Industry News

October 2017
NREL Inks Technology Agreement for High-Efficiency Multijunction Solar Cells
The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has entered into a license agreement with MicroLink Devices, Inc. (Niles, IL) to commercialize NREL's patented inverted metamorphic (IMM) multijunction solar cells. While high-efficiency multijunction solar cells are commonly used for
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Date:
10/31/2017
Syosset, NY - ISL Products International Ltd. announced the launch of a new website. The website’s enhanced content and improved search functionality are designed to assist engineers to quickly and easily source audio components, motor and mechanical components, ballasts and power supplies, potentiometers/transformers, and
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Date:
10/27/2017
Heavy Metal Thunder: Protein Can be Switched on to Conduct Electricity Like a Metal

Lindsay explored the interactions between a protein, called an integrin (alphaVbeta3), and its target, called a ligand (RGDfC). Lindsay's team was able to manufacture a nanodevice to more finely control a series of experiments with a carefully sized gap to control the protein, an electrode holding the ligand in position, and control the amount of voltage that can be applied to it.

When pushing the boundaries of discovery, sometimes even the most experienced of scientists can get a surprise jolt from a completely unpredictable result. That was the case for ASU Regents' Professor and biophysicist Stuart Lindsay, who has spent his career building new microscopes that have become the eyes o
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Date:
10/27/2017
The ability to charge cellphones in seconds is one step closer after researchers at the University of Waterloo used nanotechnology to significantly improve energy-storage devices known as supercapacitors. Their novel design roughly doubles the amount of electrical energy the rapid-charging devices can hold,
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Date:
10/25/2017
Mouser-Backed Vaillante Rebellion Car Victorious at Fuji
The Mouser-sponsored Vaillante Rebellion racing team scored a stunning victory in Sunday's weather-shortened 6 Hours of Fuji round of the World Endurance Championship. It was the sixth podium finish in the seven races so far this season for the Rebellion No. 31 car driven by Bruno Senna, Nicolas Prost and Julien Can
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Date:
10/23/2017
FREMONT, CA - MEAN WELL USA, Inc. is pleased to announce the opening of its first remote sales office located in the state of New Jersey. The office is located in the town of Mount Laurel which is a suburb located 30 mins outside of Philadelphia. The new office is part of the Premier Business Center’s 3000 At
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Date:
10/23/2017
Electricity From Shale Gas vs. Coal: Lifetime Toxic Releases From Coal Much Higher
ANN ARBOR -- Despite widespread concern about potential human health impacts from hydraulic fracturing, the lifetime toxic chemical releases associated with coal-generated electricity are 10 to 100 times greater than those from electricity generated with natural gas obtained via fracking, according to a new Un
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Date:
10/23/2017
The ninth annual ECCE conference and exposition came to an end on Thursday, October 5, 2017 after an exciting and productive five days of non-stop activities, invigorating discussions, and prolific exchange of ideas between 1,565 attending energy conversion professionals and researchers. This edition of the co
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Date:
10/23/2017
Scientists Solve a Magnesium Mystery in Rechargeable Battery Performance

This is a photo illustration showing rechargeable batteries in the shape of an automobile.

Rechargeable batteries based on magnesium, rather than lithium, have the potential to extend electric vehicle range by packing more energy into smaller batteries. But unforeseen chemical roadblocks have slowed scientific progress. And the places where solid meets liquid - where the oppositely charged battery e
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Date:
10/19/2017
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Department of Energy (DOE) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs issued its first Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) for Fiscal Year 2018.  The Phase I Release 1 FOA, with approximately $23 million in available funding, wi
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Date:
10/18/2017
Chemical Treatment Improves Quantum Dot Lasers

Los Alamos National Laboratory Chemist Jaehoon Lim works on an apparatus that synthesizes quantum dots along with Los Alamos researcher Young-Shin Park (also with the University of New Mexico Center for High-Technology Materials). In a paper published in Nature Nanotechnology, Los Alamos colleagues Kaifeng Wu and Victor Klimov worked with Lim and Park to demonstrate that negatively charged quantum dots show promise for low-power laser applications or quantum dot laser diodes.

