Turning streetwear into solar power plants

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 ...

Researchers discover unique multifibrillar fibres

Strong and tough yet as light as a feather—materials with this exceptional combination of properties are urgently needed in many industrial sectors and in medicine, as well as being of great interest for scientific research. ...

Spray painting fiber bandages onto wounds

With newly developed technology, medical personnel can manufacture a bandage with drug-delivery capabilities directly onto a wound.

Researchers use 3-D printing to make glass optical fiber preform

Researchers have developed a way to use 3-D printing to create a preform that can be drawn into silica glass optical fibers, which form the backbone of the global telecommunications network. This new fabrication method could ...

Electron beam strengthens recyclable nanocomposite

Polymers reinforced with carbon fibers combine strength and low weight. They also boast significant green credentials as they are less resource-intensive during production and use, and they are readily recycled. While the ...

Simulating and optimizing industrial spinning processes

Spinning polymer filaments, for example for personal care articles, is highly complex: simulating the processes involved is too much for currently available computing power to handle. Fraunhofer researchers have successfully ...

A sustainable and recyclable thermoelectric paper

Thermoelectric materials, capable of transforming heat into electricity, are very promising for converting residual heat into electrical energy, as they convert hardly usable or nearly lost thermal energy in an efficient ...

Next-generation composites may monitor their own structural health

Carbon fiber composites—lightweight and strong—are great structural materials for automobiles, aircraft and other transportation vehicles. They consist of a polymer matrix, such as epoxy, into which reinforcing carbon ...

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