Category Physics

Image obtained from scanning tunneling microscopy on a porous 3D-gold structure. Credit: Anaïs Ferris – LAAS

Micro-supercapacitors are a promising alternative to micro-batteries because of their high power and long lifetime. They have been in development for about a decade but until now they have stored considerably less energy than micro-batteries, which has limited their application. Now researchers have developed an electrode material that means electrochemical capacitors produce results similar to batteries, yet retain their particular advantages.

With the development of on-board electronic systems and wireless technologies, the miniaturization of energy storage devices has become necessary...

What looks like a bed of nails are actually nanowires. Each outgrowing thread has a diameter of 80 nanometres (billionths of a metre). The green things climbing on the nanowires are neurons. Credit: Image courtesy of Lund University

Neurons thrive and grow in a new type of nanowire material developed by researchers. In time, the results might improve both neural and retinal implants, and reduce the risk of them losing their effectiveness over time, which is currently a problem.

By implanting electrodes in the brain tissue one can stimulate or capture signals from different areas of the brain. These types of brain implants, or neuro-prostheses as they are sometimes called, are used to treat Parkinson’s disease and other neurological diseases...

Speaker that grows in a piece of furniture, the shape is generated by an algorithm to suit one’s physical space. Credit: Image courtesy of Umeå universitet

Thus more meaningful products can be made for people and more value for companies. In his research, Guido Hermans has investigated a way to open up design to the consumer and how to give this group an active role in the design of everyday products. “This role change implies a shift for the professional designer from knowing what a future user would like to have towards knowing what a layperson would like to design, which is for most designers an unfamiliar way of thinking,” says Guido Hermans.

The new form of lay design is enabled by 2 developments: On the one hand, the creation of variable designs by using computational design, and ...

—promising 3rd-gen solar cells utilizing a nanocrystal ink deposition that could make traditional expensive silicon-based solar panels a thing of the past. While progress on organic thin-film photovoltaics is rapidly growing, inorganic devices still hold the record for highest efficiencies which is in part due to their broad spectral absorption and excellent electronic properties.

A major disadvantage compared to organics, however, is that inorganic materials are difficult to deposit from solution. To overcome this, Townsend synthesized materials on the nanoscale. Inorganic nanocrystals encased in an organic ligand shell are soluble in organic solvents and can be deposited from solution (i.e...