Universal Nanohazard Symbol

Just how do you create a graphic describing a danger too small to see? These guys seem to have a load of ideas. Some are great, some are hilarious.

from Boingboing

Nanotube Batteries Get 20X Power

It isn’t too often that I see a materials science story that, well, captures my imagination. This is part of why I don’t do that sort of work. This story is very different. A Stanford group, headed by Yi Cui, has been able to place 20X more energy in to Li Ion batteries compared to standard Li Ion systems. Read about it here. They do it by adding spindles of silicon nanowires. The nanowires allow Lithium to attach, but they are far less brittle than other methods.

I don’t get excited about using my cell phone longer between charges, or how long this could let me use my laptop in the airport. I get excited about what happens here (thanks to whichever /. nerd showed that one off). The link is to a rather unreadable chart that shows energy density for batteries and other materials, such as gas and liquid hydrogen. Notice this, if you take the numbers for LiIons and bring them up an factor of 20, they are roughly the same as liquid H2.

That is a number that has huge implications. It is a number that can let you slap some new batteries in your Prius and take out the gas tank forever. Yes, there are problems putting lithium batteries in cars, but, let’s face it, there are problems putting gas in cars too.

Here is another number for you. Less than 1% of the energy in gas actually goes into accelerating the driver. That is after Detroit has scratching its nerdy collective head for about a century.

Found in /. Thanks.

Orbiting Interfaces

One article from my institution just caught my eye. It comes from Jacques Chakhalian and it explores what happens to electronic orbits at the junction of two surfaces. We’ve known that strange things happen to electronics when you put two surfaces together, but Chakhalian shows how this could drive many different sorts of effects in magnetics and high temperature superconductors.

There is also an author’s summary of the article, so I won’t summarize too much myself. The basic idea is the following. It isn’t too bad to figure out what the electrons are doing deep into a material. If you make a crystal that quickly goes back and forth from one type of material to another, you never really get deep into anything and the electrons can do all sorts of interesting things that you can explore and control, such as superconductivity and magnetism.

You can find the article here:

Orbital Reconstruction and Covalent Bonding at an Oxide Interface

J. Chakhalian, et al.

Science 318, 1114 (2007)

Where Nano-tech is actually going

When people think of nanotechnology, they think of scenes in Star Trek where tiny machines fit in a syringe and fix individual cells.  Microscopic internal combustion engines are total science fiction, but many interesting products are starting to emerge from a mountain of research.  Electronics and batteries are one of hte most talked about, but fibers are another area ripe for innovation.  The BBC reports on new body armor that may be out soon that uses long strings of carbon nanotubes to gain enormous strength.