Category Technology/Electronics

DMFC assemblies. Schematic illustration showing a DMFC fabricated with selective electrocatalysts at the anode and cathode chambers. Inlet is the photograph of the assembled cell. Credit: YANG Jun

A research group from the Institute of Process Engineering (IPE), Chinese Academy of Sciences, recently reported the development of a new technology to boost performance of direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs) using high-concentration methanol as fuel, shedding some light on the design of clean and affordable alternative energy sources for portable electric devices.

When methanol, the fuel of DMFCs, crosses over from the anode to the cathode through the proton exchange membrane (PEM), fuel cell performance is significantly degraded, creating a major problem for the commercialization of DMFCs...

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

What would you say to a cell phone that works without a battery? A barest-bone keypad and LD light as quite unsnazzy components? If you cannot live without showy capabilities of smartphones then you might have a good laugh—or consider this a step in a direction of further research you don’t want to miss. Researchers from the University of Washington showed one can work a phone without batteries in their device minus any bells or whistles. Their feat: “the team was able to successfully demonstrate a voice call from a battery-less phone to an Android smartphone,” said IFLScience.

Their success was explained by Mark Harris, writing in Wired. “‘HELLO, HELLO. I am calling from a battery-free phone...

Graduate student Nicholas Davy holds a sample of the special window glass. (Photos by David Kelly Crow)

Smart windows equipped with controllable glazing can augment lighting, cooling and heating systems by varying their tint, saving up to 40% in an average building’s energy costs. These smart windows require power for operation, so they are relatively complicated to install in existing buildings. But by applying a new solar cell technology, researchers at Princeton University have developed a different type of smart window: a self-powered version that promises to be inexpensive and easy to apply to existing windows. This system features solar cells that selectively absorb near-UVz light, so the new windows are completely self-powered.

“Sunlight is a mixture of electromagnetic radiation mad...

Spin injection and helicity control of surface spin photocurrent in a three dimensional topological insulator. Nature Communications, 2017; 8: 15401 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms15401

A discovery of how to control and transfer spinning electrons paves the way for novel hybrid devices that could outperform existing semiconductor electronics. In a study researchers at Linkoping University in Sweden demonstrate how to combine a commonly used semiconductor with a topological insulator. Just as the Earth spins around its own axis, so does an electron, in a clockwise or counter-clockwise direction. “Spintronics” is the name used to describe technologies that exploit both the spin and the charge of the electron. Current applications are limited, and the technology is mainly used in computer hard drives...