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Jeff Stevenson is a Laboratory Fellow in the Energy Materials Group at the Pacific Northwest National Lab, and has been working on SOFCs for more than a decade. This video, shot at the recent ICACC’10 conference in Daytona Beach, Fla., provides some history on the development of these fuel cells, and discusses some of the remaining science and manufacturing challenges that are hindering their widespread commercialization.

Stevenson also discusses some of the work being done by the Solid State Energy Conversion Alliance, a government-industry collaboration, that is working on methods to employ SOFCs that can make cleaner use of coal and other fossil fuels for energy generation, and describes some of the “early adopters” of SOFC systems, such as systems being used for auxiliary power units (APUs) used by some tractor-trailer operators.

Besides working at PNNL, Stevenson serves as an associate editor of the Journal of the American Ceramic Society and reviews and edits manuscripts in the field of SOFCs.

7 minutes.

The premier issue of ACerS’ new quarterly glass journal has just been put online and - good news - all of the content of this first issue is available for free!

The International Journal of Applied Glass Science has been in development for over a year, and the demand for such a publication is the direct result of the growing call for glass and glass-related materials in the world’s emerging technologies, such as energy, medicine, transportation, construction, environment, optics and defense.

The inaugural issue of IJAGS is organized on the theme of “Modern Aspects of Non-crystalline Solids.” This theme allows editor L. David Pye and his international advisory board to present something of a survey of articles on modern glassmaking, glass science, strength, architecture, aesthetics, photo-electric properties and bioglass materials written by an amazing set of authors including Richard K. Brow, Larry L. Hench, Carol M. Janzten and Rustum Roy.

Here is an abbreviated table of contents:

• Glass Science and Glassmaking: A Personal Perspective (p 3-15)
  Rustum Roy
• How Do Crystals Form and Grow in Glass-Forming Liquids: Ostwald’s Rule of Stages and Beyond (p 16-26)
  Jürn W. P. Schmelzer, Vladimir M. Fokin, Alexander S. Abyzov, Edgar D. Zanotto, Ivan Gutzow
• The Strength of Silicate Glasses: What Do We Know, What Do We Need to Know? (p 27-37)
  Charles R. Kurkjian, Prabhat K. Gupta, Richard K. Brow
• Durable Glass for Thousands of Years (p 38-62)
  Carol M. Jantzen, Kevin G. Brown, John B. Pickett
• Glass and Light (p 63-73)
  Hong Li, Mark J. Davis, Alexander J. Marker, III, Joseph S. Hayden
• Glasses for Photonic Applications (p 74-86)
  Kathleen Richardson, Denise Krol, Kazuyuki Hirao
• Glass Substrates for Liquid Crystal Displays (p 87-103)
  Adam Ellison, Iván A. Cornejo
• Glass and Medicine (p 104-117)
  Larry L. Hench, Delbert E. Day, Wolfram Höland, Volker M. Rheinberger
• Glass in Architecture (p 118-129)
  Mehran Arbab, James J. Finley

Both the print and online versions of IJAGS are produced in partnership with Wiley Periodicals.

The online version of future issues of IJAGS will always be available at no charge to ACerS members through the Society’s website, while subscriptions (or single-article purchases) to either version are available to the public through Wiley.

According to a press release, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, via its Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences Division, is developing a chemical and biological sensor with unprecedented sensitivity.

The device consists of a digital camera, a laser, imaging optics, a signal generator, digital signal processing and other components that can detect tiny amounts of substances in the air.

Researchers believe this new “sniffer” will achieve a detection level that approaches the theoretical limit, surpassing other state-of-the-art chemical sensors. The implications could be significant for anyone whose job is to detect explosives, biological agents and narcotics.

“While the research community has been avoiding the nonlinearity associated with the nanoscale mechanical oscillators, we are embracing it,” says codeveloper Nickolay Lavrik, a researcher in the CNMS. “In the end, we hope to have a device capable of detecting incredibly small amounts of explosives compared to today’s chemical sensors.”

The approach makes use of microcantilevers similar to those used in atomic force microscopy. The microcanilevers serve as microresonators that measure changes in the resonance frequency due to mass changes. Although the concept is relatively simple, assembling a working model is more difficult.

