Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Research creates new opportunities from waste heat

Physicists at the University of Houston's (UH) physics department and the Texas Center for Superconductivity are working on an innovation that could boost vehicle mileage by 5 percent and power plant and industrial processing performance as much as 10 percent.

First atomic level simulation of a whole battery

Computer scientists have simulated from first principles the way batteries wear out as they are charged and discharged for the first time.

New flow battery for cheaper energy storage

MIT researchers have engineered a new rechargeable flow battery that doesn't rely on expensive membranes to generate and store electricity.

Encouraging enterprise in the organic electronics sector

Cambridge entrepreneurship programme to train technologists and researchers to accelerate commercialisation and encourage venture creation in organic electronics across the EU.

Altering organic molecules' interaction with light

Researchers have discovered a new platform that provides simple means to manipulate organic molecules' emission, and may have important implications to organic light emitting devices and molecular biosensors.

Tesla may be able to fully charge electric car batteries in 5 minutes

Kompulsa GE reports "JB Straubel , CTO of Tesla Motors has said he thinks Tesla will be able to fully charge electric car batteries in five to ten minutes before too long (without battery swapping).

The ExOne Company

The ExOne Company are a listed manufacturer of 3D printers based on the inkjet powder-bed technology of MiT. This profile update includes their latest financial figures and additional comments.

Voxeljet Technology GmbH

Voxeljet is a German based company which has taken an increasingly innovative approach to 3D printing in recent years and is responsible for a number of 3D printing "firsts". This profiles analyses the company's position in the face of potential short-term crowding in the competitive landscape.

Solar power heads in a new direction: thinner

Most efforts at improving solar cells have focused on increasing the efficiency of their energy conversion, or on lowering the cost of manufacturing. But now researchers are opening another avenue for improvement, aiming to produce the thinnest and most lightweight solar panels possible.

Crash-testing lithium-ion batteries

Laboratory crash tests show both vulnerabilities and ways to improve the safety of lithium-ion batteries used in electric and hybrid vehicles.

Balance is key to making quantum-dot solar cells work

There has been great interest in recent years in using tiny particles called quantum dots to produce low-cost, easily manufactured, stable photovoltaic cells. But, so far, the creation of such cells has been limited by the fact that in practice, quantum dots are not as good at conducting an electric charge as they are in theory.

MIT develops power electronics from organic semiconductors

A group of scientists, directed by Prof Akinwande at MIT have fabricated the first high voltage field effect transistor using thin-film organic semiconductor technology.

Team observes real-time charging of a lithium-air battery

Researchers at MIT and Sandia National Laboratories have used transmission electron microscope (TEM) imaging to observe, at a molecular level, what goes on during a reaction called oxygen evolution as lithium-air batteries charge; this reaction is thought to be a bottleneck limiting further improvements to these batteries.

Team observes real-time charging of a lithium-air battery

Researchers at MIT and Sandia National Laboratories have used transmission electron microscope (TEM) imaging to observe, at a molecular level, what goes on during a reaction called oxygen evolution as lithium-air batteries charge; this reaction is thought to be a bottleneck limiting further improvements to these batteries. The TEM technique could help in finding ways to make such batteries practical in the near future.

7th Annual CAFE Electric Aircraft Symposium: First day

This excellent event "7th Electric Aircraft Symposium" in Santa Rosa, USA was acclaimed as the best ever in the series. Over 150 people attended, an eclectic mix from NASA and Siemens to hobbyists, universities and technology startups were there.

Novel heating system could improve electric car's range

Buyers considering an electric car must bear in mind that using battery-powered heating and air conditioning can decrease the car's range by a third or more. A heating and cooling system being developed by researchers at MIT almost eliminates the drain on the battery.

New technique to boost solar cell efficiency

The principle behind the barrier-busting technique has been known theoretically since the 1960s.

Solar-to-fuel roadmap for crystalline silicon

Bringing the concept of an "artificial leaf" closer to reality, a team of researchers at MIT has published a detailed analysis of all the factors that could limit the efficiency of such a system.

Ubiquity or obsolescence: how is E Ink's success story going to end?

Looking back at last year, it looks like 2012 was a tipping point for the e-reader market. Kindles and the likes were overshadowed by new models of tablet computers, resulting in a shift in consumer spending towards the tablets. But e-readers are still hugely popular, not least because of their long battery life and their low price. Since the holiday season, the must-have new feature has been the frontlight that enables reading in the dark, such as in the new Amazon Kindle Paperwhite. But take a closer look at this new generation of e-readers and you will find something striking: all of them use the same E Ink Pearl display, a technology that was released more than two years ago.