Reporte #151
A new approach to rechargeable batteries
MIT News – Engineering
New metal-mesh membrane could solve longstanding problems and lead to inexpensive power storage.
Smart valve-train technology could breathe new life into internal combustion engine
The Engineer
The UK inventors of an innovative valve-train technology which dispenses with the traditional camshaft claim it could radically improve petrol engine performance. Jon Excell reports.
Engineers design artificial synapse for “brain-on-a-chip” hardware
MIT News – Engineering
Design is major stepping stone toward portable artificial-intelligence devices.
Making fuel cells for a fraction of the cost
Science Daily
New material creates fuel cell catalysts at a hundredth of the cost. Researchers now describe the development of an inexpensive, efficient catalyst material for a type of fuel cell called a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell, which turns the chemical energy of hydrogen into electricity and is among the most promising fuel cell types to power cars and electronics.
Graphene girders extend the life of lithium-ion batteries
The Engineer
Nanoscale reinforcement with graphene girders boosts performance of silicon anodes, Warwick team discovers.
Tesla’s Massive Battery in South Australia Made $1 Million AUD in Only a Few Days
Interesting Engineering
Tesla’s Powerpack in South Australia is not only stabilizing the grid it’s turning a huge profit too.
Organic Thin-Film Transistors’ New Gate Dielectric Opens Door to Future Electronics
IEEE Spectrum Recent Content
Thin-film transistors (TFT) form the foundation for many of today’s technologies, including smartphones and flat-panel TVs. And these TFTs are made possible by amorphous silicon. While this material has managed to do the trick for the most part, it does have some performance limitations, such as limited carrier mobility, that have sent researchers in search of something better.
The Boring Company Presents Plans for 6.5-Mile LA Tunnel to City Council and Public
Interesting Engineering
The SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s famous underground tunnel project might finally win over the people of a city very hesitant to support it.
Temporary ‘bathtub drains’ in the ocean concentrate flotsam
Science Daily
An experiment using hundreds of plastic drifters in the Gulf of Mexico shows that rather than simply spread out, as current calculations would predict, many of them clumped together in a tight cluster.
Flushing out ‘zombie cells’ could help stave off Parkinson’s, study suggests
The Guardian
Possible approach to treating effects of neurodegenerative diseases – and even ageing – revealed by trial.
Photon-friendly graphene membranes mimic photosynthesis to produce hydrogen
The Engineer
Graphene membranes that mimic photosynthesis to produce hydrogen by harvesting solar energy could be developed following the discovery of a new effect.
World’s first electric container barges to sail from European ports this summer
The Guardian
Dubbed the ‘Tesla of the canals’, the unmanned vessels will operate on Dutch and Belgian waterways, vastly reducing diesel vehicles and emissions.
Atom-Thin Memristors Discovered
IEEE Spectrum Recent Content
Two-dimensional atom-thin materials are good for a lot of things, but they don’t make good memory devices. At least that’s what everyone thought until Ruijing Ge, a first-year graduate student at the University of Texas, Austin, persuaded her mentor—flexible electronics guru Deji Akinwande—to let her try. They sandwiched an atom-thick layer of molybdenum disulfide between two electrodes and found that, contrary to expectation, the structure displayed memristance; it can be set to a high resistance or low resistance state by particular voltages and remain stable long after the voltage is removed.