Materials & Coatings

Highly Conductive Aluminum Can Equal Copper

A first-ever simulation of aluminum conductivity offers a recipe for an inexpensive substitute for copper.

New Perovskite Solar Cell Has a Commercially Viable Lifetime

Princeton Engineering researchers have developed the first perovskite solar cell with a commercially viable lifetime, marking a major milestone for an emerging class of...

The Battery Powering a Truly Green Revolution in Personal Electronics

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst recently announced that they have figured out how to engineer a biofilm that harvests the energy in evaporation...

5 Ws of the Artificial Leaf

Researchers at University of Cambridge have developed floating “artificial leaves” that generate clean fuels from sunlight and water and could eventually operate on a large scale at sea.

Niobium: Magic Metal for Battery Anodes?

The element niobium (Nb), a transition metal, stands ready to improve the performance of one of the lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery’s confusing array of possible electrode chemistries — the LTO...

Thin, Stretchable Biosensors Could Make Surgery Safer

Researchers formulated and synthesized the bio-inks, with the goal of creating create an ultra-soft, thin, and stretchable material for biosensors that is capable of seamlessly interfacing with the surface of organs.

A Biodegradable Filtration System for Waste Metal Recovery

This invention is a method of removing or adsorbing a target substance or material.

Organic Steam Generator Uses Sunlight to Purify Water

Researchers have developed an inexpensive and eco-friendly steam generator to desalinate and purify water using sunlight.

Glassy Electrolyte Holds Promise for an All-Solid-State Sodium Battery

Lithium-ion batteries are currently the preferred technology for powering electric vehicles, but they’re too expensive for long-duration grid-scale energy storage systems.

Using AI to Help Scale Up Advanced Solar Cell Manufacturing

The system makes it possible to integrate data from prior experiments, and information based on personal observations by experienced workers, into the machine learning process.

Designing Sodium-Ion Batteries with Extended Longevity

In batteries, electrolyte is the circulating “blood” that keeps the energy flowing. The electrolyte forms by dissolving salts in solvents, resulting in charged ions that flow between the positive and negative electrodes.

Extending the Lifetime of Organic Aqueous Flow Batteries

Over the course of their research, the team discovered that these anthraquinones decompose slowly over time, regardless of how many times the battery has been used.

Lignin-Based Jet Fuel Packs More Power

An experimental plant-based jet fuel could increase engine performance and efficiency, while dispensing with aromatics, the pollution-causing compounds found in conventional fuels.

Rice ‘Metalens’ Could Disrupt Vacuum UV Market

Tests showed the metalens they made could focus its 197-nanometer output onto a spot measuring 1.7 microns in diameter, increasing the power density of the light output by 21 times.

Upside-Down Design Expands Wide-Spectrum Super-Camera Abilities

Plasmonics is a technology that essentially traps the energy of light in groups of electrons oscillating together on a metal surface.

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Think Twice About Wasting Waste

A treatment for floc sludge transforms it to an electrode material usable for high-performance capacitors.

Focusing the Sun – A Big Gain for Solar Power Efficiency

A new kind of optical concentrator can passively focus the sun onto a photovoltaic cell from any angle to reduce the amount of photovoltaic material needed for a given amount of power generation.

A New Kind of Transistor — A Conductive Polymer

A new material holds promise for the next generation of organic electronics.

Smart Implants to Monitor Healing

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering are creating patient-specific 3D-printed smart metamaterial implants that double as sensors to monitor spinal healing.

3D Printing of Organic Electronics

Professor Mohammad Reza Abidian of the Cullen College of Engineering — foresees the future production of micro-scale organic electronics via multiphoton 3D printers.