Research Bits: Jan. 31


The power of proximity Researchers from Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), Stanford, and University of California Berkeley have observed that electrons transfer heat rapidly between layers of the 2D semiconductor materials tungsten diselenide (WSe2) and tungsten disulfide (WS2). The electrons acted as a bridge between the two materials, the layers of... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Sept. 22


Drawing sensors on skin Researchers from the University of Houston and University of Chicago created an ink pen that can draw multifunctional sensors and circuits directly on skin. These "drawn-on-skin electronics" aim to provide more precise health data, free of the artifacts that are associated with wearable devices and flexible electronic patches. Caused when the sensor doesn't move prec... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: April 21


Focus-free lens Researchers from the University of Utah developed a new lens that doesn't require focusing. They present it as an alternative to the multiple lenses common in smartphone cameras. "Our flat lenses can drastically reduce the weight, complexity and cost of cameras and other imaging systems, while increasing their functionality," said research team leader Rajesh Menon from the U... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: July 15


Liquefied gas electrolyte Researchers at UC San Diego, U.S. Army Research Laboratory, and South 8 Technologies developed an electrolyte that could enable the replacement of the graphite anode in lithium-ion batteries with lithium-metal. Such a change would increase energy density 50% at the cell level, making for lighter batteries with more capacity. However, lithium-metal anodes are not compa... » read more

System Bits: April 30


Future batteries could use a graphene sponge Researchers at Sweden’s Chalmers University of Technology devised a porous, sponge-like aerogel, made of reduced-graphene oxide, to serve as a freestanding electrode in the battery cell. This utilization has the potential to advance lithium sulfur batteries, which are said to possess a theoretical energy density about five times greater than lithi... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Nov. 13


ML identifies LED material Researchers at the University of Houston created a machine learning algorithm that can predict a material's properties to help find better host material candidates for LED lighting. One recommendation was synthesized and tested. The technique, a support vector machine regression model, was efficient enough to run on a personal computer. It scanned a list of 118,28... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Sept. 25


Heat transfer in 2D materials Engineers at the University of Illinois developed a way to reduce overheating in nanoelectronics that incorporate 2D components by adding another layer to the structure. "In the field of nanoelectronics, the poor heat dissipation of 2D materials has been a bottleneck to fully realizing their potential in enabling the manufacture of ever-smaller electronics whil... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Aug. 28


Multilayer stretchable electronics Researchers at UC San Diego, the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, and the Air Force Research Laboratory developed an approach to creating stacked, stretchable electronics with complex functionality. "Rigid electronics can offer a lot of functionality on a small footprint--they can easily be manufactured with as many as 50 layers of... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Oct. 10


Asphalt anode Scientists at Rice University developed an anode for lithium metal batteries enabling them to charge 10 to 20 times faster than commercial lithium-ion batteries. The anodes are a porous carbon made from asphalt mixed with conductive graphene nanoribbons and coated with composite with lithium metal through electrochemical deposition. The lab combined the anode with a sulfurized... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: July 25


Sodium-ion cathode Researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas and Seoul National University developed a manganese and sodium-ion-based cathode material they hope could lead to lower-cost rechargeable batteries. In a typical lithium-ion battery, the cathode is made of lithium, cobalt, nickel and oxygen. "Lithium is a more expensive, limited resource that must be mined from just a fe... » read more

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