nanotechnology Archives – The Green Optimistic

New Solar Cell Fabric Charges Your Devices While You Wear It

Sarah Higman — Sat, 30 May 2015 19:37:05 +0000

Using perovskite, scientists have come up with a way to potentially create solar cell thread which could be used to create chargeable fabric. Scientists around the world are exploring ways to use the mineral perovskite in solar cells. Cells with perovskite are cheaper and easier to manufacture for solar cells and are able to convert […]

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Lotus Leaves Could Hold the Key to Cleaning Oil Spills

Sarah Higman — Thu, 16 Apr 2015 18:25:48 +0000

Fun fact – lotus leaves naturally repel water but not oil. Sounds simple but this design may be the answer to cleaning oil spills at sea. Engineers at the University of Ohio have used the lotus as inspiration and flipped it on its head, developing a fine mesh that water can pass through, leaving oil […]

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Organic Solar Cell Efficiency Receives a Boost from “Nanograss”

Mila Luleva — Tue, 14 Oct 2014 09:50:32 +0000

Nanotechnology holds the key to further developments in organic solar cells and energy storage. It might sound as a very bold statement to some, but it is true, and an international team of researchers demonstrated it. They developed “nanograss“, which can boost the efficiency of organic solar cells, while providing a mean for cheap energy storage […]

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Plastic Shopping Bags Recycled into Nanomaterial

Leigh Hutchens — Thu, 26 Sep 2013 02:24:33 +0000

At the University of Adelaide in Australia, plastic shopping bags have become high-tech nanomaterial. Researchers at the University of Adelaide’s Nanotech Research Group have figured out how to take non-biodegradable plastic shopping bags and turn them into carbon nanotube membranes, thereby turning a serious threat to the ecosystem into a resource with a host of […]

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Panasonic’s New Water Purification Technology Runs on Solar Power

Benji Jerew — Wed, 07 Aug 2013 14:53:47 +0000

Modern water purification methods exist that can easily get rid of water contaminants, even salt and bacteria, but some organic toxins and toxic metals, such as arsenic and hexavalent chromium need special processing [read: expensive and carbon-intensive] to be removed. Water purification by reverse osmosis, filters, and chlorination does not affect these toxic metals or […]

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New Fuel Cell With Five Times Less Platinum Developed in Copenhagen

Benji Jerew — Tue, 23 Jul 2013 15:07:06 +0000

Hydrogen fuel cells, which could find applications from vehicles to backup power supplies, suffer from one important drawback – expense. Current mass-produced hydrogen fuel cell catalysts employ a small amount of platinum to sustain the reaction necessary to generate electricity from hydrogen. Most importantly, platinum is non-corroding, which helps the fuel cell last a long […]

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“Water Chip” Nanoscale Desalination Developed at University of Texas

Benji Jerew — Wed, 10 Jul 2013 13:02:10 +0000

Access to potable water is especially critical near the ocean, where overuse of wells can depress the freshwater table and allow saltwater to creep in. Desalination isn’t accessible to everyone though, due to the size and expense of desalination plants. Water filters can be used to remove contaminants from water, including most protozoa, bacteria, and […]

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Harvard’s 3D-Printed Rechargeable Micro-Battery Targets Tiny Devices

Benji Jerew — Mon, 01 Jul 2013 18:09:23 +0000

Electronic devices continue to miniaturize, but the batteries that power them haven’t kept pace. That could all change with a 3D-printed micro-battery recently developed at Harvard. When I first looked at the video, it almost looked like any other 3D printer that I’d ever seen in action, including the time-lapse. What makes this 3D printer […]

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Better Than Lithium-Ion, New Carbon Catalyst Developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory

Benji Jerew — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 14:49:37 +0000

Lithium-ion rechargeable battery technology is currently the most reliable energy storage that we have, having found its way into everything from portable electronic devices to hybrid electric jumbo jets. The main reason for this popularity is the longevity of the cells compared to their energy density. Some rechargeable batteries have particularly long life-spans, thousands of […]

