E-Mail
An innovative analysis of two-dimensional (2D) materials from engineers at the University of Surrey could boost the development of next-generation solar cells and LEDs.
Three-dimensional perovskites have proved themselves remarkably successful materials for LED devices and solar panels in the past decade. One key issue with these materials, however, is their stability, with device performance decreasing quicker than other state-of-the-art materials. The engineering community believes the 2D variant of perovskites could provide answers to these performance issues.
In a study published in
The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, researchers from Surrey s Advanced Technology Institute (ATI) detail how to improve the physical properties of 2D perovskite called Ruddlesden-Popper.
E-Mail
IMAGE: In this schematic, the teal balls represent boron and the red balls are hydrogen. view more
Credit: Northwestern University
Northwestern University researchers have, for the first time, created borophane atomically thin boron that is stable at standard temperatures and air pressures.
Researchers have long been excited by the promise of borophene a single-atom-thick sheet of boron because of its strength, flexibility and electronics properties. Stronger, lighter and more flexible than graphene, borophene could potentially revolutionize batteries, electronics, sensors, photovoltaics and quantum computing.
Unfortunately, borophene only exists inside of an ultrahigh vacuum chamber, limiting its practical use outside the lab. By bonding borophene with atomic hydrogen, the Northwestern team created borophane, which has the same exciting properties as borophene and is stable outside of a vacuum.
E-Mail
IMAGE: A new $7.5 million Department of Defense grant is seeking to build a super camera that combines multiple metasurfaces that together can extract almost every bit of information that light. view more
Credit: Mark Brongersma, Stanford
DURHAM, N.C. - Engineers at Duke University are leading a nationwide effort to develop a camera that takes pictures worth not just a thousand words, but an entire encyclopedia.
Funded by a five-year, $7.5 million grant through the Department of Defense s Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) competition, the team will develop a super camera that captures just about every type of information that light can carry, such as polarization, depth, phase, coherence and incidence angle. The new camera will also use edge computing and hardware acceleration technologies to process the vast amount of information it captures within the device in real-time.
E-Mail
IMAGE: The cellulose yarn, which the researchers present in the article, is practical to work with and could be used to make clothing with smart functions. Using a standard household sewing. view more
Credit: Anna-Lena Lundqvist/Chalmers University of Technology
Electronic textiles offer revolutionary new opportunities in various fields, in particular healthcare. But to be sustainable, they need to be made of renewable materials. A research team led by Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, now presents a thread made of conductive cellulose, which offers fascinating and practical possibilities for electronic textiles. Miniature, wearable, electronic gadgets are ever more common in our daily lives. But currently, they are often dependent on rare, or in some cases toxic, materials. They are also leading to a gradual build-up of great mountains of electronic waste. There is a real need for organic, renewable materials for use in electronic textiles, says So