"NANOTECH: Nanowires could make fuel cells commercially viable"

Woven nano-wire electrodes could provide hydrogen fuel cells the boost needed to make them commercially viable, according to a University of Rochester researchers. Nanowires have aspect ratios in the millions, enabling them to expose thousands of times more surface area than traditional platinum electrodes, thereby potentially boosting efficiency, reducing cost and increasing the longevity of hydrogen fuel cells. Li previously perfected a method of spinning out polymer nanowires with extremely high aspect ratios. He adapted the technique to spinning out individual platinum nanowires that are centimeters long but only nanometers wide. The resulting woven nanowire electrodes require much less platinum than traditional electrodes, potentially extending fuel cells beyond niche markets and into mainstream applications.

BOTTOM LINE: There are many things holding back the predicted hydrogen economy where consumers will drive electric-motor powered cars whose energy is supplied by fuel cells. One hold-up is the speed and efficiency with which electrical energy can be drawn from and supplied to fuel cells during driving and recharging, respectively. Woven nanowire electrodes appear to provide a solution to the efficiency problem, but are still in the proof-of-concept stage, whereas rival electrode technologies using nanoparticle coatings are further along in development. Durability tests will ultimately decide whether nanowires or nanoparticles provide the best solution, but the hold-up to commercialization also involves developing a hydrogen infrastructure for refueling cars, so we may see this technology first used for powering portable devices, within three years.

"ENERGY: MIT advance recharges batteries in seconds"

Lithium-ion batteries can be recharged in seconds using a surface treatment invented by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. By fabricating nano-scale grooves atop traditional lithium iron phosphate material, battery cells could be recharged up to 36 times faster (as little as 10 seconds) instead of six minutes or more per cell. The improved batteries also release energy more quickly, meaning they also could be used to boost acceleration in electric and hybrid cars at rates comparable to gasoline-powered engines. MIT researchers estimate that the ease with which the new technique can be applied to existing lithium-ion batteries, for which MIT has applied for a patent and already licensed to two companies, will begin appearing in commercial products in as little as two years.

BOTTOM LINE: Recharging batteries in seconds will revolutionize the wireless device industry by solving the last remaining stumbling block. Wireless recharging schemes, to appear later this year from Witricity and Fulton Innovations, can trickle charge batteries without requiring a physical connection, which makes sense when it took hours to recharge. However, if it only takes 10 seconds to recharge, wireless schemes loose much of their appeal. Since the innovation only involves modifying the way that lithium-ion batteries are constructed--adding a surface treatment to the bulk material--we could see batteries with under-a-minute recharge times in as little as two years. The biggest significance of the breakthrough will come from electric automobiles, since MIT's technology claims to make them a viable alternative to gasoline-powered vehicles, since recharging will take about the same time an filling your tank with gas does today, and the batteries will be able to deliver enough acceleration to satisfy the hot-rod in all of us.

"CHIPS: Electronics designed to endure the cold of space"

Spacecraft require heaters to protect their electronics from the cold, which for Moon missions can extend down to cryogenic temperatures below minus 150 degrees C (-238 F). Eliminating the extra expense, weight and power consumption of "warm boxes" used to house electronics was the goal of University of Arkansas electrical engineers who presented their design for electronic building blocks that can function down to minus 180 degrees C at this week's IEEE Aerospace Conference (March 7-14, Big Sky, Mont.).

BOTTOM LINE: An amplifier is only one part of the electronics typically needed to condition a raw sensor's output for recording and analysis, but its a start. If the other components needed inside NASA's "warm boxes" can likewise be cast in cryrogenic circuitry like the amplifier here, then a big impact could be made on the expense, weight, and power consumption of spacecraft. Note how the input, output and common-mode feedback circuits are isolated from one another physically (in the photo). Ultra-low-temperature circuitry is clearly more complex--a decade might pass before all the components in today's "warm box" can be cast in cryrogenic temperature chips.

"NANOTECH: Light-emitting nanotube efficiency boosted"

Light-emitting nanotubes (LENs) have been demonstrated by IBM and others, but their efficiency has been mysteriously lower than theory would predict. Now researchers claim to have discovered the mechanism limiting efficiency along with a remedy to the problem. The 40-fold boost in efficiency to 20 percent, enough to perhaps make LENs commercially viable, was reported by University of Connecticut professor Fotios Papadimitrakopoulos working with in collaboration with the university's Institute of Material Science and Nanomaterials Optoelectronics Laboratory.

