Category Chemistry/Nanotechnology

This is a wood composite as an energy efficient building material: Guided sunlight transmission and effective thermal insulation. Credit: University of Maryland and Advanced Energy Materials

Natural microstructures in transparent wood are key to lighting & insulation advantages. Engineers at A. James Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland (UMD) demonstrate in a new study that windows made of transparent wood could provide more even and consistent natural lighting and better energy efficiency than glass, while eliminating glare. The findings advance earlier published work on their development of transparent wood.

The transparent wood lets through just a little bit less light than glass, but a lot less heat, said Tian Li...

A slice of (white) lithium garnet electrolyte coated with a (black) lithium compound acting as the battery’s minus pole in the laboratory of the ETH researchers. Credit: ETH Zurich / Fabio Bergamin

A new lithium-ion battery made entirely of solid material has been developed by scientists. It has neither liquids nor gels. The battery is non-flammable, even at very high temperatures, giving it a safety advantage over conventional batteries. Mobile phones, laptops, e-bikes and electric cars are all powered by such batteries.

Conventional lithium-ion batteries are not without their dangers: mobile phone batteries have exploded several times in the past, resulting in injuries, and only 6 months ago an entire row of houses burned down in the old town of Steckborn on Lake Constance...

Scientists have proposed a graphene-based sensor that can ‘sniff out’ a single molecule of explosives. Credit: Graphene-based sensor

A graphene-based spaser can detect even small amounts of various substances, including explosives, toxic chemicals, and other organic compounds based on a single molecule. Scientists have long been fascinated by the potential applications of a quasiparticle called the plasmon, a quantum of plasma oscillations. In the case of a solid body, plasmons are the oscillations of free electrons.

Of special interest are the effects from the surface interactions of electromagnetic waves with plasmons – usually in the context of metals or semimetals, as they have a higher free electron density...

Artistic rendition of a metallic carbon nanotube being pulled into solution, in analogy to the work described by the Adronov group.

Imagine an electronic newspaper that you could roll up and spill your coffee on, even as it updated itself before your eyes. It’s an example of the technological revolution that has been waiting to happen. Researchers at McMaster University have developed a new way to purify carbon nanotubes – smaller, flexible semiconductors expected to replace silicon within computer chips and a wide array of electronics. “Once we have a reliable source of pure nanotubes that are not very expensive, a lot can happen very quickly,” says Prof Adronov.

A major problem standing in the way of the new technology, however, has been untangling metallic and semiconducting carbon nano...