In this edition, sponsored by Master Bond:
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• Introducing the New Green Design & Manufacturing Website
• Process Cleans Wastewater, Generates Electricity, Desalinates Seawater
• Nanocrystals Could Aid in Solid State Lighting and CO2 Storage
• Using Plastics to Make Solar Cells More Cost-Effective
• Researchers Striving to Cut Waste When Slicing Silicon
• Hydrogen Leak Detectors
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Introducing the New Green Design & Manufacturing Website
Engineers across the globe are being challenged to design greener
products. Green Design & Manufacturing (GD&M), the latest offering from
Tech Briefs Media Group, gives the engineering community a gateway to
technology innovations in sustainability. The GD&M website is updated daily with breaking
news, feature stories, tech briefs from NASA, videos, new products, and
industry events. From technologies in renewable energy to environmental
monitoring to energy efficiency, GD&M has it covered.
Click here to visit the new site.
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Process Cleans Wastewater, Generates Electricity, Desalinates Seawater
 | | Three chambered microbial desalination cells at work in the lab. (David Jones, Penn State) |
Clean water for drinking, washing, and industrial uses is a scarce
resource in some parts of the world, and most methods for desalinating
water require large amounts of energy. A team of researchers from the U.S. and China modified a microbial fuel cell - a device that uses naturally occurring bacteria to convert wastewater into clean water producing electricity - so it could desalinate salty water. The new process cleans wastewater, generates electricity, and removes 90 percent of salt from brackish water or seawater.
Click here for the full story.
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Nanocrystals Could Aid in Solid-State Lighting and CO2 Storage
 | | Berkeley Lab scientists demonstrate the magnesium oxide nanocrystals. (Roy Kaltschmidt, Berkeley Lab) |
Using an organometallic chemical synthesis route, scientists at Berkeley Lab have created non-toxic magnesium oxide nanocrystals whose size can be adjusted within just a few nanometers. The nanocrystals glow blue when exposed to ultraviolet light, and could be a bright candidate for lighting that consumes less energy and has a longer lifespan. Along with their promising optical behavior, the nanocrystals could also allow researchers to probe a key pathway in carbon dioxide sequestration - a potential means of tempering the effects of global warming.
Click here for the full story.
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Using Plastics to Make Solar Cells More Cost-Effective
 | | David Ginger displays the tiny probe for a conductive atomic force microscope. (Mary Levin, UW) |
Scientists are striving to develop organic solar cells that can be produced as easily and inexpensively as thin films. A major obstacle is coaxing these carbon-based materials to reliably form the proper structure at the nanoscale. The goal is to develop cells made from low-cost plastics that will transform at least 10 percent of sunlight into electricity. A team headed by David Ginger, associate professor of Chemistry at University of Washington, uses an atomic force microscope to quickly determine whether certain polymers are ever likely to reach the 10 percent efficiency threshold.
Click here for the full story.
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Researchers Striving to Cut Waste When Slicing Silicon
 | | Using a light microscope to study silicon wafer surfaces. (Fraunhofer IWM) |
A filigree wire is standardly used to slice silicon blocks (ingots) into paper-thin wafers for solar cells. This wire can cut through the ingot at a speed of up to 60 km/h. Several hundred kilometers long, the wire is arranged in such a way that the ingot is sliced into hundreds of wafers simultaneously. The process takes around six hours and the resultant slices are approximately 180 µm thick. Researchers at Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials IWM are setting out to reduce this thickness, and therefore reduce waste.
Click here for the full story.
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Green Tech Brief
Because hydrogen is odorless, colorless, and poses an explosion hazard, there is an emerging need for sensors to quickly and accurately detect low levels of leaking hydrogen in fuel cells and other advanced energy-generating systems in which hydrogen is used as fuel. Simple, color-changing sensors have been invented at Kennedy Space Center.
Click here for the full story.
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