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A new material for direct air capture systems turns trapped carbon into baking soda when introduced to seawater.

Incorporating a phase-change material into concrete, researchers have created a self-heating material that can melt snow and ice for up to 10 hours without using salt or shovels. The novel material could reduce the need for plowing and salting and help preserve the integrity of road surfaces.

According to the US Department of Transportation (DOT), more than 70% of roads are in snowy regions. Snow and ice accumulation reduces road friction and vehicle maneuverability, causing drivers to slow and increasing the risk of crashes. Snow-obstructed lanes and roads also reduce roadway capacity and increase travel time.

The DOT states that local and state agencies spend more than US$2.3 billion annually on snow and ice control operations, in addition to the millions spent repairing infrastructure damage caused by snow and ice. Salting is often used before a snow event to prevent icing, but the highly concentrated salt solution can deteriorate concrete or asphalt. In addition, when water seeps into the road and freezes, it expands, causing internal pressure and damaging the road.

Up to a certain point, very luminous stars can have a positive effect on the formation of planets, but from that point on the radiation they emit can cause the material in protoplanetary discs to disperse.

https://www.freethink.com/space/space-elevator 📸: VectorMine / Adobe Stock

The researchers are still working on the issue of scaling up production, but in 2021, state-owned news outlet Xinhua released a video depicting an in-development concept, called “Sky Ladder,” that would consist of space elevators above Earth and the moon.

Continue reading “Space elevators are inching closer to reality” »

Long-wavelength infrared (LWIR) imaging holds critical significance across many applications, from consumer electronics to defense and national security. It finds applications in night vision, remote sensing, and long-range imaging. However, the conventional refractive lenses employed in these imaging systems are bulky and heavy, which is undesirable for almost all applications. Compounding this issue is the fact that many LWIR refractive lenses are crafted from expensive and limited-supply materials, such as germanium.

Because of their differences from standard electrons, Dirac electrons are expected to add unprecedented electronic properties to materials. For example, they could be applied to electronic devices to perform computation and communication with extraordinary efficiency and low energy consumption.

To develop such technology, scientists must first understand the net properties and effects of Dirac electrons. But they generally coexist with standard electrons in materials, which prevents unambiguous observation and measurement.

In a recent study published in Materials Advances, Ryuhei Naito and colleagues discovered a method enabling selective observation of the Dirac electrons in materials. Using electron spin resonance, to directly observe unpaired electrons in materials to distinguish differences in character, the research group established a method to determine their scope of action in the materials and their energies.

Electrical engineers at Duke University have determined the theoretical fundamental limit for how much electromagnetic energy a transparent material with a given thickness can absorb. The finding will help engineers optimize devices designed to block certain frequencies of radiation while allowing others to pass through, for applications such as stealth or wireless communications.

A technique called time-and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (TR-ARPES) has emerged as a powerful tool, allowing researchers to explore the equilibrium and dynamical properties of quantum materials via light-matter interaction.

To combine two low-energy photons into one high-energy photon efficiently, the energy must be able to hop freely, but not too quickly, between randomly oriented molecules of a solid. This Kobe University discovery provides a much-needed design guideline for developing materials for more efficient PV cells, displays, or even anti-cancer therapies.

Light of different colors has different energies and is therefore useful for very different things. For the development of more efficient PV cells, OLED displays, or anti-cancer therapies, it is desirable to be able to upcycle two low-energy photons into a high-energy photon, and many researchers worldwide are working on materials for this up-conversion.

During this process, light is absorbed by the material, and its energy is handed around among the material’s molecules as a so-called “triplet exciton.” However, it was unclear what allows two triplet excitons to efficiently combine their energies into a different excited state of a single molecule that then emits a high-energy photon, and this knowledge gap has been a serious bottleneck in the development of such materials.