Ceramic Tech Today

Grad students: Apply to attend week-long materials program at Federal University of São Carlos, Brazil

By Eileen De Guire / December 5, 2011

—— The campus of the Federal University of São Carlos, Brazil, where a week-long school for MSE graduate students will be held in March 2012. Credit: UFSCar. The Graduate Program…

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Is it safe to wear sunscreen? Mapping ZnO nanoparticles in human skin

By Eileen De Guire / December 2, 2011

Zinc oxide nanoparticle distribution in excised human skin. The black line represents the surface of the skin (top), blue represents ZnO nanoparticle distribution in the skin (stratum corneum), and pink…

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Ceramics and glass business news of the week

By Eileen De Guire / December 1, 2011

Here’s what we’re hearing: SGS ClimaCoat : The innovative windshield combining comfort and respect for the environment (pdf) Saint-Gobain Sekurit has developed sgs ClimaCoat, an all-weather windshield. In winter, at…

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Video of the week: 3D printing of bone-like scaffolds

By Eileen De Guire / December 1, 2011

Professor Susmita Bose uses 3D printing to make bone-like scaffolds from tricalcium phosphate. Credit: Washington State University; YouTube. We’ve written several posts recently on additive manufacturing of ceramics for heavy…

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A call to action: Establishing performance metrics for supercapacitors

By Eileen De Guire / November 29, 2011

Ragone plots are useful for comparing electrochemical energy storage devices. The energy and power densities in this plot are weight-based. However, converting to a volume-based plot reveals the difficulties in…

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Video of the week: Materials for smart grid applications

By Eileen De Guire / November 29, 2011

Steve Bossart of DOE’s NETL describes the characteristic features and advantages of a smart grid infrastructure in this interview. Click on the image to link to the video. Credit: DOE…

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Other materials stories that may be of interest

By Eileen De Guire / November 23, 2011

Check ’em out: Ultralight metallic microlattices A team of researchers from UC Irvine, HRL Laboratories and the California Institute of Technology have developed the world’s lightest material—with a density of…

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The Energy Race: Will federal budget woes affect progress?

By Eileen De Guire / November 22, 2011

Thin film solar panels produced by General Electric’s PrimeStar in Arvada, Colo. Credit: Edelman; NREL. Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu, was in Colorado last week, and after months of reeling…

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With low-temp SOFC gains like this . . . why stop now?

By / November 18, 2011

Low-temperature SOFCs: (A) Functionally graded bismuth oxide (Electrolyte 1) / ceria (Electrolyte 2) can allow use of hydrocarbon fuels at the anode at reduced temperatures. (B) Estimation of power output…

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Ceramics and glass business news of the week

By Eileen De Guire / November 18, 2011

Here’s what we are hearing (some information from news releases): Superior safety for next gen high-temperature reactor: China receives first glass-to-metal sealed hermetic penetration assembly from Schott for testing China’s…

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