Inspired by art, lightweight solar cells track the sun

Solar cells capture up to 40 percent more energy when they can track the sun across the sky, but conventional, motorized trackers are too heavy and bulky for pitched rooftops and vehicle surfaces.

Clay sheets stack to form proton conductors

Northwestern Engineering professor Jiaxing Huang has developed a cheaper, more stable proton-conducting system. To find the key ingredient, he had to look no further than his own backyard.

Polymer mold makes perfect silicon nanostructures

Using molds to shape things is as old as humanity. In the Bronze Age, the copper-tin alloy was melted and cast into weapons in ceramic molds. Today, injection and extrusion molding shape hot liquids into everything from car ...

Bendable glass devices

A special class of glass materials known as chalcogenide glasses holds promise for speeding integration of photonic and electronic devices with functions as diverse as data transfer and chemical sensing. Juejun "JJ" Hu, the ...

Electron spin brings order to high entropy alloys

Researchers from North Carolina State University have discovered that electron spin brings a previously unknown degree of order to the high entropy alloy nickel iron chromium cobalt (NiFeCrCo) - and may play a role in giving ...

Study reveals how oxygen is like kryptonite to titanium

Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, have found the mechanism by which titanium, prized for its high strength-to-weight ratio and natural resistance to corrosion, becomes brittle with just a few extra atoms ...

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