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11-08 :: August 2011
nanotimes News in Brief
German chemical industry increased their expenses in Research & Development by spending EUR9.4 billion that is an increase of 8% compared to LY.
http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/38395/ http://jpcho.com
Research scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Microelectronic Circuits and Systems IMS in Germany have developed a version of a sensor arrangement that is particularly reliable and easy to use and which needs no wiring or batteries.
“Our wireless window contacts draw all their energy from ambient radio signals,” explains Dr. Gerd vom Bögel, a scientist at the IMS. The new sy- stem, however, can be fitted with little effort – and they can be positioned very discreetly. Aside from window contacts, each room is equipped with a room controller. This transmitter module not only receives the data from individual window contacts, it also actively provides the sensors with energy via its radio signal. The room controller also has the function of passing the sensor data on to a central base station in the building, from which users can query the status of all windows. Alternatively, the system can be configured to permit remote que- rying, for instance from a user’s smartphone. The only prerequisite for this is a DSL connection for the base station.
Francesco Stellacci and his doctoral-student assi- stant Randy Carney demonstrate that it’s possible to obtain the complete characterization of a core- shell nanoparticle (the core and the external shell) by using a very simple method – analytical ultra- centrifugation. This 100-year-old procedure has previously been used, in particular, to study the size and mass of proteins. It was in applying the method to their area of research that the EPFL scientists realized the benefits that could be obtained from its use.
Randy P. Carney, Jin Young Kim, Huifeng Qian, Rongchao Jin, Hakim Mehenni, Francesco Stellacci & Osman M. Bakr: Determination of nanoparticle size distribution to- gether with density or molecular weight by 2D analytical ultracentrifugation, In: Nature Communications, Vol. 2, Article number: 335, DOI:10.1038/ncomms1338: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms1338
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Korean researchers have now made a new type of anode that holds three times more charge than the conventional graphite anodes used in batte- ries.