Category Chemistry/Nanotechnology

This first version of a new layered perovskite solar cell already achieves an efficiency of more than 20 percent, rivaling many commercial solar cells. Flexible and easy to make, it can produce more than half a volt of electricity. Credit: Onur Ergen, UC Berkeley

Solar cells made from an inexpensive and increasingly popular material called perovskite can more efficiently turn sunlight into electricity using a new technique to sandwich 2 types of perovskite into a single photovoltaic cell. Perovskite solar cells are made of a mix of organic molecules and inorganic elements that together capture light and convert it into electricity, just like today’s more common silicon-based solar cells...

This is an infrared image of metadevice composed of vanadium dioxide with gold patterned mesh. (Top) Device without any electric current showing the PSU cut from the pattern and reflective. (Middle) Device with 2.03 amps

An electric current will not only heat a hybrid metamaterial, but will also trigger it to change state and fade into the background like a chameleon in what may be the proof-of-concept of the first controllable metamaterial device, or metadevice. “Previous metamaterials work focused mainly on cloaking objects so they were invisible in the radio frequency or other specific frequencies,” said Douglas H. Werner, John L. and Genevieve H. McCain Chair Professor of electrical engineering, Penn State...

The OFS soap molecules made from renewable sources could dramatically reduce the number of chemicals in cleaning products and their impact on the environment. Credit: Paul J. Dauenhauer, University of Minnesota

A team has invented a new soap molecule made from renewable sources that could dramatically reduce the number of chemicals in cleaning products and their impact on the environment. The soap molecules also worked better than some conventional soaps in challenging conditions such as cold and hard water. The technology has been patented by the University of Minnesota and is licensed to the new Minnesota-based startup company Sironix Renewables.

“Our team created a soap molecule made from natural products, like soybeans, coconut and corn, that works better than regular soaps and is bett...