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Nanotech Solar Cells being Developed by RedWave Energy

Benji Jerew — Mon, 13 May 2013 20:35:17 +0000

Energy is all around us, but harvesting it remains an issue if we are going to really clean up our act. Nanotech solar cells promise to harvest energy more efficiently and turn it into something we can use. We’ve talked before about how nanotech might improve current solar panel efficiency. One such technology developed by […]

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Graphene and Monolayers For More Efficient Solar Cells

Benji Jerew — Fri, 03 May 2013 15:45:11 +0000

With all the talk about nanomaterials making up more efficient solar cells, most of the focus has been on graphene and its unique properties. It’s easy to forget that other elements could possibly be manufactured similarly. It stands to reason that if you can make one element into a monolayer, then you should be able […]

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EnerG2’s Synthetic Carbon Anodes Could Increase Lithium-Ion Battery Capacity 30%

Benji Jerew — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 13:57:15 +0000

Makers of portable electronic devices might be interested in a new synthetic carbon anode that would effectively make a 30% thinner lithium-ion battery. With the growing popularity of portable electronic devices, lithium-ion battery technology is becoming more and more important. Battery capacity is becoming just as important as form factor. Marketing consistently hawks “X hours […]

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Solar Power Conversion Efficiency Limits Broken, Nanowires Win

Benji Jerew — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 19:19:57 +0000

With the development of nanotechnology, researchers using nanowires in solar cells are finding that solar cell efficiency limits may be higher than they previously thought possible. Current commercial silicon-based solar cell efficiency is less than 15%, which means that more than 85% of the sun’s energy is lost to heat and reflection. Modern theory places […]

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Silicon Nanowire Battery Has Three Times More Capacity, Charges Faster

Benji Jerew — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 20:55:34 +0000

Researchers at the University of California [USC] recently developed a silicon nanowire battery that could easily solve the range and recharging issues of electric vehicles. If there’s one problem with electric vehicles, it’s the battery. Actually, the problem isn’t the battery, but our perception of it. Pure electric vehicles have a limited range, up to 300 miles […]

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Super Efficient Nanoscale Wireless Devices Produced

Benji Jerew — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 19:49:17 +0000

Don’t let anyone tell you any differently, but size does matter. This is just as true when we take a look at how computing power has advanced over the decades. The larger the machine, the more power it consumes. Conversely, smaller machines are more efficient. Take, for instance, the ENIAC [Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer] […]

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Nanotechnology Used to Keep Electronic Devices From Overheating

Leigh Hutchens — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 09:39:13 +0000

By discovering how molecules behave in energy-efficient electronics, scientists have found that a ten-fold increase in switching efficiency can be obtained by changing just one carbon atom. A team of scientists at Tyndall National Institute at University College Cork and the National University of Singapore made the discovery -which may provide new ways to prevent […]

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FIPEL Polymer Lighting Technology Better, Healthier and Cheaper than CFL

Leigh Hutchens — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 17:34:23 +0000

Scientists at the Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials at Wake Forest University in North Carolina have found a lighting solution that is equivalent to LEDs and more efficient than compact fluorescent (CFL) bulbs. And, thankfully, it produces more pleasant light than either. Gone, too, is the annoying buzz of the fluorescent light that has […]

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Nanoscale Rainbow Manipulation to Improve Solar Cells and LEDs

Leigh Hutchens — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 07:32:16 +0000

Solar cells and LED displays may get new life, thanks to researchers at King’s College London. The Biophysics and Nanotechnology Group can now separate colors and manipulate rainbows using nanoscale structures on a metal surface. Using specifically designed nanostructures, researchers trapped different colored light in different positions on a nanostructured area. They could then use […]

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New Sun-Powered Water Splitting Process Discovered

Leigh Hutchens — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 07:29:16 +0000