BOTTOM LINE: Optics on silicon chips would lower costs compared to gallium arsenide, but has been slow developing because of the silicon's lack of a suitable band-gap. Now researchers claim that integrating light-emitting carbon nanotubes with silicon will enable optical busses with performance rivaling what we get today with expensive gallium arsenside chips. LIght emitting nanotube were, until now, too inefficient for commercialization, but Papadimitrakopoulos group appears to have pinpointed the problem and offered a solution. The technique uses organic materials today to shear off damaging oxygen contamination, but he claims that within a few years inorganic techniques will enable super-durable optical chips integrating silicon with carbon.

"3D: 'Virtual Cocoon' aims to engage all senses"

By engaging all five senses in a wrap-around headset, a team of U.K. scientists are aiming for what they call "real virtuality," a term used to describe their goal of rendering an experience so vivid that users cannot tell it from the real thing. The researchers unveiled an early prototype of their "Virtual Cocoon" at a research conference in London this week. Funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the team led by professor David Howard, an electronics engineer at the University of York (England), will pool the expertise of university researchers across the U.K. ' For more than a decade, virtual reality has promised to provide immersive environments that can simulate different places and times for applications as diverse as military training to archaeology. Most previous attempts, however, concentrated on sight and hearing. Developers of the "Virtual Cocoon" claim it is the first attempt to render all five senses with a fidelity that rivals natural experiences.

BOTTOM LINE: Virtual reality has been a decade away for decades is seems. Nevertheless, these researchers will be the first to attempt to write algorithms that synthesize experiences involving all five senses. The project is just in the early stages, so estimates of possible results and a timeline are sketchy, but plan to keep an eye on this one for valuable contributions regarding optimization of multi-sensor fusion.

"ALGORITHMS: 3D-TV scheme seeks to replace regular TVs"

As TV makers ready 3-D models, a company called Dynamic Digital Depth claims its automatic 2-D-to-3-D conversion algorithms could help replace conventional TVs. Parent company DDD Group plc (Santa Monica, Calif.) argues that several dozen 3-D movie titles are not enough to persuade wary consumers to buy a dedicated 3-D display. By including automatic 2-D-to-3-D conversion for regular TV, PC games and even the user's own images, the company says 3-D TVs may be poised to eventually displace regular TVs altogether.

BOTTOM LINE: 3D technologies have come into vogue, then gone out-of-style repeatedly--even before the invention of photography. DDD is seeking to turn 3D into an enduring reality by allowing the viewer to switch it on or off at will. DDD's 2D-to-3D conversion algorithms should bridge the gap between relatively rare native 3D content today and the voracious appetite of 3D early adopters. If it can be incorporated cheaply enough, then every future TV could become 3D enabled. I believe that 3D is here to stay, but the public is fickle and in the end it will be up to viewers to support 3D by actually using the button that DDD is seeking to put on every remote control. Look for 3D TV models from every major maker by 2010, many of which will be available by Christmas 2008.

"ENERGY: Sun converts carbon dioxide into usable fuel"

Turning carbon diode into methane, a combustible fuel that can be burned instead of gasoline and natural gas, can be accomplished with a new invention that harnesses the energy of the sun, according to researchers at Penn State University. By using arrays of nitrogen-doped titania nanotubes, sputter-coated with an ultrathin layer of a metallic catalysts, the ultraviolet wavelengths from the sun converts carbon dioxide into methane.

BOTTOM LINE: If this invention works as described, it could replace fossil fuels with a technology that actually reduced green house gases instead of producing them. So far the laboratory demonstration does not have the capacity to replace gasoline or natural gas, but the researchers claim that engineering optimizations could remedy that shortcoming. The best part is that energy from the sun powers the technique. Look for commercial versions for portable applications within five years.

"NANOTECH: IBM researchers discover way to cool carbon transistors"

Carbon nanotube transistor channels are so small--a single nanometer thick--that heat has a hard time transferring to a nanotube substrate. The gap between nanotube and its silicon oxide substrate thermally insulates the nanotube, meaning heat builds up in the structure rather than dissipating. IBM researchers claim to have found a possible means of cooling carbon-based transistors by directly coupling their electric current fields with those of a silicon substrate. Solving a heat-dissipation problem brings carbon-based transistors one step closer to commercialization, they said. (click story title for full text).

BOTTOM LINE: Carbon-based transistors--either using nanotubes or flattened out sheets of graphene--promise to accelerate electronics with the faster operation of so-called ballistic transport mechanisms. However, integrating carbon into the semiconductor fabrication process, alongside current silicon materials, is a daunting task. One problem, dissipating heat from carbon which does not chemically bond well to silicon, has plagued device designers, but may now be solved by IBM. The verdict is still being formulated, but if thermally coupling can be accomplished with electric fields, as IBM suggests, then one crippling obstacle to commercialization will be surmounted. Look for carbon-transistors to appear in commercial chips within five to ten years.