LOS ALAMOS, N.M. -- One of the secrets to making tiny laser devices such as opthalmic surgery scalpels work even more efficiently is the use of tiny semiconductor particles, called quantum dots. In new research at Los Alamos National Laboratory's Nanotech Team, the ~nanometer-sized dots are being doctored, or &qu
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Date:
10/17/2017
Mouser Congratulates 2017 Create the Future Design Contest Winners
Mouser Electronics, Inc., the New Product Introduction leader that empowers innovation and a principal sponsor of the Create the Future Design Contest, will join in recognizing the 2017 winners at a special awards reception and dinner in New York City on November 10. Mouser’s valued suppliers Intel and Analog De
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Date:
10/13/2017
Electric Cars can Become More Eco-Friendly Through Life Cycle Assessment

Anders Nordelöf believes that the much-discussed environmental issues associated with electric cars should be taken seriously, but thinks that more focus is needed on solving the issues -- not on discussing whether electric cars should exist at all. Here, life cycle assessment is an important tool.

It is time to stop discussing whether electric cars are good or bad. Instead industry, authorities and policy-makers need to work together to make them as eco-friendly as possible. This is the view taken by Anders Nordelöf, a researcher at Chalmers University of Technology. In a recent thesis, he provides concrete ad
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Date:
10/13/2017
Converting Carbon Dioxide to Carbon Monoxide Using Water, Electricity

This is the reduction of CO2.

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis have determined how electrocatalysts can convert carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide using water and electricity. The discovery can lead to the development of efficient electrocatalysts for large scale production of
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Date:
10/13/2017
Mouser Electronics and Grant Imahara Present Final Video of Shaping Smarter Cities Series
Mouser Electronics Inc., a leading global distributor of electronic components, along with celebrity engineer Grant Imahara today released the fifth and final videoin the Shaping Smarter Cities series, part of Mouser’s award-winning Empowering Innovation Together program. To watch the video, go to https://youtu.be/vDCANm593b0. The engaging Shaping Smarter Cities series follows Imahara
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Date:
10/11/2017
Navy Participates in STEM Event at Rio Grande Valley Campus
EDINBURG, Texas — Sailors and support personnel of Navy Recruiting District San Antonio, Navy City Outreach Southwest Region and the Navy's diversity office participated Oct. 3 and 4 in Student Leadership Day and Latina Day during this week's observance of Hispanic Engineering, Science and Technology Week on t
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Date:
10/11/2017
Huge Energy Potential in Open Ocean Wind Farms in the North Atlantic

Two floating wind turbines being prepared to sail to Hywind Scotland Pilot Park off the coast of Aberdeenshire.

Washington, DC -- There is considerable opportunity for generating wind power in the open ocean, particularly the North Atlantic, according to new research from Carnegie's Anna Possner and Ken Caldeira. Their work is published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Because wind speeds are higher o
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Date:
10/10/2017
Prototype Shows how Tiny Photodetectors can Double Their Efficiency

This image shows an energy diagram of the WSe2-MoSe2 device. When a photon (1) strikes the WSe2 layer, it knocks loose an electron (2), freeing it to conduct through the WSe2 (3). At the junction between the two materials, the electron drops down into MoSe2 (4). The energy given off in the drop catapults a second electron from the WSe2 (5) into the MoSe2 (6), where both electrons are free to move and generate electricity.

RIVERSIDE, Calif. - Physicists at the University of California, Riverside have developed a photodetector - a device that senses light - by combining two distinct inorganic materials and producing quantum mechanical processes that could revolutionize the way solar energy is collected. Photodetectors are almos
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Date:
10/10/2017
Breakthrough in Direct Activation of CO2 and CH4 Into Liquid Fuels and Chemicals

This is the direct conversion of CO2 and CH4 into liquid fuels.

Researchers from the University of Liverpool have made a significant breakthrough in the direct conversion of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) into liquid fuels and chemicals which could help industry to reduce greenhouse gas emissions whilst producing valuable chemical feedstocks. In a paper published in chemistry
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Date:
10/09/2017
Jens Nielsen Honored by ENI for Research on the Production of Fuels From Renewables

The Italian President congratulate Jens Nielsen at an official ceremony in the Quirinal Palace in Rome with winning an Eni award for his research on the production of fuels from renewables.

