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Categories: Chemistry: Thermodynamics, Engineering: Nanotechnology
Published Novel design helps develop powerful microbatteries
(via sciencedaily.com) Translating electrochemical performance of large format batteries to microscale power sources has been a long-standing technological challenge, limiting the ability of batteries to power microdevices, microrobots and implantable medical devices. Researchers have created a high-voltage microbattery (> 9 V), with high-energy and -power density, unparalleled by any existing battery design.
Published Optical coating approach prevents fogging and unwanted reflections
(via sciencedaily.com) Researchers combine a polymer coating with silicon dioxide nanostructures to create a coating to prevent fogging and unwanted reflections. The technique solves a common problem for sensors such as lidar used in autonomous cars.
Published Now on the molecular scale: Electric motors
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Electric vehicles, powered by macroscopic electric motors, are increasingly prevalent on our streets and highways. Now a multidisciplinary team has made an electric motor you can't see with the naked eye: an electric motor on the molecular scale. This early work -- a motor that can convert electrical energy into unidirectional motion at the molecular level -- has implications for materials science and particularly medicine, where the electric molecular motor could team up with biomolecular motors in the human body.
Published Researchers uncover mechanisms to easily dry, redisperse cellulose nanocrystals
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A team of chemical engineering researchers studied the mechanisms of drying the nanocrystals and proposed nanotechnology to render the nanocrystals highly redispersible in aqueous mediums, while retaining their full functionality, to make them easier to store and transport.
Published A big step toward 'green' ammonia and a 'greener' fertilizer
(via sciencedaily.com) Synthesizing ammonia, the key ingredient in fertilizer, is energy intensive and a significant contributor to greenhouse gas warming of the planet. Chemists designed and synthesized porous materials -- metal-organic frameworks, or MOFs -- that bind and release ammonia at more moderate pressures and temperatures than the standard Haber-Bosch process for making ammonia. The MOF doesn't bind to any of the reactants, making capture and release of ammonia less energy intensive and greener.
Published Discovery of a new form of carbon called Long-range Ordered Porous Carbon (LOPC)
(via sciencedaily.com) The most well-known forms of carbon include graphite and diamond, but there are other more exotic nanoscale allotropes of carbon as well. These include graphene and fullerenes, which are sp2 hybridized carbon with zero (flat-shaped) or positive (sphere-shaped) curvatures. Researchers now report the discovery of a new form of carbon formed by heating fullerenes with lithium nitride.
Published Converting temperature fluctuations into clean energy with novel nanoparticles and heating strategy
(via sciencedaily.com) Pyroelectric catalysis (pyro-catalysis) can convert environmental temperature fluctuations into clean chemical energy, like hydrogen. However, compared with the more common catalysis strategy, such as photocatalysis, pyro-catalysis is inefficient due to slow temperature changes in the ambient environment. Recently, a team has triggered a significantly faster and more efficient pyro-catalytic reaction using localized plasmonic heat sources to rapidly and efficiently heat up the pyro-catalytic material and allow it to cool down. The findings open up new avenues for efficient catalysis for biological applications, pollutant treatment and clean energy production.
Published Enabling nanoscale thermoelectrics with a novel organometallic molecular junction
(via sciencedaily.com) Multinuclear organometallic junctions might be the key to realizing high-performance thermoelectric devices at the nanoscale. The unique electronic structure of organometallic ruthenium alkynyl complexes allowed the researchers to achieve unprecedented heat-to-electricity conversion performance in molecular junctions, paving the way to molecular-scale temperature sensors and thermal energy harvesters.
Published Cheap, sustainable hydrogen through solar power
(via sciencedaily.com) A new kind of solar panel has achieved 9% efficiency in converting water into hydrogen and oxygen--mimicking a crucial step in natural photosynthesis. Outdoors, it represents a major leap in the technology, nearly 10 times more efficient than solar water-splitting experiments of its kind.
