Category Technology/Electronics

Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a technique that uses light to get flat, plastic sheets to curve into shapes such as spheres, tubes or bowls. Credit: Amber Hubbard

Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a technique that uses light to get two-dimensional plastic sheets to curve into three-dimensional (3D) structures. The advance builds on earlier work by the same team, which focused on self-folding 3D structures. The key advance here is that rather than having the plastic fold along sharp lines – into polygonal shapes such as cubes or pyramids – the plastics bend and curve.

Researchers Michael Dickey and Prof. Jan Genzer f NC State, were early leaders in the field of self-folding 3D structures...

University of Michigan researchers have created a transparent silver film that could be used in touchscreens, flexible displays and other advanced applications. L. Jay Guo, professor of electrical engineering and computer science, holds up a piece of the material. Image credit: Joseph Xu/Michigan Engineering.

The thinnest, smoothest layer of silver that can survive air exposure has been laid down at the University of Michigan, and it could change the way touchscreens and flat or flexible displays are made. It could also help improve computing power, affecting both the transfer of information within a silicon chip and the patterning of the chip itself through metamaterial superlenses.

By combining silver with a little bit of aluminum, they found that it was possible to produce exceptionally...

Stefan Freunberger, beneficiary of an ERC grant at TU Graz, investigates ageing processes in non-aqueous batteries. Credit: © Lunghammer – TU Graz

It has been known in biology for a long time that the excited oxygen molecule singlet oxygen is the main cause of aging in cells. To counter this, nature uses an enzyme called superoxide dismutase to eliminate superoxide as a free radical. Superoxide also occurs in cell respiration for energy production and is the preliminary stage and thus source of singlet oxygen. TU Graz’s Stefan Freunberger has now stumbled upon astonishing parallels of oxygen chemistry in battery systems.

He investigates aging processes in non-aqueous batteries, such as oxygen batteries, ie, battery systems in which oxygen reacts with lithium, sodium magnesium, for example...

This computer-generated model shows the spherical core of the quantum dot nanoparticle (in red) along with the ‘flying saucer’ shape of the outer shell (in yellow). The tension in the core induced by the shell affects the electronic states and lowers the energy threshold required to trigger the laser. Credit: Alex Voznyy

Research team ‘squashes’ the shape of nanoparticles, enabling inexpensive lasers that continuously emit light in a customized rainbow of colors. Fresh insights into living cells, brighter video projectors and more accurate medical tests are just 3 of the innovations that could result from a new way of fabricating lasers...