Although we already wrote about many materials that could serve as liquid repellant surfaces, the one developed by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz and the Technical University Darmstadt stands out by being superamphiphobic. They used candle soot to produce a fluorinated silicon coated silica nanostructure which is capable to… »
An interdisciplinary group of researchers made a breakthrough in cotton fiber research by finding a way to transform everyday cotton into high-tech fabric. Their work could lead to functional clothing – a seamless blend of clothing and electronics that could be used in future hospital clothes with sensors used to monitor medical patients or in… »
Memory wall is a term used to describe the greater need for both memory bandwidth and memory density needed for growing number of processor cores in current microprocessors. Whereas DDR4 represents an evolutionary standard, IBM and Micron Technology announced that they will begin production of Hybrid Memory Cube (HMC) – a memory device built using… »
At present, insulation panels that are both thin and effective are expensive high-end products that are built into energy-saving refrigerators. In order to enable better and cost-effective insulation used in building construction, Fraunhofer researchers are developing vacuum isolation panels (VIPs) – short films for a material that will insulate homes without the need for significant… »
One of the efforts to become fossil fuel independent is to use biofuel generated by crops, but it stirred a big debate due to lack of food and fertile ground around the world. Using algae as biofuel can be up to 300 times more efficient than conventional crops, and researcher from the Iowa State University… »
Although it has been referred as “fool’s gold” throughout the history, dating to times of ancient Rome and tricking prospectors for centuries, yellow-toned mineral pyrite found its use as an inexpensive and promising option for solar energy. Oregon State University (OSU) researchers discovered related compounds that use the advantages of the material without the downsides… »
A combined team of researchers from the Oxford University and University of Sheffield used a novel method to analyze the energy used in the formation of fibers in natural silk and synthetic materials in order to demonstrate that natural unspun silks taken from a silkworm are a thousand times more efficient than common plastics when… »
Aside developing more efficient methods in hydrogen production, researchers around the world are developing ways to store hydrogen for subsequent use. University of Oregon (UO) chemists developed a boron-nitrogen-based liquid-phase storage material for hydrogen which is more suitable than currently known ways to store hydrogen because it can perform safely at room temperature and is… »
