Tag Archives: Nanotechnology
Scientists from Australia's Deakin University, together with French colleagues, say that they have manufactured a lightweight and reusable material that can absorb up to 33 times its weight in a wide range of spilt oils, chemical solvents and dyes, while repelling water. Deakin University's Dr Wei Wei Lei said that "The effective removal of oils, organic solvents and dyes from water is of significant, global importance for environmental and water source protection.” The absorbant material consists of sheets of boron nitride, also called "white graphene". The sheets are highly porous, have a high surface area and float on water. When the … Continue Reading
Georgia Institute of Technology and Purdue University researchers have developed efficient solar cells on cellulose nanocrystal substrates. The cellulose substrates and made from plants and can be easily recycled at the end of their life. To date, organic solar cells have usually been fabricated on glass or plastic. Neither of these is easy to recycle if, for example, they are broken during manufacture or installation. Cells on plastic have the further disadvantage of being petroleum-based. Paper substrates have been tried but have limited performance because of paper's rough surface and porosity. However, cellulose nanomaterials, being made from plants, are renewable … Continue Reading
At the American Chemical Society Conference, Dr Malcolm J Brown Jr, a leading researcher on nanocellulose since the 1970s, has reported major advances in producing nanocellulose from blue-green algae. The great strength and light weight of nanocellulose have fostered interest in using it in everything from lightweight armour and ballistic glass to wound dressings and scaffolds for growing replacement organs for transplantation. Cellulose is the most abundant organic polymer on earth but most of it is in the form of wood fibre and plant cell walls. Very few organisms produce cellulose in its nanostructure form. Nanocellulose research has a long … Continue Reading
Researchers, led by Professor Shanhui Fan, at Stanford University are developing rooftop panels that cool buildings by sending heat into space. The panel’s materials are engineered to emit thermal radiation in a very specific wavelength that is not absorbed by the atmosphere and, so, passes through it into space. The researchers estimate that, in theory, such a device could achieve a net cooling of 100 watts per square metre. The panels would have two components, both using layers of nanostructured photonic crystals. One layer is essentially a mirror with materials optimized to minimize the amount of solar radiation absorbed by … Continue Reading
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed new microbatteries which out-power even the best supercapacitors and could drive new applications in radio communications and compact electronics. Currently capacitors are used for applications that need a lot of power because they can release energy very quickly – however, can only store a small amount of energy. Batteries or fuel cells are used for applications that need a lot of energy because they can hold a large amount of energy but they release or recharge it slowly. The new microbatteries offer both power and energy. They owe their high … Continue Reading
Scientists at Australia's Monash University and CSIRO have created a powerful and cost-effective new tool to capture, store and potentially recycle, carbon dioxide using a novel class of materials called photosensitive metal organic frameworks. Metal organic frameworks are clusters of metal atoms connected by organic molecules. Due to their extremely high internal surface area, they can store large volumes of gas. The researchers have found a metal oxide framework that has a particular affinity to carbon dioxide. Current technologies use liquid capture materials that are then heated in a prolonged process to release the carbon dioxide for storage. By using … Continue Reading
Researchers at the Vienna University of Technology have discovered that a class of materials, called oxide heterostructures, can be used to create a new kind of extremely efficient ultra-thin solar cell. Professor Karsten Held from the Institute for Solid State Physics at Vienna University of Technology explained that "Single atomic layers of different oxides are stacked, creating a material with electronic properties which are vastly different from the properties the individual oxides have on their own." The oxides used to create the material are actually isolators. If two appropriate types of isolators are stacked, the surfaces of the material become … Continue Reading
Researchers at Newcastle University, UK, have discovered that, in the presence of a nickel catalyst, carbon dioxide can be converted rapidly and cheaply into the harmless, solid mineral, calcium carbonate. The discovery came by chance when physicists at the University set out to study what happens when CO2 reacts with water. Needing a catalyst to speed up the recation, they looked at how organisms absorb CO2 into their skeletons. In particular, they analysed the surface of sea urchin larvae and found a high concentration of nickel on their exoskeletons. When they added nickel nanoparticles, which have a large surface area, … Continue Reading
Researchers at Princeton University have been able to increase the efficiency of the solar cells by 175% by using a nanostructured "sandwich" of metal and plastic that collects and traps light. The researchers believe that the technology will also increase the efficiency of conventional inorganic (silicon) solar collectors, but have not yet completed testing inorganic devices. Two of the main reasons that solar cells lose energy are light reflecting from the cell and the inability to fully capture light that enters the cell. The nanotechnology sandwich – called a "subwavelength plasmonic cavity" - allowed the team to create a solar … Continue Reading
Dr. Paul Edmiston and students at the College of Wooster in Ohio have discovered a material which absorbs small organic molecules while repelling water. The material, which they call "Osorb", is a nano-engineered glass that can absorb hydrocarbons, volatile organic compounds, pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and solvents which are either dispersed or disolved in water. The absorbed compounds can be separated from the glass with a heat or water treatment and the glass material itself can be regenerated over 100 times. As well as its potential use in oil spills, the material could be used to reclaim waste water from oil and … Continue Reading
Videos
Renewables News- New Aussie Technology to Clean Polluted WaterScientists from Deakin University, together with French colleagues, say that they have manufactured a lightweight and reusable material that can absorb up to 33 times its weight in a wide range of spilt oils, chemical solvents and dyes, while repelling … Continue Reading → […]
- Aussie Researchers Make Efficient Solar Cells from Low-grade SiliconResearchers at the University of New South Wales have found a way to make very high efficiency solar cells out of cheap, low-grade silicon. It has been known for several decades that hydrogen atoms can be introduced into the atomic … Continue Reading → […]
- First Aussie “Hot Rocks” Power Plant Begins ProducingThe first power plant in Australia to produce electricity using an enhanced geothermal ("hot rocks") system has begun producing electricity in the far north-east of South Australia. The one-megawatt Habanero pilot plant near outback Innamincka is operated by Geodynamics. Geodynamics … Continue Reading → […]
- New Aussie Technology to Clean Polluted Water