“These challenges are due to requirements of measuring and analyzing tiny oscillation amplitudes that are about the size of a hydrogen atom,” Lavrik reports. He says previous approaches would have required sophisticated low-noise electronic components such as lock-in amplifiers and phase-locked loops, which add cost and complexity.

This new type of sniffer works by deliberately hitting the microcantilevers with relatively large amounts of energy associated with a range of frequencies, forcing them into wide oscillation.

“In the past, people wanted to avoid this high amplitude because of the high distortion associated with that type of response,” says ORNL’s Panos Datskos, a member of the Measurement Science and Systems Engineering Division. “But now we can exploit that response by tuning the system to a very specific frequency that is associated with the specific chemical or compound we want to detect.”

When the target chemical reacts with the microcantilever, it shifts the frequency depending on the weight of the compound, thereby providing the detection.

“With this new approach, when the microcantilever stops oscillating we know with high certainty that the target chemical or compound is present,” Lavrik says.

The researchers envision this technology being incorporated in a handheld instrument that could be used by transportation security screeners, law enforcement officials and the military. Other potential applications are in biomedicine, environmental science, homeland security and analytical chemistry.

The Daily Northwestern reported that Northwestern University received $2.4 million in government funding to develop flash-memory devices with enhanced capacity for U.S. military and intelligence use.

Allocated to NU’s Center for Integrated Nanosystems and International Institute for Nanotechnology, the money represents “substantial and welcome funding” for the field of nanoelectronics, says Fraser Stoddart, CINS director and NU Board of Trustees professor of chemistry.

The funding is part of $45.4 million for Illinois-based projects approved by Congress on Dec. 19 in a 2010 defense spending bill, according to the a news release on Sen. Dick Durbin’s (D-Il) web site.

Developing memory chips will involve building and mounting mechanical switches into infinitely stretching three-dimensional scaffolds on the molecular level, he said.

“Over 10 years ago, we developed two-dimensional switches, and this piece of research will put what we did with two into three (dimensions),” Stoddart continues. “If we managed to do this, it would create very dense flash memory.”

Although funded by the Defense Department, the technology will not be limited to surveillance and battlefield operations but could be used to increase the capacity of any flash memory device, he said.

Credit: Ole Kils

I’m blogging now from ACerS’ Electronic Materials and Applications conference in Orlando, where it is a pleasant 70 degrees. Next week I shift over a few miles to Daytona Beach for the ACerS’ ICACC’10 conference.

Yesterday’s keynote speaker was John Blottman from the Office of Naval Research Naval Undersea Warfare Center. Blottman is a mechanical engineer who works on sensors and sonar systems development with the ONR’s Undersea Warfare Center. He is working with a diverse team of engineers and biologist in a Multi-University Research Initiative team that includes academic institutions, federal labs, DoD labs and private-sector support.

Blottman had some interesting concepts to share, not the least of which is that there is a big difference between biomimicry and bioinspiration. The former tries to duplicate nature; the latter uses insights from nature as a starting point to build upon.

While not a biologist, he became interested in the topic a few years ago when the Navy made the development of autonomous, independent systems a priority. Think sonar buoys that might never have to be repaired, refueled or moved by an external force.

He noted that when you look at animal species, you can break their activities down into several biomechanical and biosensory subcategories such as propulsion, energy gathering, self awareness (and self preservation), location sensing, texture sensing, communications with other animal life, and so on.

After looking at several species, Blottman and his colleagues became intrigued with jellyfish, an animal that has been around for millions of years that has relatively primitive but effective motor and sensory abilities, and has a remarkable talent to adapt itself to nearly every water environment. Intrigued may not fully convey how much Blottman and his group are into jellyfish – he was proudly sporting his cool jellyfish tie during the conference.

Using a variety of electronics, smart materials, polymers, piezos and other off-the-shelf materials, some prototype jellyfish-like propulsion contraptions have been successfully tested. While these are still relatively crude, they provide an important proof-of-concept that is providing encouragement for further work.

I hope to have a video of his lecture and a short interview with Blottman in the next few weeks.