Power/Performance Bits: Feb. 8
Transparent sensor; graphene-enhanced heat pipes; large perovskite solar cells.
Transparent sensor
Researchers at Osaka University created a thin, flexible, transparent sensor using silver nanowire networks. High-resolution printing was used to fabricate the centimeter-scale cross-aligned silver nanowire arrays, with reproducible feature sizes from 20 to 250 micrometers. As a proof-of-concept for functionality, they used their arrays to detect electrophysiological signals from plants.
A patterned polymer surface was created to define the subsequent nanowire feature size. Using a glass rod to sweep silver nanowires across the pattern led to either parallel or cross-aligned nanowire networks.
“The sheet resistance of patterns less than 100 micrometers ranged from 25 to 170 ohms per square, and the visible light transmittance at 550 nanometers was 96% to 99%,” said Teppei Araki, an assistant professor at Osaka University. “These values are well-
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Researchers from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, have found that graphene-based heat pipes can help solve the problems of cooling electronics and power systems used in avionics, data centres and other power electronics, but this is only the tip of the iceberg. The planet can be cooled the same way.
Heat pipes are one of the most efficient cooling tools because of their high efficiency and unique ability to transfer heat over a large distance.
The graphene enhanced heat pipe exhibits a specific thermal transfer coefficient which is about 3.5 times better than that of copper-based heat pipe. It is made of high thermal conductivity graphene assembled films assisted with carbon fibre wicker enhanced inner surfaces, which shows great advantages and potential for cooling of a variety of electronics and power systems, especially where low weight and high corrosion resistance are required.