[Images above] Credit: NIST
ENERGY
Lasers liberate hydrogen from ammonia water
A proof-of-principle work by researchers at Sun Yat-sen University showed that laser pulses can shred ammonia molecules dissolved in water to generate hydrogen gas without using heat, pressure, or catalysts.
Toward more efficient catalysts: new ways to improve selectivity of catalytic reactions
Researchers from Harvard and Utrecht Universities designed a new catalyst platform that partially embeds nanoparticles into the substrate, trapping them so they do not move around during catalysis. The rest of the nanoparticles’ surface is left exposed, enabling them to perform the catalytic reactions efficiently and without agglomeration.
BIOMATERIALS
Dual-energy harvesting device could power future wireless medical implants
A new wireless charging device developed by researchers at The Pennsylvania State University could dramatically improve powering capability for implants while still being safe for the human body. The device can harvest energy from magnetic field and ultrasound sources simultaneously.
ENVIRONMENT
Researchers generate carbon capture breakthrough using AI, physics, and supercomputers
Researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago, Argonne National Laboratory, and several other institutions developed an open-source artificial intelligence framework and used it to identify six promising metal-organic framework structures for carbon capture.
New tech turns CO₂ into chemicals with 93% efficiency, runs record 5,000 hrs
Researchers at Huazhong University of Science and Technology and the University of Auckland found that electrolytes from spent lead acid batteries could be used to break down carbon dioxide and convert it into other chemicals. Their system ran for at least 5,000 hours, longer than any known approach so far.
Tackling e-waste by making electronics compostable and recyclable
North Carolina State University researchers designed a wearable electronic patch that can be simultaneously composted and recycled. The soft part of the device, called the substrate, is made from a renewable biomaterial, while the electrical circuit is composed of silver nanowires that can be recycled.
MANUFACTURING
ISS National Lab optical glass experiment moves the future of in-space manufacturing
New fiber optics experiments sponsored by the International Space Station National Laboratory launched on Northrop Grumman’s 20th Commercial Resupply Services mission. These experiments will test Flawless Photonics, Inc.’s approach to solving the issue of gravity-induced defects in optical glass products manufactured on Earth.
New optical metamaterial makes true one-way glass possible
Aalto University researchers designed an optical nonreciprocal magnetoelectric metamaterial that could be used to create a truly one-way glass. This one-way glass could make solar cells more efficient by blocking the thermal emissions that existing cells radiate back toward the sun, which reduces the amount of energy they capture.
OTHER STORIES
New channels to excite magnetic waves with terahertz light
Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Texas at Austin found they could control the dancing patterns of tiny magnetic bits, often referred to as “spin waves” or “magnons,” in a nonlinear manner, using intense terahertz fields.
Semiconductor defects could boost quantum technology
Cornell University researchers found they could manipulate the ground-state spin in gallium nitride and that it had quantum coherence, a quality that allows quantum bits (qubits) to retain their information.