Category Technology/Electronics

This is an artistic view of the decay of a quantum-mechanical monopole into a Dirac monopole.
Credit: Image by Heikka Valja

1st experimental observations of the dynamics of isolated monopoles in quantum matter have been made by scientists at Amherst College (USA) and Aalto University (Finland). The new study provided a surprise: the quantum monopole decays into another analogue of the magnetic monopole. Understanding monopole dynamics may help in the future to build even closer analogues of the magnetic monopoles. Unlike usual magnets, magnetic monopoles are elementary particles that have only a south or a north magnetic pole, but not both. They have been theoretically predicted to exist, but no convincing experimental observations have been reported...

Akihiro Nomura, Kimihiko Ito, Yoshimi Kubo. CNT Sheet Air Electrode for the Development of Ultra-High Cell Capacity in Lithium-Air Batteries. Scientific Reports, 2017; 7: 45596 DOI: 10.1038/srep45596

A NIMS team led by Yoshimi Kubo and Akihiro Nomura, team leader and researcher, respectively, Lithium Air Battery Specially Promoted Research Team, C4GR-GREEN, developed lithium-air batteries with very high electric storage capacity 15X greater than the capacity of conventional lithium-ion batteries using carbon nanotubes (CNT) as an air electrode material. Demand for rechargeable batteries is expected to increase rapidly as electric vehicle power sources and joint sources of household electricity with solar cells.

The current lithium-ion batteries have advantages of being compact, producing h...

Nelson Sepulveda is a nanotechnology researcher and associate professor of engineering at Michigan State University. Credit: Michigan State University

A paper-thin, flexible device created at Michigan State University not only can generate energy from human motion, it can act as a loudspeaker and microphone as well, nanotechnology researchers report in the May 16 edition of Nature Communications. The audio breakthrough could eventually lead to such consumer products as a foldable loudspeaker, a voice-activated security patch for computers and even a talking newspaper...

A waste material from the paper and pulp industry soon could be made into anything from tennis rackets to cars, according to new findings by Texas A&M AgriLife Research scientists.
Credit: Graphic courtesy of Texas A&M AgriLife Research

Scientists have discovered how to make high quality carbon fiber from lignin. About 50 million tons of lignin – or structural part of a plant – piles up each year as waste from the US paper and pulping industry. Additional lignin could come from biorefineries that use plants to produce ethanol, yielding another 100 million to 200 million tons of lignin waste each year. Yet only about 2% of the lignin waste is currently recycled into new products. “Lignin is considered as one of the most abundant biopolymers in the world,” he said...