Tech

Researchers at North Carolina State University have created a new flexible nano-scaffold for rechargeable lithium ion batteries that could help make cell phone and electric car batteries last longer.

The research, published in Advanced Materials, shows the potential of manufactured sheets of aligned carbon nanotubes coated with silicon, a material with a much higher energy storage capacity than the graphite composites typically used in lithium ion batteries.

Scientists at the National Physical Laboratory are helping to create electronics capabilities for electric vehicles, with the development of a high temperature capacitor.

Electric Vehicles (EV) are hoped to represent more than 50% of worldwide light duty vehicle sales by 2050. The absence of suitable capacitors is one of the major barriers to meeting this goal.

The Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has published a report on the land use requirements of solar power plants based on actual land-use practices from existing solar facilities.

"Having real data from a majority of the solar plants in the United States will help people make proper comparisons and informed decisions," lead author Sean Ong said. The report, "Land-use Requirements for Solar Power Plants in the United States,"PDF was written with NREL colleagues Clinton Campbell, Robert Margolis, Paul Denholm and Garvin Heath.

Mechanical engineers at the University of California, San Diego invented a robot designed to scoot along utility lines, searching for damage and other problems that require repairs. Made of off-the-shelf electronics and plastic parts printed on an inexpensive 3D printer, the SkySweeper prototype could be scaled up for less than $1,000, making it significantly more economical than the two models of robots currently used to inspect power lines.

Australian soils are losing about 1.6 million tonnes of carbon per year from wind erosion and dust storms affecting agricultural productivity, our economy and carbon accounts, according to new research.Top soil is rich in nutrients and carbon but is increasingly being blown away by events such as the 'Red Dawn' in Sydney in 2009.

When wind lifts carbon dust into the atmosphere it changes the amount and location of soil carbon.

Some carbon falls back to the ground while some leaves Australia or ends up in the ocean.

DURHAM, N.H., Aug. 5, 2013 – As sensor networks revolutionize ecological data collection by making it possible to collect high frequency information from remote areas in real time, scientists with the U.S. Forest Service are advocating for automated quality control and quality assurance standards that will make that data reliable.

Dartmouth and UC Berkeley researchers have developed new software to detect faked photos, using a geometric algorithm to locate inconsistent shadows that are not obvious to the naked eye.

The new method is a significant step in the field of digital forensics, which national security agencies, the media, scientific journals and others use to differentiate between authentic images and computerized forgeries.

An iconic moment in the history of Hollywood movie magic was born in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz when Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale stepped out of the black and white world of Kansas into the rainbow colored world of Oz. An iconic moment in the history of infrared imaging may have been born with the announcement of the first technique to offer full color IR tomography.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass-- Now that the Internet's basic protocols are more than 30 years old, network scientists are increasingly turning their attention to ad hoc networks — communications networks set up, on the fly, by wireless devices — where unsolved problems still abound.

Most theoretical analyses of ad hoc networks have assumed that the communications links within the network are stable. But that often isn't the case with real-world wireless devices — as anyone who's used a cellphone knows.

Researchers from North Carolina State University and the University of Texas have revealed more about graphene's mechanical properties and demonstrated a technique to improve the stretchability of graphene – developments that should help engineers and designers come up with new technologies that make use of the material.

Scientists have spent decades trying to build flexible plastic solar cells efficient enough to compete with conventional cells made of silicon. To boost performance, research groups have tried creating new plastic materials that enhance the flow of electricity through the solar cell. Several groups expected to achieve good results by redesigning pliant polymers of plastic into orderly, silicon-like crystals, but the flow of electricity did not improve.

The seasonal influence of aerosols on Australia's tropical climate can now be included in climate models following completion of the first long-term study of fine smoke particles generated by burning of the savanna open woodland and grassland.

Australia's biomass burning emissions comprise about eight per cent of the global total, ranking third by continent behind Africa (48 per cent) and South America (27 per cent).

Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a new technique for creating devices out of a water-based hydrogel material that can be patterned, folded and used to manipulate objects. The technique holds promise for use in "soft robotics" and biomedical applications.

"This work brings us one step closer to developing new soft robotics technologies that mimic biological systems and can work in aqueous environments," says Dr. Michael Dickey, an assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at NC State and co-author of a paper describing the work.

ENERGY – Green battery . . .

By substituting lignin for highly engineered, expensive graphite to make battery electrodes, researchers have developed a process that requires fewer steps and offers better performance.

Renewable Electrodes from Wood Products, or ReNEW-PRO, is a low-cost lithium-ion battery anode made inexpensively from lignin, a renewable resource and byproduct of the pulp and paper industry.

Monash University researchers have brought next generation energy storage closer with an engineering first - a graphene-based device that is compact, yet lasts as long as a conventional battery.

Published today in Science, a research team led by Professor Dan Li of the Department of Materials Engineering has developed a completely new strategy to engineer graphene-based supercapacitors (SC), making them viable for widespread use in renewable energy storage, portable electronics and electric vehicles.