LED tagged posts

Engineers create an Energy-Storing Supercapacitor from Ancient Materials

A streak of blue lightning, representing energy, spreads horizontally across a textured cement surface.
MIT engineers have created a “supercapacitor” made of ancient, abundant materials, that can store large amounts of energy. Made of just cement, water, and carbon black (which resembles powdered charcoal), the device could form the basis for inexpensive systems that store intermittently renewable energy, such as solar or wind energy.
Credits:Courtesy of the researchers

Made of just cement, water, and carbon black (which resembles powdered charcoal), the device could form the basis for inexpensive systems that store intermittently renewable energy, such as solar or wind energy.

Two of humanity’s most ubiquitous historical materials, cement and carbon black (which resembles very fine charcoal), may form the basis for a novel, low-cost energy storage system, according to a new study...

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Researchers Report Pivotal Discovery of Nanomaterial for LEDs

Rendition of framework with green squares, connection of panels with cell. (Image by Los Alamos National Laboratory.)
Light-emitting diodes made from perovskite nanocrystals (green) embedded in a metal-organic framework can be created at low cost, use earth-abundant materials and remain stable under typical working conditions. (Image by Los Alamos National Laboratory.)

A breakthrough in stabilizing nanocrystals introduces a low-cost, energy-efficient light source for consumer electronic devices, detectors and medical imaging.

Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are an unsung hero of the lighting industry. They run efficiently, give off little heat and last for a long time. Now scientists are looking at new materials to make more efficient and longer-lived LEDs with applications in consumer electronics, medicine and security.

Researchers from the U.S...

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Promising Candidates revealed for Next-Generation LED-based Data Communications

LED_devices

A new paper from the University of Surrey and the University of Cambridge has detailed how two relatively unexplored semiconducting materials can satisfy the telecommunication industry’s hunger for enormous amounts of data at ever-greater speeds.

Light-emitting diode (LED)-based communications techniques allow computing devices, including mobile phones, to communicate with one another by using infrared light. However, LED techniques are underused because in its current state LED transmits data at far slower speeds than other wireless technologies such as light-fidelity (Li-Fi).

In a paper published by Nature Electronics, the researchers from Surrey and Cambridge, along with partners from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, examine how organic semicond...

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Ingestible Medical Devices can be Broken Down with Light

MIT engineers demonstrated a bariatric balloon that can be inflated in the stomach and then degraded by shining light on the seal, which is made of a novel light-sensitive polymer.
Image: Ritu Raman

New light-sensitive material could eliminate some of the endoscopic procedures needed to remove gastrointestinal devices

A variety of medical devices can be inserted into the gastrointestinal tract to treat, diagnose, or monitor GI disorders. Many of these have to be removed by endoscopic surgery once their job is done. However, MIT engineers have now come up with a way to trigger such devices to break down inside the body when they are exposed to light from an ingestible LED.

The new approach is based on a light-sensitive hydrogel that the researchers designed...

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