When Barbara Lothenbach pushes ahead with her research projects, she knows that she will not live to see the final result: What she is working on should last between 100,000 and one million years. The researcher from Empa's ...
Materials Science
Feb 16, 2021
1
5
Through the window, you hear the traffic noise from down the street, a train rumbles in the distance—that is the everyday life for many of us. Almost 75% of the European population lives in urban areas and only a quarter ...
Environment
Jan 13, 2021
1
4
For half a century now, a long-term experiment has been running in Empa's largest testing laboratory at the Dübendorf site. This involves a reinforced concrete beam manufactured in 1970 which was strengthened with a steel ...
Materials Science
Dec 22, 2020
1
15
The magnetic interactions between atoms at minute scales can create unique states such as skyrmions. Skyrmions have special properties and can exist in certain material systems, such as a 'stack' of different sub-nanometer-thick ...
General Physics
Dec 21, 2020
0
165
With the ever-increasing digitalization of our society, the question arises as to what potential this digital change has for climate protection. On behalf of the business association swisscleantech and the mobile phone operator ...
Environment
Oct 29, 2020
0
6
Researchers at Empa and ETH Zurich succeeded in developing a material that works like a luminescent solar concentrator and can even be applied to textiles. This opens up numerous possibilities for producing energy directly ...
Nanophysics
Oct 22, 2020
0
139
Aerogel is an excellent thermal insulator. So far, however, it has mainly been used on a large scale, for example in environmental technology, in physical experiments or in industrial catalysis. Empa researchers have now ...
Materials Science
Aug 20, 2020
1
136
Electric motors and electronic devices generate electromagnetic fields that sometimes have to be shielded in order not to affect neighboring electronic components or the transmission of signals. High-frequency electromagnetic ...
Nanomaterials
Jul 2, 2020
5
2749
A research team from Empa and EPFL has developed a molecular motor which consists of only 16 atoms and rotates reliably in one direction. It could allow energy harvesting at the atomic level. The special feature of the motor ...
General Physics
Jun 16, 2020
1
1789
It looks quite inconspicuous to the casual beholder, hardly like groundbreaking innovation: a small metallic chessboard, four millimeters long on either side. At first glance, it shines like polished steel; at second glance, ...
Materials Science
Jun 12, 2020
1
190
