The Autonomous Materials Systems Group at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, Urbana, Ill., recently devised a way to identify microscopic damage in polymers and composites by incorporating microcapsules containing materials that fluoresce under stress.
Andy Klesh of the Jet Propulsion Lab welcomes us to the cleanroom to talk about how satellites smaller than a briefcase could one day explore the chemistry of alien moons and planets.
For all the promise they have shown in the lab, polymer solar cells still need to “get on a roll”—like the ones employed in printing newspapers so that large sheets of acceptably efficient photovoltaic devices can be manufactured continuously and economically.
In lithium-ion batteries, a singly charged lithium atom, or ion, flows between two electrodes while one electron is contributed to the electrical current in the external circuit.
Researchers from South Dakota State University, Brookings, are using biochar, an inexpensive carbon-rich material and a new method of creating the porous surface needed to capture electricity to reduce the cost of supercapacitors.