Published Scientists develop a cool new method of refrigeration
(via sciencedaily.com) Researchers have developed a new kind of heating and cooling method that they have named the ionocaloric refrigeration cycle. They hope the technique will someday help phase out refrigerants that contribute to global warming and provide safe, efficient cooling and heating for homes.
Published A shield for 2D materials that adds vibrations to reduce vibration problems
(via sciencedaily.com) A new study demonstrates a new, counterintuitive way to protect atomically-thin electronics -- adding vibrations, to reduce vibrations. By squeezing a liquid-metal gallium droplet, graphene devices are painted with a protective coating of gallium-oxide that can cover millimeter-wide scales, making it potentially applicable for industrial large-scale fabrication. The new technique improves device performance as well as protecting 2D materials from thermal vibration in neighboring materials.
Published Mitigating corrosion by liquid tin could lead to better cooling in fusion reactors
(via sciencedaily.com) Researchers have clarified the chemical compatibility between high temperature liquid metal tin (Sn) and reduced activation ferritic martensitic, a candidate structural material for fusion reactors. This discovery has paved the way for the development of a liquid metal tin divertor, which is an advanced heat-removal component of fusion reactors. A device called a divertor is installed in the fusion reactors to maintain the purity of the plasma. For divertors, there has been demand for liquid metals that can withstand extremely large heat loads from high-temperature plasma.
Published Chaos gives the quantum world a temperature
(via sciencedaily.com) Two seemingly different areas of physics are related in subtle ways: Quantum theory and thermodynamics. How can the laws of thermodynamics arise from the laws of quantum physics? This question has now been pursued with computer simulations, which showed that chaos plays a crucial role: Only where chaos prevails do the well-known rules of thermodynamics follow from quantum physics.
Published Gold-based passive heating for eyewear
(via sciencedaily.com) Researchers have developed a new transparent gold nanocoating that harnesses sunlight to heat the lenses of glasses, thereby preventing them from fogging in humid conditions. This coating could potentially also be applied to car windshields.
Published Flameproofing lithium-ion batteries with salt
(via sciencedaily.com) A polymer-based electrolyte makes for batteries that keep working -- and don't catch fire -- when heated to over 140 degrees F.
Published Team recycles previously unrecyclable plastic
(via sciencedaily.com) Researchers have discovered a way to chemically recycle PVC into usable material, finding a way to use the phthalates in the plasticizers -- one of PVC's most noxious components -- as the mediator for the chemical reaction.
Published Researchers introduce an energy-efficient method to enhance thermal conductivity of polymer composites
(via sciencedaily.com) Thermally conductive polymer composites consist of fillers oriented in certain directions that form pathways for heat flow. However, conventional methods to control the orientation of these fillers are energy-intensive and require surface modifications that can deteriorate the quality and properties of these materials. Now, researchers have developed an energy-efficient method to control the orientation of the fillers without the need for surface modification, resulting in improvement in thermal conductivity.
Published Engineers use quantum computing to develop transparent window coating that blocks heat, saves energy
(via sciencedaily.com) Scientists have devised a transparent coating for windows that could help cool the room, use no energy and preserve the view.
Published Cooling down solar cells, naturally
(via sciencedaily.com) Too much sun and too much heat can reduce the efficiency of photovoltaics. A solar farm with optimally spaced panels facing the correct direction could cool itself through convection using the surrounding wind. Researchers explored how to exploit the geometry of solar farms to enhance natural cooling mechanisms.
Published High-performance and compact vibration energy harvester created for self-charging wearable devices
(via sciencedaily.com) A research team has developed a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) piezoelectric vibration energy harvester, which is only about 2 cm in diameter with a U-shaped metal vibration amplification component. The device allows for an increase of approximately 90 times in the power generation performance from impulsive vibration. Since the power generation performance can be improved without increasing the device size, the technology is expected to generate power to drive small wearable devices from non-steady vibrations, such as walking motion.