Wringing more energy out of everyday motions

Randomness and chaos in nature, as it turns out, can be a good thing – especially if you are trying to harvest energy from the movements of everyday activities like walking.

Giant piezoelectric effect to improve MEMS devices

Researchers in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Materials Research Institute at Penn State are part of a multidisciplinary team of researchers from universities and national laboratories across ...

Nanowires exhibit giant piezoelectricity

Gallium nitride (GaN) and zinc oxide (ZnO) are among the most technologically relevant semiconducting materials. Gallium nitride is ubiquitous today in optoelectronic elements such as blue lasers (hence the blue-ray disc) ...

Nanogenerators for energy harvesting technology

The journal, Nano Letters, recently published an article highlighting the fascinating nanogenerators developed by Dr. Yong Shi, a professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Stevens Institute of Technology. The ...

How much wood can we expect from European forests?

The energy crisis has shown Europe the need to become more self-sufficient in resources. Wood is one of those resources, used in the construction sector, for example, and is already largely produced in the EU itself. The ...

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