18 Nov 2021

Machine Learning Helps to Locally Restore Wetlands
Worldwide, coastal wetlands like salt marshes and mangroves are increasingly recognized as valuable natural defenses that protect coasts. Tidal salt marshes enhance flood safety by being 'wave absorbers' that protect the dikes behind them, and by being 'flood fighters' that lower the flood depth by limiting the size of breaches when a dike would fail during severe storms. This raises the question if we can establish and restore these wetlands where needed, now that the sea level is rising, and storms become stronger and more frequent.
20 Apr 2021

Transparent Nanolayers for More Solar Power
Silicon solar cells have been steadily improved over the past decades and have already reached a very high level of development. However, the disturbing effect of recombination still occurs after the absorption of sunlight and the photovoltaic generation of electrical charge carriers. In this process, negative and positive charge carriers that have already been generated combine and cancel each other out before they could be used for the flow of solar electricity. This effect can be countered by special materials that have a special property - passivation.
10 Feb 2020

Engineers Mix and Match Materials to Make New Stretchy Electronics
At the heart of any electronic device is a cold, hard computer chip, covered in a miniature city of transistors and other semiconducting elements. Because computer chips are rigid, the electronic devices that they power, such as our smartphones, laptops, watches, and televisions, are similarly inflexible. Now a process developed by engineers may be the key to manufacturing flexible electronics with multiple functionalities in a cost-effective way.
12 Oct 2018

Route to flexible electronics made from exotic materials
Engineers have developed a technique to fabricate ultrathin semiconducting films made from a host of exotic materials other than silicon. To demonstrate their technique, the researchers fabricated flexible films made from gallium arsenide, gallium nitride, and lithium fluoride — materials that exhibit better performance than silicon but until now have been prohibitively expensive to produce in functional devices.
21 Apr 2016

Perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells with highest power conversion
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) has successfully developed perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells with the world's highest power conversion efficiency of 25.5% .
24 Feb 2014

Vibration energy the secret to self powered electronics
ncorporated directly into a cell phone housing, the team's nanogenerator could harvest and convert vibration energy from a surface, such as the passenger seat of a moving vehicle, into power for the phone.
12 Feb 2014

Engineers show how to optimize carbon nanotube arrays for hot spots
Experimental evidence and computer simulations suggest how to grow structures with the best trade offs between three desired characteristics: strength, flexibility and the ability to dissipate heat.
27 Mar 2012

Canadian Government invests in vehicles of the future
The Honourable Gary Goodyear, Minister of State for Science and Technology, announced last week six new projects supported by the Automotive Partnership Canada (APC) initiative at the University of Windsor.
20 Mar 2012

BASF signs licensing agreement to acquire LFP technology
BASF, through its global Battery Materials business unit, today announced that it has signed a long-term licensing agreement to acquire global rights for the production and sale of Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) battery materials technology from LiFePO4+C Licensing AG, Muttenz, Switzerland.
19 Mar 2012

Distance record for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles
In 2012, four Liquid Robotics "PACX Wave Glider" AUV gliders set a new distance world record by travelling autonomously almost 6000 kilometers.
14 Mar 2012

Molycorp to acquire leading rare earth processor in $1.3 billion deal
Transaction will create global, vertically integrated rare earth technology leader and will give Molycorp a greater range of products and increased sales opportunities across Asia.
13 Mar 2012

President Obama launches EV-Everywhere Challenge
By 2022 the USA Energy Department hopes that companies in the United States will be the first in the world to produce a 5-passenger affordable American electric vehicle with a payback time of less than 5 years and sufficient range and fast-charging ability to enable average Americans everywhere to meet their daily transportation needs more conveniently and at lower cost.
7 Mar 2012

Toyota finds way to avoid using rare earth materials
Toyota Motor Corp has developed a way to make hybrid and electric vehicles without the use of expensive rare earth metals, in which China has a near-monopoly.
1 Mar 2012

Lowering the cost of EV batteries - U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu
Industry and government are on track to bring down the cost of batteries to power hybrid and electric cars, which is crucial for improving commercial appeal of those vehicles, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said.
29 Feb 2012

Making hydrogen powered travel a reality in the UK
A ground breaking project to ensure the UK is well positioned for the commercial roll-out of hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles has been launched in the UK.
28 Feb 2012

New hybrid synergy drive for the Toyota Yaris
Toyota are adding a new hybrid to their collection and have developed a smaller version of the Hybrid Synergy Drive system to power it.
27 Feb 2012

Plugless Power Apollo Launch Programme
Clemson University's International Center for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR) announced recently that it will participate in the 2012 Apollo Launch Program hosted by Evatran, the developer of Plugless Power wireless electric vehicle recharging systems.
23 Feb 2012

KleenSpeed KAR EV technology
KleenSpeed aim to become a leader in the global electric car marketplace through advanced engineering and design with the production versions of the KleenSpeed KAR.