Duke University

Research shows how giant clams harness the sun

Evolution in extreme environments has produced life forms with amazing abilities and traits.

Crumpled graphene could provide an unconventional energy storage

Researchers have now found that crumpling a piece of graphene "paper" — a material formed by bonding together layers of the two-dimensional form of carbon — can actually yield new properties that could be useful for creating extremely stretchable supercapacitors to store energy for flexible electronic devices.

Living materials can conduct electricity

Inspired by natural materials such as bone — a matrix of minerals and other substances, including living cells — engineers have coaxed bacterial cells to produce biofilms that can incorporate nonliving materials, such as gold nanoparticles and quantum dots.

'Superlens' extends range of wireless power transfer

Duke University researchers have demonstrated the feasibility of wireless power transfer using low-frequency magnetic fields over distances much larger than the size of the transmitter and receiver.

Wireless device converts lost energy into electric power

Using inexpensive materials configured and tuned to capture microwave signals, researchers have designed a power-harvesting device with efficiency similar to that of modern solar panels.

New method for harvesting energy from light

Researchers have demonstrated a new mechanism for extracting energy from light, a finding that could improve technologies for generating electricity from solar energy and lead to more efficient optoelectronic devices used in communications.

Metallic cubes improve metamaterials for energy harvesting

Microscopic metallic cubes could unleash the enormous potential of metamaterials to absorb light, leading to more efficient and cost-effective large-area absorbers for sensor applications or energy-harvesting devices.

Copper-nickel nanowires could be perfect fit for printable electronics

Copper-nickel nanowires stay shiny, unlike old pennies, making them better for printed electronics & display screens. Copper-nickel nanowires stay shiny, unlike old pennies, making them better for printed electronics & display screens.

Harvesting energy from everyday motion

By taking advantage of the vagaries of the natural world, engineers have developed a novel approach that they believe can more efficiently harvest electricity from the motions of everyday life.

Copper nanowires may be coming to a little screen near you

Nanowires of copper could eliminate busted cell phone screens and make solar cells more competitive with fossil fuels.

Metamaterials engineer blackbody radiation

A designer metamaterial has shown it can engineer emitted "blackbody" radiation with an efficiency beyond the natural limits imposed by the material's temperature, reports a team of researchers led by Boston College physicist Willie Padilla.

Copper nanowires enable bendable displays, solar cells

Pin-like copper structures self-assemble in solution

Nantennas and metamaterials for EV photovoltaics

Photovoltaics could be applied to the whole of the outside and inside of the car, even over the lights and the windows

Harvesting energy from natural motion

By taking advantage of the vagaries of the natural world, Duke University engineers have developed a novel approach that they believe can more efficiently harvest electricity from the motions of everyday life.

Metamaterials: Printing the cloak of invisibility

Physicists no longer say that the invisibility cloak of Harry Potter, the vanishing car of James Bond or the Invisible Man are an impossibility. It may be possible to make things invisible by putting a thin layer of a specially patterned material in the way.