Cactus-Inspired Skin tagged posts

Cactus-Inspired Skin gives Electric Cars a Spike

Basic concept of self-humidifying nanovalved membrane.

Basic concept of self-humidifying nanovalved membrane. A hydrophobic coating layer provides a self-controlled mechanism for water conservation using nanometre-sized cracks (nanocracks) tuned by membrane swelling behaviour in response to external humidity conditions, which act as nanovalves. Credit: Chi Hoon Park et al. Nature (2016). DOI: 10.1038/nature17634 

Inspired by the humble cactus, a new type of membrane has the potential to significantly boost the performance of fuel cells and transform the electric vehicle industry. In hot conditions the membrane, which features a water repellent skin, can improve the efficiency of fuel cells by a factor of 4...

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