Category Technology/Electronics

Power up: New Polymer Property could Boost Accessible Solar Power

Organic solar cells like the one pictured are emerging as a viable solution to meet the nation’s growing energy demand. Credit: Azzaya Khasbaatar, a graduate student in the Diao Group.

Lightweight as a window cling and replicable as a newspaper, organic solar cells are emerging as a viable solution for the nation’s growing energy demand.

Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign are the first to observe a biological property called chirality emerging in achiral conjugated polymers, which are used to design flexible solar cells. Their discovery could help enhance the cells’ charge capacity and increase access to affordable renewable energy.

DNA’s coiled architecture is recognizable to many as a helix...

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6G Component provides Speed, Efficiency needed for Next-Gen Network

Even though consumers won’t see it for years, researchers around the world are already laying the foundation for the next generation of wireless communications, 6G. An international team led by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin has developed components that will allow future devices to achieve increased speeds necessary for such a technological jump.

In a new paper published in Nature Electronics, the researchers demonstrated new radio frequency switches that are responsible for keeping devices connected by jumping between networks and frequencies while receiving data...

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Direct Sound Printing is a potential Game-changer in 3D printing

Image originally appeared in Nature Communications

The new platform technology uses ultrasound waves to create complex and precise objects. Most 3D printing methods currently in use rely either on photo (light)- or thermo (heat)-activated reactions to achieve precise manipulation of polymers. The development of a new platform technology called direct sound printing (DSP), which uses soundwaves to produce new objects, may offer a third option.

The process is described in a paper published in Nature Communications. It shows how focused ultrasound waves can be used to create sonochemical reactions in minuscule cavitation regions — essentially tiny bubbles...

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Chip-Scale Floquet Topological Insulators to Enhance 5G Wireless Communications

Chip-scale Floquet topological insulators to enhance 5G wireless communications
This schematic (left) shows the implementation of our Floquet PTI, the image in the middle shows the actual device, and on the right we show measurements demonstrating the robust propagation of electromagnetic signals across the device. Credit: Nagulu et al.

Floquet topological insulators are materials with topological phases that originate from tailored time-dependent perturbations of their crystal structure. These materials have been proved to feature highly unusual electron conduction properties...

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