In honor of Blog Action Day on the topic of water, here is a bit of good news about a new low-cost, energy efficient method for purifying drinking water without the use of chlorine. Scientists at Stanford University have developed a new kind of water filter that uses a combination … [continued]
Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a concept for an “artificial leaf” that generates solar energy, based on the same principles that occur in nature when plants draw energy from the sun. The new device is actually a flexible water-based gel combined with light-sensitive molecules.
Researchers at North Carolina State University have used nano-engineering technology to develop new superstrong aluminum alloys with a plastic-like ability to stretch under stress. The new material could help lower the cost of solar power installations, and it also has the potential to replace far heavier metals such as steel … [continued]
Nano carbon Graphene is already being produced in decidedly non-nano quantities by Ohio-based Angstron. Yet the atom-thick nano-material was discovered so recently that researchers are still in the process of discovering what to use it for. [social_buttons] Graphene is an extremely low density material, almost an atomic-scale chicken wire made … [continued]
High-tech membranes are catching on as a lower cost, non-chemical and more sustainable water treatment process, but there’s a catch: they can quickly foul with dirt and other particles. Enter NanoBrane, a nanotechnology company with a patent-pending breakthrough in membrane properties that prevents fouling. That makes the treatment process run … [continued]
[social_buttons] The California startup Full Cycle Energy is on a roll, hopscotching over its own platinum nanotube-based fuel cell to develop a new fuel cell that ditches platinum entirely. The implications for widescale adoption of sustainable fuel cells are huge, because until now platinum has been a major stumbling block. … [continued]
Move over, silicon: graphene is ready for its closeup. Discovered just a few years ago, graphene is a sheet of graphite the thickness of just one atom. It can be processed like silicon to make electronic devices, which makes it easier to manipulate than the current “it” material, carbon nanotubes. … [continued]
First there was the Life Straw. Then there was the Aquaduct Tricycle. Now ordinary sand could provide an answer to one of the thorniest problems of the future: how to purify drinking water for the many millions of people who don’t have access to a clean, disease-free source — and … [continued]
