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selves are arranged.” To answer some fundamental


questions pertaining to the material’s phase behavior, the researchers used the microscopes to observe the mole- cules’ textures when they were con- fined to droplets known as tactoids. “Surprisingly, we found a config-


uration that hasn’t been seen before in the 70 years that people have been studying liquid crystals,” says Mohan Srinivasarao, a professor at the Geor- gia Tech School of Materials Science and Engineering. “Historically, liquid crystals in tactoids conform to what is known as a bipolar and a bipolar con- figuration with a twist. At lower con- centrations, we found that these liq- uid crystals arrange in a concentric fashion, but one that appears to be free of a singular defect.” The researchers then used a


simple model of the aggregation be- havior of these molecules to explain these surprising results. Further,


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lem, and by combining an abundant and relatively pure form of silicon dioxide and a low-cost chemical reac- tion, the researchers have created lithium ion half-cell batteries that store almost four times more energy than conventional graphite anodes. To create the anodes, the team


used a three-step process that in- volved crushing and grinding the glass bottles into a fine white power, a magnesiothermic reduction to transform the silicon dioxide into nanostructured silicon, and coating the silicon nanoparticles with carbon to improve their stability and energy storage properties. As expected, coin cell batteries


made using the glass bottle-based sil- icon anodes greatly outperformed traditional batteries in laboratory tests. Carbon-coated glass derived silicon electrodes demonstrated ex-


June, 2017 Food Color Repurposed


spectroscopic experiments using po- larized Raman microscopy were per- formed to confirm their findings. These new findings add to the


growing understanding of how chro - monic liquid crystals could be used in sensing applications. The crystals are water soluble and respond dramati- cally to being confined to certain pat- terns, such as tactoidal droplets, con- centrations, and temperatures. The material’s responsiveness to altering its environment could potentially be used to sense the chirality —or “hand- edness” — of molecules. “These materials don’t have a


chiral center but they exhibit a chiral structure,” Srinivasarao says. “That in itself is very interesting.” That finding could be useful in answering those kinds of questions. “There are lots of people study-


ing why on planet Earth all amino acids have a handedness, one and not the other,” says Srinivasarao. “Where does this handedness come from?” r


Batteries from Glass Bottles


cellent electrochemical performance with a capacity of ~1,420 mAh/g at C/2 rate after 400 cycles. Changling Li, a graduate stu-


dent in materials science and engi- neering and lead author on the pa- per, said one glass bottle provides enough nanosilicon for hundreds of coin cell batteries or three to five pouch cell batteries. “We started with a waste prod-


uct that was headed for the landfill and created batteries that stored more energy, charged faster, and were more stable than commercial coin cell batteries. Hence, we have very prom- ising candidates for next-generation lithium ion batteries,” Li says. This research is the latest in a


series of projects led by Mihri and Cengiz Ozkan to create lithium ion battery anodes from environmentally friendly materials. Previous research has focused on developing and test- ing anodes from portabella mush- rooms, sand, and diatomaceous (fos- sil-rich) earth. r


Contents


Tech-Op-Ed ........................... 4 Tech Watch ........................... 10 Supply Chain ........................... 12 People.................................... 14 Business News......................... 16 Business Briefs........................ 17 Management......................... 18 EMS .................................... 20 ElectronicMfg. Prods............. 26 Production............................ 46 Partnering............................. 48 Distribution........................... 50 New Products....................... 74 High-Tech Events................... 84 Editorial Calendar................. 84 Advertisers Index................... 86


Special Focus: Components and Distribution.. 52


Product Preview: ATX East / MDM........... .............. 64


See at ATX / MD&M East, Booth 944


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