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Photon Enhanced Thermionic Emission process boosts efficiency of solar panels

By Damir Beciri
3 August 2010

new-solar-testing-from-stanford-universityStanford engineers have found out how to simultaneously use the light and heat of the sun to generate electricity in a way that could make solar power production more than twice as efficient as existing methods and potentially cheap enough to compete with oil. Unlike photovoltaic technology currently used in solar panels (which become less… »

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Rocket science used to make wastewater treatment sustainable

By Damir Beciri
One Comment27 July 2010

Professor Brian Cantwell, graduate student Yaniv Scherson, Professor Craig Criddle, and graduate students George Wells and Koshlan Mayer-Blackwell in the Criddle lab with the nitrous oxide decomposition cell.Within the sludge of wastewater treatment plants is an invisible world teeming with microbes. Here, diverse species of bacteria convert solid and liquid wastes into gases, some of which contribute to global warming. Two Stanford University engineers are developing a new sewage treatment process that would actually increase the production of nitrous oxide (“laughing gas”)… »

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Thermally actuated microrobot with omnidirectional walking

By Damir Beciri
2 July 2010

thermal-powered-centipede-like-microrobot-1The past few years have given rise to a growing number of microrobots, miniaturized mobile machines designed to perform specific tasks. Researchers at the University of Washington and Stanford University have developed an insect-like robot with hundreds of tiny legs. The robot is able to carry loads more than seven times of its own weight… »

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Stanford scientists combine paper, ink and nanotubes to produce batteries

By Damir Beciri
One Comment19 December 2009

stanford-paper-battery-liangbing-huStanford scientists are harnessing nanotechnology to quickly produce ultra-lightweight, bendable batteries and supercapacitors in the form of everyday paper. The research team led by Yi Cui, assistant professor of materials science and engineering, includes postdoctoral scholars Liangbing Hu and JangWook Choi, and graduate student Yuan Yang. Simply coating a sheet of paper with ink made… »

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Two methods to produce graphene nanoribbons

By Damir Beciri
11 May 2009

nanoribbon.jpgYou remember we wrote about carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in one of our previous articles? Two groups of researchers have found ways to unfold CNTs in order to make nanoribbons of graphene. The experts claim that the development could point the way towards a new generation of electronics, including computer chips that are faster and tinier… »