ScienceDaily: Engineering and Construction News |
- With 'ribbons' of graphene, width matters: A narrow enough ribbon will transform a high-performance conductor into a semiconductor
- Tunable quantum behavior observed in bilayer graphene
- Hollow-fiber membranes could cut separation costs, energy use
- Power consumption of robot joints could be 40% less
| Posted: 03 Jul 2014 11:24 AM PDT Using graphene ribbons of unimaginably small widths -- just several atoms across -- a group of researchers has found a novel way to "tune" the wonder material, causing the extremely efficient conductor of electricity to act as a semiconductor. In principle, their method for producing these narrow ribbons -- at a width roughly equal to the diameter of a strand of human DNA -- and manipulating the ribbons' electrical conductivity could be used to produce nano-devices.  |
| Tunable quantum behavior observed in bilayer graphene Posted: 03 Jul 2014 11:23 AM PDT Researchers have observed the fractional quantum Hall effect in bilayer graphene and shown that this exotic state of matter can be tuned by an electric field.  |
| Hollow-fiber membranes could cut separation costs, energy use Posted: 03 Jul 2014 11:21 AM PDT Researchers have developed a microfluidic technique for fabricating a new class of metal-organic framework (MOF) membranes inside hollow polymer fibers that are just a few hundred microns in diameter. The new fabrication process, believed to be the first to grow MOF membranes inside hollow fibers, could potentially change the way large-scale energy-intensive chemical separations are done.  |
| Power consumption of robot joints could be 40% less Posted: 03 Jul 2014 06:20 AM PDT Robots are being increasingly used in industrial processes because of their ability to carry out repetitive tasks in a precise, reliable way. Right now, digital controllers are used to drive the motors of the joints of these robots. And it is no easy task developing and programming these controllers so that they will work efficiently. Scientists have developed a way of propelling these systems or robots in a more energy-efficient way and have shown, on a laboratory level, that in some cases energy consumption can be cut by up to 40%.  |
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