Scientific Director at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability at the Technical University of Denmark, Jens Nielsen, has received an ENI award at an official ceremony today at the Palazzo Quirinale in Rome, in the presence of the Italian President Sergio Mattarella. The ENI award was estab
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Date:
10/06/2017
Energy Against the Current on a Quantum Scale, Without Contradicting the Laws of Physics

Artist's impression of the role of a quantum observer: depending on where the observer is positioned, and what part of the figure is seen, the water will be seen to flow differently.

This is the main result obtained by the group led by Professor Ángel Rubio of the UPV/EHU and of the Max Planck Institute PMSD, together with collaborators at the BCCMS centre in Bremen, and which has been echoed by the journal Nature Quantum Materials. In macroscopic objects such as a current of water, the fact
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Date:
10/06/2017
London, United Kingdom – Dialog Semiconductor announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held Silego Technology Inc. for a cash payment of $276 million with additional contingent consideration of up to $30.4 million. Headquartered in Santa Clara, California with approximately 235 emplo
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Date:
10/05/2017
DANVILLE, Calif.-- PowerSphyr, Inc., announced that it has successfully completed its acquisition of original design manufacturer, Gill Electronics. Based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Gill Electronics is led by wireless power industry veterans and is a member of the board of the AirFuel Alliance. Gill Electronic
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Date:
10/05/2017
Scientists From MSU Proposed a Way of Increasing the Efficiency of Solar Batteries

These are crystal structures of crystalline solvates.

Researchers from Department of Material Sciences, Lomonosov MSU, explained how changing the ratio of components forming light-absorbing layer of a perovskite solar cell influences the structure of created films and battery efficiency. The results of the study were published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry C.
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Date:
10/05/2017
Asphalt Helps Lithium Batteries Charge Faster

Scanning electron microscope images show an anode of asphalt, graphene nanoribbons and lithium at left and the same material without lithium at right. The material was developed at Rice University and shows promise for high-capacity lithium batteries that charge up to 20 times faster than commercial lithium-ion batteries.

HOUSTON -- A touch of asphalt may be the secret to high-capacity lithium metal batteries that charge 10 to 20 times faster than commercial lithium-ion batteries, according to Rice University scientists. The Rice lab of chemist James Tour developed anodes comprising porous carbon made from asphalt that show
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Date:
10/03/2017
A Sea of Spinning Electrons

The blue and red cones show the energy and momentum of surface electrons in a 3D topological insulator. The spin structure is shown in the blue and red arrows at the top and bottom, respectively. Light promotes electrons from the blue cone into the red cone, with the spin direction flipping. The orderly spinning leads to the chiral spin mode observed in this study.

Picture two schools of fish swimming in clockwise and counterclockwise circles. It's enough to make your head spin, and now scientists at Rutgers University-New Brunswick and the University of Florida have discovered the "chiral spin mode" - a sea of electrons spinning in opposing circles. "We discovered
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Date:
10/02/2017
Superconductivity Found in Thin Films of Titanium Oxide

This is a schematic representation of Ti4O7 (a) and γ-Ti3O5 (b).

Many of us are familiar with titanium dioxide (TiO2), a whitener commonly used in sunscreens and paints such as the white lines seen on tennis courts. Less well known are other higher titanium oxides -- those with a higher number of titanium and oxygen atoms than TiO -- that are now the subject of intensifying
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Date:
10/02/2017
US Department of Energy Awards Danforth Center $16 Million to Enhance Sorghum for Bioenergy

Sorghum is a unique crop in that most varieties are both drought and heat tolerant. The development of a low input, environmentally safe and highly productive sorghum germplasm will help establish a lignocellulosic energy economy that can provide jobs to rural communities, ensure energy security and benefit the environment.

ST. LOUIS, MO, Oct. 2, 2017 - The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, one of the world's largest independent plant science institutes, today announced a 5-year $16 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Building on earlier research using the model grass, green foxtail (Setaria viridis), this proj
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Date:
10/02/2017
Irish Scientists Can Now Produce Electricity from Tears

Aimee Stapleton, IRC EMBARK Postgraduate Fellow at University of Limerick and lead author of The Direct Piezoelectric Effect in the Globular Protein Lysozyme published on October 2 in Applied Physics Letters.

A team of Irish scientists has discovered that applying pressure to a protein found in egg whites and tears can generate electricity. The researchers from the Bernal Institute, University of Limerick (UL), Ireland, observed that crystals of lysozyme, a model protein that is abundant in egg whites of birds as we
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Date:
10/02/2017
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