Flexible, highly efficient multimodal energy harvesting

A 10-fold increase in the ability to harvest mechanical and thermal energy over standard piezoelectric composites may be possible using a piezoelectric ceramic foam supported by a flexible polymer support, according to Penn ...

Engineers introduce a new approach for recycling plastics

Each human being uses, on average, 30 kg of plastic per year. Given that global life expectancy currently stands at approximately 70 years, each person will discard some two metric tons of plastic in his or her lifetime. ...

Why recycling plastic is not a quick fix

Considering the climate crisis and worldwide plastic pollution, many people believe that recycling materials, in particular plastic, is the solution to our problems. Recycling can reduce resource use, prevent waste and reduce ...

Load-bearing entanglements in polymer glasses

The role of entanglements can determine the mechanical properties of glass polymer blends. In a new report now published on Science Advances, Cynthia Bukowski and a research team in polymer science and biomolecular engineering ...

Freezing lithium batteries may make them safer and bendable

Yuan Yang, assistant professor of materials science and engineering at Columbia Engineering, has developed a new method that could lead to lithium batteries that are safer, have longer battery life, and are bendable, providing ...

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