Category Physics

Biomimetics: the epidermis of a rose petal is replicated in a transparent layer which is then integrated into the front of a solar cell. Credit: Illustration: Guillaume Gomard, KIT

Scientists increase the efficiency of solar cells by replicating the structure of petals. With a surface resembling that of plants, solar cells improve light-harvesting and thus generate more power. Scientists of KIT reproduced the epidermal cells of rose petals that have particularly good antireflection properties and integrated the transparent replicas into an organic solar cell. This resulted in a relative efficiency gain of 12%.

Photovoltaics works in a similar way as the photosynthesis of plants...

GraphExeter is a material adapted from the ‘wonder material’ graphene.

Exeter researchers have substantially improved the effectiveness of large, flat, flexible lighting via GraphExeter – a material adapted from the ‘wonder material’ graphene. By using GraphExeter, the most transparent, lightweight and flexible material for conducting electricity, instead of pure graphene, the team have increased the brightness of flexible lights by up to almost 50%. The research has also shown GraphExeter makes the lights 30% more efficient than existing examples of flexible lighting, based on state-of-the-art commercial polymers.

The research team believe the breakthrough could help significantly improve the viability of the next generation of flexible screens, which could be used for display screens...

Young scientists from Tomsk Polytechnic University are developing a robotic arm prototype and its control algorithm using myoelectric signals

Scientists are developing a robotic arm prototype and its control algorithm using myoelectric signals. The mechanical limb will independently recognize the motions of its owner and be able to perform all the same motions like a healthy arm. The scientists estimate the final cost of the device of 600 –1,000 USD.

According to the developers – fellows at the Laboratory of Medical Instrument-Making, the Institute of Non-Destructive Testing – Mikhail Grigoriev, Nikita Turushev and Evgeniy Tarakanets, the manufacturing of human prosthetic limbs has been available for a few decades...

microscopy technique to measure magnetism at the atomic scale. Credit: ORNL

Scientists can now detect magnetic behavior at the atomic level with a new electron microscopy technique developed by a team from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Lab and Uppsala University, Sweden. They took a counterintuitive approach by taking advantage of optical distortions that they typically try to eliminate.

ORNL’s Juan Carlos Idrobo said: “We will be able to study materials in a new way. Hard drives, for instance, are made by magnetic domains, and those magnetic domains are about 10 nanometers apart.” The researchers plan to refine their technique to collect magnetic signals from individual atoms that are 10X smaller than a nanometer...