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    Category Technology/Electronics

    3D-printed Magnets: How can you produce a Magnet with exactly the right magnetic field?

    October 26, 2016, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics

    A magentic cup-like shape, created in the 3D-printer. Credit: Image courtesy of Vienna University of Technology

    A magentic cup-like shape, created in the 3D-printer. Credit: Image courtesy of Vienna University of Technology

    For the 1st time, magnets can be made with a 3D printer. It is difficult to produce a permanent magnet with a magnetic field of a specific pre-determined shape. That is, until now, thanks to TU Wien: for the first time ever, permanent magnets can be produced using a 3D printer. This allows magnets to be produced in complex forms and precisely customised magnetic fields, required, for example, in magnetic sensors.

    “The strength of a magnetic field is not the only factor,” says Dieter Süss, Head of Christian-Doppler Advanced Magnetic Sensing and Materials lab, TU Wien...

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    Improved Water Splitting advances Renewable Energy Conversion

    October 25, 2016, Categories  Technology/Electronics, Chemistry/Nanotechnology

    Improved water splitting advances renewable energy conversion

    Gas bubbles form as researchers use a unique catalyst to convert water to hydrogen and oxygen. The inset image shows the catalytic materials at the nanoscale. Credit: Washington State University

     
    WSU researchers have found a way to more efficiently create hydrogen from water – an important key in making renewable energy production and storage viable. The researchers, led by professors Yuehe Lin and Scott Beckman in the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, have developed a catalyst from #low #cost materials. It performs as well as or better than catalysts made from precious metals that are used for the process. Energy conversion is a key to the clean energy economy...
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    Turning your Living room into a Wireless Charging Station

    October 25, 2016, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics

    Turning your living room into a wireless charging station

    This graphic illustrates how a flat-screen Fresnel zone wireless power transfer system could charge smart devices in your living room. Credit: Duke University

    A flat-screen panel that resembles a TV on your living room wall could one day remotely charge any device within its line of sight. Engineers at the University of Washington, Duke University and Intellectual Ventures’ Invention Science Fund (ISF) show that the technology already exists to build such a system—it’s only a matter of taking the time to design it. “There is an enormous demand for alternatives to today’s clunky charging pads and cumbersome cables, which restrict the mobility of a smart phone or a tablet...

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    The Quantum Sniffer Dog

    October 24, 2016, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics, Chemistry/Nanotechnology

    compact sensor providing room-temperature operation of monolithic surface-active lasers and detectors integrated on the same chip. The differentiation between emitter and detector is eliminated, which enables mutual commutation. Proof-of-principle gas measurements with a limit of detection below 400 ppm are demonstrated. This concept enables a crucial miniaturization of sensing devices.

    Compact sensor providing room-temperature operation of monolithic surface-active lasers and detectors integrated on the same chip. The differentiation between emitter and detector is eliminated, which enables mutual commutation. Proof-of-principle gas measurements with a limit of detection below 400 ppm are demonstrated. This concept enables a crucial miniaturization of sensing devices.

    In technological gas detection there are a whole host of methods available including infrared lasers, passing a laser beam through the gas to an adjacent separate detector, which measures the degree of light attenuation it causes...

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