Category Physics

This image shows an all-climate battery that rapidly self-heats battery materials and electrochemical interfaces in cold environments. Credit: Chao-Yang Wang, Penn State

A Li ion battery that self heats if <32F temp has multiple applications, but may have the most impact on relieving winter ‘range anxiety’ for electric vehicle owners. “It is a long standing problem that batteries do not perform well at subzero temperatures,” said Prof. Chao-Yang Wang. “This may not be an issue for phones and laptops, but is a huge barrier for electric vehicles, drones, outdoor robots and space applications.”

Conventional batteries at below freezing temperatures suffer severe power loss, which leads to slow charging in cold weather, restricted regenerative breaking and reduction of vehicle cruise range by a...

This is a view from the Experimental Zone floor of the ALPHA-2 Cryostat and external solenoid assembly, with control and data acquisition electronics located on the overhead platform above the cryostat. Credit: Photo by Robert Thompson, ALPHA-2 member, University of Calgary

Latest breakthrough has been via studying the properties of antihydrogen. The result is an improved measurement of the charge of antihydrogen by a factor of 20. It is the latest contribution in the quest to find the answer to the antimatter question, ‘If matter and antimatter were created in equal amounts during the Big Bang, where did all the antimatter go?’

“That means the electrical charge of antihydrogen – the antimatter analogue of hydrogen – can be ruled out as the answer to the antimatter question,” says York Uni...

Schematic representation of printer and ultrasonic manipulation rig. (a) Switchable laser module is attached to the print head carriage, and traces out the shape of the printed part. The laser can be deliberately defocused to cure large regions slowly by increasing the height of the laser module. (b) Focused laser beam cures resin within the cavity of the ultrasonic manipulation device. P = PMMA, W = Water, PZT = lead zirconate titanate transducers, R = spot-a low Viscosity photocurable resin. Cross sections of the bundles of fibres lying within traps are shown, and are separated by half a wavelength.

An engineering team has developed a new type of 3D printing that can print composite materials, which are used in many high performance products eg tennis rackets, golf clubs and airplane...

A new Method for converting solar energy into electrical power using photo-bioelectrochemical cells. Credit: Image courtesy Prof. Itamar Willner

In the natural photosynthetic apparatus, photosynthetic reaction is coupled to biocatalytic transformations leading to CO2 fixation and O2 evolution. Although significant progress has been achieved in the integration of native photosystems with electrodes for light-to-electrical energy conversion, the conjugation of the photosystems to enzymes to yield photo-bioelectrocatalytic solar cells remains a challenge.

The photo-bioelectrochemical cells use glucose oxidase or glucose dehydrogenase and modified integrated electrodes that include the natural photosynthetic reaction center, known as photosystem I, conjugated to these enzymes...