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Apr 24, 2020
Highly quaternized polystyrene ionomers for high performance anion exchange membrane water electrolysers
Posted by Fyodor Rouge in categories: evolution, futurism
Water spliting got cheaper.
Alkaline anion exchange membrane (AEM) electrolysers to produce hydrogen from water are still at an early stage of development, and their performance is far lower than that of systems based on proton exchange membranes. Here, we report an ammonium-enriched anion exchange ionomer that improves the performance of an AEM electrolyser to levels approaching that of state-of-the-art proton exchange membrane electrolysers. Using rotating-disk electrode experiments, we show that a high pH (13) in the electrode binder is the critical factor for improving the activity of the hydrogen- and oxygen-evolution reactions in AEM electrolysers. Based on this observation, we prepared and tested several quaternized polystyrene electrode binders in an AEM electrolyser. Using the binder with the highest ionic concentration and a NiFe oxygen evolution catalyst, we demonstrated performance of 2.7 A cm−2 at 1.8 V without a corrosive circulating alkaline solution. The limited durability of the AEM electrolyser remains a challenge to be addressed in the future.
Apr 24, 2020
Wi-Fi to get its biggest upgrade in 20 years after FCC’s 6GHz decision
Posted by Carse Peel in category: internet
Wi-Fi to gets its biggest upgrade in 20 years: US authorities agree to open up a huge chunk of radio spectrum in the 6GHz frequency band to internet routers — and it could massively improve your connection speed…
The US Federal Communications Commission is opening up radio spectrum in the 6GHz frequency band, ushering a new era of fast, low-latency internet connections.
Continue reading “Wi-Fi to get its biggest upgrade in 20 years after FCC’s 6GHz decision” »
Apr 24, 2020
Inner Workings: Can robots make good teammates?
Posted by Genevieve Klien in categories: biotech/medical, robotics/AI
In every hospital labor and delivery department, a resource nurse decides which patients go to which room, which nurses care for which patients, and much more. “It’s a lot to keep in your head,” says Kristen Jerrier, a resource nurse in the labor and delivery department at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.
Apr 24, 2020
In the Future, AIs—Not Humans—Will Design Our Wireless Signals
Posted by Genevieve Klien in categories: engineering, robotics/AI
The era of telecommunications systems designed solely by humans is coming to an end. From here on, artificial intelligence will play a pivotal role in the design and operation of these systems. The reason is simple: rapidly escalating complexity.
Each new generation of communications system strives to improve coverage areas, bit rates, number of users, and power consumption. But at the same time, the engineering challenges grow more difficult. To keep innovating, engineers have to navigate an increasingly tangled web of technological trade-offs made during previous generations.
In telecommunications, a major source of complexity comes from what we’ll call impairments. Impairments include anything that deteriorates or otherwise interferes with a communications system’s ability to deliver information from point A to point B. Radio hardware itself, for example, impairs signals when it sends or receives them by adding noise. The paths, or channels, that signals travel over to reach their destinations also impair signals. This is true for a wired channel, where a nearby electrical line can cause nasty interference. It’s equally true for wireless channels, where, for example, signals bouncing off and around buildings in an urban area create a noisy, distortive environment.
Apr 24, 2020
How Blood Sugar Can Trigger a Deadly Immune Response in the Flu and Possibly COVID-19
Posted by Nicholi Avery in category: biotech/medical
Glucose metabolism plays a key role in the cytokine storm seen in influenza, and the link could have potential implications for novel coronavirus infections.
Apr 24, 2020
Bose-Einstein condensate: Magnetic particles behave repulsively
Posted by Quinn Sena in categories: particle physics, quantum physics
Data transmission that works by means of magnetic waves instead of electric currents: For many scientists, this is the basis of future technologies that will make transmission faster and individual components smaller and more energy-efficient. Magnons, the particles of magnetism, serve as moving information carriers. Almost 15 years ago, researchers at the University of Münster (Germany) succeeded for the first time in achieving a novel quantum state of magnons at room temperature—a Bose-Einstein condensate of magnetic particles, also known as a ‘superatome,’ i.e. an extreme state of matter that usually occurs only at very low temperatures.
Apr 24, 2020
Laser-cooled Bose–Einstein condensate is a first
Posted by Quinn Sena in categories: innovation, particle physics
Apr 24, 2020
Google claims its AI can design computer chips in under 6 hours
Posted by Quinn Sena in category: robotics/AI
In a paper, Google researchers reveal that they’ve developed an AI framework that can produce chip designs in less than six hours.