After Covid
Will the Covid-19 pandemic bring about major global changes? Many people are asking this question with regard to everything from working practices, for example, is the day of the office building over as a result of IT, through to the potential end of fossil fuel usage for transportation and energy generation.
Air quality boost for India
Air pollution kills 1.25m people in India every year. India’s capital New Delhi has the worst air pollution of any capital city. However, air pollution has dropped dramatically as a result of lockdown to control coronavirus.
Harder than diamonds
More than 100 years ago, telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell developed strong, yet lightweight kites based on a lattice arrangement of triangular cells and tetrahedra. Fast forward to the present day, and inventors are using similar principles in the fabrication of nanolattice materials – lattice structures composed of nanoscale constituents.
Improving perovskite solar cells
A way to detect imperfections in next generation solar cells has been reported by researchers in Australia. The method, based on light modulation, promises improved quality control for commercial production to compete with silicon-based devices.
New X-ray vision
Researchers have developed a new type of X-ray detector that does not require an external power source, and which is claimed to be 100 times more sensitive than conventional silicon-based detectors. Its high sensitivity and increased resolution could lead to lower exposure to X-rays for patients and imaging staff at hospitals and dentist surgeries.
Science briefs
Researchers at the Graduate Schools of Engineering and Science at the University of Tokyo, Japan, have developed a new fluorinated cyclic phosphate solvent (TFEP) electrolyte as a safer alternative for the ethylene carbonate (EC) currently used in Li-ion batteries.
Better gas storage
New highly porous materials can store significantly more hydrogen and methane than conventional adsorbent materials at safer pressures and lower costs, claim US researchers.
OTC Covid-19 test
A smartphone test for Covid-19 is being developed by pharma company Sanofi. The test aims to allow individuals to self-test and find out whether or not they are infected within a few minutes.
Bacteria and nanowires convert carbon dioxide
Chemists have created a hybrid system of bacteria and nanowires that captures energy from sunlight to convert carbon dioxide and water into organic molecules and oxygen.