tagged w/ Materials Science
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SoloPower, one of many companies vying to lower the cost of solar energy, introduced on Monday a line of flexible panels for commercial rooftops.
The company makes thin-film solar cells from a combination of copper, indium, gallium, and selenium (CIGS) which is placed on a flexible foil. Its first product line is a set of solar panels designed for the flat roofs of commercial buildings.
The panels are lighter than glass-encased panels and can be installed quicker than other technologies, SoloPower CEO Tim Harris said in a statement. The panels can be laminated onto rooftops and mounted on racks to tilt the panels, Harris told Gunther Portofolio.
There are many companies trying to make CIGS solar cheaper than the incumbent technology of silicon solar cells. SoloPower earlier this year said that it had achieved 11 percent efficiency for its panels, which is relatively good compared with other CIGS makers.
To make cells, it uses a roll-to-roll electroplating process, which the company says makes it cost-competitive with other solar manufacturers.
The company is in the process of applying for a Department of Energy loan to expand production at its San Jose, Calif., factory.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20010229-54.htmlSoloPower, one of many companies vying to lower the cost of solar energy, introduced... more
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ScienceDaily (June 22, 2010) — Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a simple new method for producing large quantities of the promising nanomaterial graphene. The new technique works at room temperature, needs little processing, and paves the way for cost-effective mass production of graphene.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100621122132.htm
An atom-thick sheet of carbon arranged in a honeycomb structure, graphene has unique mechanical and electrical properties and is considered a potential heir to copper and silicon as the fundamental building block of nanoelectronics. Since graphene's discovery in 2004, researchers have been searching for an easy method to produce it in bulk quantities.
A team of interdisciplinary researchers, led by Swastik Kar, research assistant professor in the Department of Physics, Applied Physics, and Astronomy at Rensselaer, has brought science a step closer to realizing this important goal. By submerging graphite in a mixture of dilute organic acid, alcohol, and water, and then exposing it to ultrasonic sound, the team discovered that the acid works as a "molecular wedge, " which separates sheets of graphene from the parent graphite. The process results in the creation of large quantities of undamaged, high-quality graphene dispersed in water. Kar and team then used the graphene to build chemical sensors and ultracapacitors.
"There are other known techniques for fabricating graphene, but our process is advantageous for mass production as it is low cost, performed at room temperature, devoid of any harsh chemicals, and thus is friendly to a number of technologies where temperature and environmental limitations exist," Kar said. "The process does not need any controlled environment chambers, which enhances its simplicity without compromising its scalability. This simplicity enabled us to directly demonstrate high-performance applications related to environmental sensing and energy storage, which have become issues of global importance."ScienceDaily (June 22, 2010) — Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute... more
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"Currently, smart textiles are made primarily of metallic or optical fibers. They're fragile. They're not comfortable. Metal fibers also corrode. There are problems with washing such electronic textiles. We have found a much simpler way---an elegant way---by combining two fibers, one natural and one created by nanotechnology," said Nicholas Kotov, a professor in the departments of Chemical Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering and Biomedical Engineering.
http://machineslikeus.com/news/smart-clothing-could-monitor-health"Currently, smart textiles are made primarily of metallic or optical fibers.... more
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From the youtube video:
"Triboluminescence ("Smash glow") is the phenomena where light is generated when something is rubbed or fractured. The exact mechanism by which triboluminescence works is still under investigation, but the best theories so far propose that the breaking of the structure causes charge separation that release energy upon recombination. This energy is picked up by nearby atoms, in this case europium, and released as light according to their ionization or fluorescence spectra.
Many substances exhibit weak triboluminescence including sugar and tape. But Europium Tetrakis (Dibenzoylmethide)Triethylammonium is one of the strongest available and its glow can easily be captured by a camera."From the youtube video:
"Triboluminescence ("Smash glow") is the... more
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As weird as today must seem to somebody who grew up in the 50s, what with our Internet memes and Bluetooth devices that make us shout conversations into the air like madmen, the future is about to get a whole lot weirder.
New materials like carbon nanotubes and the like are going to change everything in the next few decades. And we mean everything.As weird as today must seem to somebody who grew up in the 50s, what with our Internet... more
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(PhysOrg.com) -- The normal structure of metals is crystalline. Glass, on the other hand, is amorphous. But it's possible to make amorphous forms of metal, metallic glasses, which can be remarkably strong, having many properties equal to or better than their crystalline metal cousins. The catch is that bulk metallic glasses are highly susceptible to fatigue, a severe problem for their use as structural materials.
[More at Link](PhysOrg.com) -- The normal structure of metals is crystalline. Glass, on the other... more
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