Even once researchers can reliably get more power out of a fusion reaction than they put in, they’ll still need to overcome engineering challenges to scale up fusion energy.
Category: engineering – Page 8
Fully recyclable carbon nanotube fibers have far-reaching implications for manufacturing across sectors
Posted in chemistry, economics, energy, engineering, nanotechnology, sustainability | Leave a Comment on Fully recyclable carbon nanotube fibers have far-reaching implications for manufacturing across sectors
In a significant step toward creating a sustainable and circular economy, Rice University researchers have published a study in the journal Carbon demonstrating that carbon nanotube (CNT) fibers can be fully recycled without any loss in their structure or properties. This discovery positions CNT fibers as a sustainable alternative to traditional materials like metals, polymers and the much larger carbon fibers, which are notoriously difficult to recycle.
“Recycling has long been a challenge in the materials industry—metals recycling is often inefficient and energy-intensive, polymers tend to lose their properties after reprocessing and carbon fibers cannot be recycled at all, only downcycled by chopping them up into short pieces,” said corresponding author Matteo Pasquali, director of Rice’s Carbon Hub and the A.J. Hartsook Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Materials Science and NanoEngineering and Chemistry.
“As CNT fibers are being scaled up, we asked whether and how these new materials could be recycled in the future so as to proactively avoid waste management problems that emerged as other engineered materials reached large-scale use. We expected that recycling would be difficult and would lead to significant loss of properties. Surprisingly, we found that carbon nanotube fibers far exceed the recyclability potential of existing engineered materials, offering a solution to a major environmental issue.”
A research team from Yokohama National University has developed a novel approach to investigate how the orientation and behavior of electrons in titanium affect its physical properties. Their findings, published in Communications Physics on December 18, 2024, offer valuable insights that could lead to the creation of more advanced and efficient titanium alloys.
Titanium is highly prized for its exceptional resistance to chemical corrosion, lightweight nature, and impressive strength-to-weight ratio. Its biocompatibility makes it an ideal material for medical applications such as implants, prosthetics, and artificial bones, while its strength and durability make it indispensable in aerospace engineering and precision manufacturing.
One such company is JetZero, which, in partnership with engineering giants Siemens and Northrop Grumman, is developing a revolutionary passenger jet design that seamlessly blends the wings into the fuselage.
Bimetallic particles, made from a combination of a noble metal and a base metal, have unique catalytic properties that make them highly effective for selective heterogeneous hydrogenation reactions. These properties arise from their distinctive geometric and electronic structures. For hydrogenation to be both effective and selective, it requires specific interactions at the molecular level, where the active atoms on the catalyst precisely target the functional group in the substrate for transformation.
Nanoscale Engineering and Electronic Structure Tuning
Scaling these particles down to nanoscale atomic clusters or single-atom alloys further enhances their catalytic performance. This reduction in size increases surface dispersion and optimizes the use of noble metal atoms. Additionally, these nanoscale changes alter the electronic structure of the active sites, which can significantly influence the activity and selectivity of the reaction. By carefully adjusting the bonding between noble metal single atoms and the base metal host, researchers can create flexible environments that fine-tune the electronic properties needed to activate specific functional groups. Despite these advances, achieving atomically precise fabrication of such active sites remains a significant challenge.
Students from the Toms River School District in New Jersey will have the chance to connect with NASA astronauts Don Pettit and Butch Wilmore as they answer prerecorded science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) related questions from aboard the International Space Station.
Watch the 20-minute space-to-Earth call in collaboration with Science Friday at 10 a.m. EST on Tuesday, Jan. 14, on NASA+ and learn how to watch NASA content on various platforms, including social media.
Science Friday is a nonprofit dedicated to sharing science with the public through storytelling, educational programs, and connections with audiences. Middle school students will use their knowledge from the educational downlink to address environmental problems in their communities.
Innovative integration of flexible electronics with a lightweight, self-deployable boom offers multifunctionality for space applications. This ultrathin composite structure, designed to withstand harsh space conditions, enhances satellite capabilities. The Virginia Tech CubeSat, featuring this technology, is set for a 2025 launch.
Being lightweight is essential for space structures, particularly for tools used on already small, lightweight satellites. The ability to perform multiple functions is a bonus. To address these characteristics in a new way, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign successfully integrated flexible electronics with a three-ply, self-deployable boom that weighs only about 20 grams.
The study, “Multifunctional bistable ultrathin composite booms with flexible electronics,” by Yao Yao and Xin Ning from Illinois, Juan Fernandez from NASA Langley Research Center and Sven Bilén at Penn State, is published in Extreme Mechanics Letters.
“It’s difficult to get commercial electronics integrated into these super thin structures,” said Xin Ning, an aerospace professor in The Grainger College of Engineering at U. of I. “There were a lot of engineering constraints adding to the challenge of making the electronics able to withstand the harsh environment of space.”
Scientists at Penn Engineering have developed a quantum sensing method that detects signals from individual atoms.
An international research team, working with cutting-edge technology at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, has made a discovery that may dramatically expand the materials used in next-generation, energy-efficient memory and logic devices.
The team, which includes Nebraska’s Abdelghani Laraoui, assistant professor of mechanical and materials engineering, successfully demonstrated for the first time the imaging of magnetic skyrmions at room temperature in composition engineered magnetic materials. The team observed the tiny, vortex-like particles in these magnetic materials using a nitrogen-vacancy scanning probe in Laraoui’s lab. The findings are published in ACS Nano.
“This discovery is a huge step forward because, until now, scientists could only observe these skyrmions in bulk chiral magnetic materials at very low temperatures,” Laraoui said. “Being able to study them at room temperature opens up a whole new world of applications and possibilities.”
While most of us are familiar with magnets from childhood games of marveling at the power of their repulsion or attraction, fewer realize the magnetic fields that surround us—and the ones inside us. Magnetic fields are not just external curiosities; they play essential roles in our bodies and beyond, influencing biological processes and technological systems alike. A recent arXiv publication from the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering and Argonne National Laboratory highlights how magnetic fields in the body may be analyzed using quantum-enabled fluorescent proteins, with hopes of applying to cell formation or early disease detection.
Detecting subtle changes in magnetic fields may equate to beyond subtle impacts in certain fields. For instance, quantum sensors could be applied to the detection of electromagnetic anomalies in data centers, potentially revealing evidence of malicious tampering. Similarly, they might be used to study changes in the brain’s electromagnetic signals, offering insights into neurological diseases such as the onset of dementia. However, these applications demand sensors that are not only sensitive but also capable of operating reliably in real-world conditions.
Spin qubits, known for their notable sensitivity to magnetic fields, are introduced in the study as a compelling solution. Traditionally, spin qubits have been formed from nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamonds. While these systems have demonstrated remarkable precision, the diamonds’ bulky size in relation to molecules and complex surface chemistry limit their usability in biological environments. This creates a need for a more adaptable and biologically compatible sensor.