…

Researcher Laura Rossi and her group at TU Delft have found a new way to build synthetic materials out of tiny glass particles – so-called colloids. Together with their colleagues from Queen’s University and the University of Amsterdam, they showed that they can simply use the shape of these colloids to make interesting building blocks for new materials, regardless of other properties of the colloidal particles. Rossi: “This is striking, because it opens up a completely new way to think…

Study shows promise for developing a new renewable energy source. A new artificial enzyme has shown it can chew through lignin, the tough polymer that helps woody plants hold their shape. Lignin also stores tremendous potential for renewable energy and materials. Reporting in the journal Nature Communications, a team of researchers from Washington State University and the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory showed that their artificial enzyme succeeded in digesting lignin, which has stubbornly resisted previous attempts to…

Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE, using a new antireflection coating, have successfully increased the efficiency of the best four-junction solar cell to date from 46.1 to 47.6 percent at a concentration of 665 suns. This is a global milestone, as there is currently no solar cell with a higher efficiency worldwide. The results are presented today at the 2nd International tandemPV Workshop, taking place in Freiburg, Germany. For the last two years, Fraunhofer ISE has…

Scientists from Hamburg and Munich developed the world’s most powerful dual-comb spectrometer that paves the way for many applications in atmospheric science and biomedical diagnostics, such as early cancer detection. The work has recently been published in Nature Communications. The core part of the system is a special type of laser-gain medium, a thin-disk, and a unique configuration of the mirrors surrounding this medium, a laser resonator (shown in the illustration). “The key of our dual comb laser source lies…

How concrete 3D printing saves material and CO2. “As soon as climate compatibility comes into play we have to look at mineral building materials. And this is where the really big CO2 potential savings can be increased.” says Andreas Trummer, expert in concrete 3D printing at TU Graz. Concrete is the most widely used building material in the world. It can be used in many ways, can be produced locally and is very durable. Its environmental performance, on the other…

Carnegie Mellon Roboticists go off road to compile dataset likely largest for off-road environments. Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University took an all-terrain vehicle on wild rides through tall grass, loose gravel and mud to gather data about how the ATV interacted with a challenging, off-road environment. They drove the heavily instrumented ATV aggressively at speeds up to 30 miles an hour. They slid through turns, took it up and down hills, and even got it stuck in the mud —…

Giving off a comfortable glow, candles set the ambiance for a special dinner or just a quiet evening at home. However, some lighting alternatives, such as electronic candles, give off unwanted blue wavelengths that interfere with the body’s circadian rhythm. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Applied Electronic Materials have fabricated an improved bendable organic LED that releases candlelight-like light for flexible lighting and smart displays that people can comfortably use at night. Previously, Jwo-Huei Jou and other researchers developed organic…

An international research team, led by DIPC and Princeton University, discovered that almost all materials in nature exhibit at least one topological state, contradicting the 40-year-old assumption that topological materials are rare and esoteric. In a paper published this week in Science, the team also introduces the new concept of “supertopological” to the theory of band topology. For the past century, students of chemistry, materials science, and physics have been taught to model solid-state materials by considering their chemical composition,…

Study shows what happens when crystalline grains in metals reform at nanometer scales, improving metal properties. Forming metal into the shapes needed for various purposes can be done in many ways, including casting, machining, rolling, and forging. These processes affect the sizes and shapes of the tiny crystalline grains that make up the bulk metal, whether it be steel, aluminum or other widely used metals and alloys. Now researchers at MIT have been able to study exactly what happens as…

CU Boulder scientists have successfully synthesized graphyne, which has been theorized for decades but never successfully produced. For over a decade, scientists have attempted to synthesize a new form of carbon called graphyne with limited success. That endeavor is now at an end, though, thanks to new research from the University of Colorado Boulder. Graphyne has long been of interest to scientists because of its similarities to the “wonder material” graphene—another form of carbon that is highly valued by industry…

A team of researchers from Bordeaux, Augsburg and Bayreuth has studied 61 different metals over the course of multiple years. The results have been published in the prestigious journal “Nature Sustainability“ –  The most significant finding was that the raw materials critical to modern technology, in particular, have a relatively short usage period. How long are metallic and mineral raw materials usable in the economic cycle – and when do they dissipate? Researchers from Bordeaux, Augsburg, and Bayreuth, answer these…