Researchers have determined that water splitting can produce clean energy hydrogen and use small metal particles exposed to sunlight to perform the splitting. Researchers at Stony Brook University and Brookhaven National Laboratory used gold particles less than one nanometer in size to increase hydrogen production, far exceeding the hydrogen production of other catalysts. Less than […]

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Nanoparticles Covert Solar Energy into Steam at Rice University

Mila Luleva — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 13:38:30 +0000

Scientists at Rice University Laboratory for Nanophotonics (LANP) have discovered an effective way to use nanoparticles to convert solar energy into steam. ACS Nano published an article on the revolutionary technology that reveals the 24% overall energy efficiency. Surprisingly, however, the team is hoping to use the solar steam invention not for electricity generation, but […]

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Light Harvesting Nanoantennas Made With Plant DNA and Artificial Molecules

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 05:55:51 +0000

A University of Toronto research team has reported the first time construction of what they call "artificial molecules." These molecules have been inspired by photosynthesis and use nanotechnology to harvest sunlight.

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Nanowires Could Enable Human Heart to Power Gadgets

Mike Sandru — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 18:15:49 +0000

Nanotechnology – the science of managing matter at a molecular level – has delivered its promises: if charging your iPod with your heart is not great, then what is? Yes, you read correctly: it is your own little human heart that could be doing the work of a charger, so that you can continue listening […]

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Rice University Researchers Use Surface Plasmons to Harvest Light From Lasers: Solar Panels May Benefit

Ovidiu Sandru — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 17:12:04 +0000

Doug Natelson and graduate student Dan Ward, from Rice University, have discovered how to make a light-harvesting antenna from two gold tips separated by a gap only a few nanometers wide. As light source they used a laser, whose rays, once trapped in the gold tips, get concentrated into a tiny space, increasing the light intensity in the gap by a thousand times.

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Innovalight’s New Substance Could Increase Solar Cell Efficiency to 80%

Mike Sandru — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 20:30:31 +0000

A few weeks ago, we wrote that the solar cell company Innovalight has beaten a new record of efficiency in the solar cells field. Now, the same company announced that it developed a new substance (“solar ink”), based on nanotechnology, that could drastically boost the efficiency of solar cells to 80 percent. If this substance […]

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Precision Nanoparticles Technology to Revolutionize Solar Cells

Cristi — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 19:35:50 +0000

The chemists from the Idaho National Laboratory and Idaho State University may have found the gold mine of solar energy efficiency. They invented the manufacturing of a highly precise and uniform nanopaticle that improves solar cells and further spurs the growing nanotech revolution.

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Protein Nanotubes Could Make Solar Panels Self-Washable

Mike Sandru — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:17:04 +0000

Scientists at the Tel Aviv University (TAU) are sure that their newest research in the nanotechnology field could lead to the development of a new type of solar panels and glass that need no cleaning and apparently put window washers out of work.

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Sub-Nano Platinum Particles Make Fuel Cells 13 Times Better

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 20:05:04 +0000

Nano-sized machinery makes me shiver. Thinking at a molecular and atomic level when speaking about technology makes me wonder even more. Even if I consider myself a logic person, extremely small and extremely large objects impress me.

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Scientists Developing Artificial Leaves to Produce Energy

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 21:11:49 +0000

Mimicking nature has been man's dream since he tried inventing the airplane, and even earlier. Mimicking a leaf for obtaining energy from the Sun has been even more challenging than learning to fly, though, until now, nobody succeeded imitating the evolution or creation or whatever our nature is made of.

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Lightning GT: Britain's Competitor to Tesla's Roadster

Ovidiu Sandru — Tue, 06 May 2008 07:30:24 +0000

Just a few months ago I was presenting the Tesla Roadster as a pioneer in electric vehicles. And it surely is. It does 60mph in just 3.7 seconds, is extremely light and not so comfortable. This time, the British have projected a brand-new electric car that would ultimately compete with Tesla’s famous Roadster. The car […]

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