Artificial muscles deliver sustainable cooling. A new type of energy efficient, ecologically sustainable cooling technology that does not require the use of climate-damaging refrigerants is currently being developed by Professor Stefan Seelecke and his team at Saarland University. The new technology makes use of shape-memory materials that are also known as ‘artificial muscles’. These materials are able to transport heat by loading and unloading nickel-titanium wires. Seelecke’s team is currently developing the technology for use in cooling systems for electric…
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,”…
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…
Based on similar technology to night-vision goggles, Australian researchers have developed a device that can generate electricity from thermal radiation. The sun’s enormous energy may soon be harnessed in the dark of night following a significant advance in thermal capture technology. Solar radiation heats the earth’s crust significantly during daylight hours, but that energy is lost into the coldness of space when the sun goes down. Now, researchers within the School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering at UNSW Sydney have successfully tested…
The robot grippers designed by Professor Stefan Seelecke and his team at Saarland University can grip and manipulate objects with complex geometries. The system can adapt almost instantaneously to changes in form, switching seamlessly between differently shaped parts. The articulated gripper is driven electrically, is lightweight and accelerates rapidly and is even able to tell whether it is holding the object securely enough. The ultrafine nickel-titanium wires that control the motion of the four fingers of the prototype can rapidly…
Scientists create reliable and renewable biological photovoltaic cell. Researchers have used a widespread species of blue-green algae to power a microprocessor continuously for a year – and counting – using nothing but ambient light and water. Their system has potential as a reliable and renewable way to power small devices. The system, comparable in size to an AA battery, contains a type of non-toxic algae called Synechocystis that naturally harvests energy from the sun through photosynthesis. The tiny electrical current…
Let there be a light: Using fewer resources, avoiding electronic waste, and saving energy: This is possible if the entire production chain for more sustainable lamps is investigated and levelled up. For the SUMATRA project, researchers at Fraunhofer IZM and their industry partners are working together on exactly this mission. The precise eco lifecycle assessments and resulting design recommendations produced by Fraunhofer IZM and the environmental services provider Interseroh will assist lighting brands like TRILUX or OSRAM in making their…
A low-cost and easy-to-manufacture lighting technology can be made with light-emitting electrochemical cells. Such cells are thin-film electronic and ionic devices that generate light after a low voltage is applied. Researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the University of Turin have now used extensive data analysis to create first-class electrochemical cells from copper complexes that emit blue and white light. Light-emitting electrochemical cells (LECs) are the simplest and least expensive thin-film lighting devices available to date. They…
Hydrogen is a key element in the energy transition. To ensure that hydrogen can become generally established as an energy source, it must be produced at market prices, in sufficient quantities and in a climate-neutral manner, and used with a high CO2 reduction rate. This requires affordable, robust hydrogen systems in the form of electrolyzers and fuel cells. With the intent of launching their serial production in the future, Reference-factory.H2 provides both a design for guidance and a modular system…
A new approach to battery design could provide the key to low-cost, long-term energy storage, according to Imperial College London researchers. The team of engineers and chemists have created a polysulfide-air redox flow battery (PSA RFB) with not one, but two membranes. The dual membrane design overcomes the main problems with this type of large-scale battery, opening up its potential to store excess energy from, for example, renewable sources such as wind and solar. The research is published in Nature…
… provides a full 360° phase tunable metasurface. The new strategy displays an unprecedented upper limit of dynamic phase modulation with no significant variations in optical amplitude. An international team of researchers led by Professor Min Seok Jang of KAIST and Professor Victor W. Brar of the University of Wisconsin-Madison has demonstrated a widely applicable methodology enabling a full 360° active phase modulation for metasurfaces while maintaining significant levels of uniform light amplitude. This strategy can be fundamentally applied to…
New High-Brightness Versions Launched. In addition to an energy-saving design, microdisplays for wearables must also display information in a way that they are sufficiently bright under daylight conditions, at best in colored versions and recognizable with the naked eye. The OLED microdisplay family of the Fraunhofer Institute for Organic Electronics, Electron Beam and Plasma Technology FEP has now been extended: Microdisplays in a new design for ultra-high brightness. The new versions will be presented for the first time at the…
Fagron, a leading global company active in pharmaceutical compounding, announced on April 14th the acquisition of HiperScan, the German market leader for reliable raw material identification in pharmacies. HiperScan is a spin-off of Fraunhofer IPMS and the German market leader for reliable and secure identification of starting materials in pharmacies. HiperScan, a Dresden-based technology company, is a specialist in near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy and emerged in 2006 as a spin-off of the Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems IPMS, developing innovative analysis…
“This study really sheds light on how we can design and manufacture battery electrodes to obtain a long cycle life for batteries,” said Feng Lin, an associate professor in chemistry at Virginia Tech. It doesn’t come on fast. It may take weeks to notice. You have the newly recharged lithium-ion AA batteries in the wireless kitty water fountain, and they last two days. They once lasted a week or more. Another round of charging, and they last one day. Soon,…
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