Gurpreet Singh, assistant professor of mechanical and nuclear engineering, and his research team at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas, are working out less expensive, more efficient ways to create nanomaterials and lithium-ion batteries. “We are exploring new methods for quick and cost-effective synthesis of two-dimensional materials for rechargeable battery applications,” Singh said. “We are interested in this research because understanding lithium interaction with single-, double- and multiple-layer-thick materials will eventually allow us to design battery electrodes for practical applications. This includes batteries that show improved capacity, efficiency and longer life.” Researchers grew graphene films on copper and nickel foils in less than 30 minutes by quickly heating them in a furnace in the presence of argon, hydrogen and methane gases – significantly at atmospheric pressure. Not needing to use a vacuum to create these films saves energy, time and cost, according to Singh. Researchers used the films to create the negative electrode of a lithium-ion cell and test the …
Fire Spotting, Fiber Optics and Intelligent Control
Ikhana, a civilian version of the military’s Predator drone, has been used for years at the NASA Dryden Flight Test Center for a multiplicity of roles. Beginning in 2006, Ikhana carried onboard sensor systems that spotted and tracked wildfires for ground and air-based firefighters. Ikhana was also used to evaluate advanced sensing technology installed on its wings to improve its efficiency. The sensors incorporated fiber optic sensing technology, and were located side by side with traditional sensors. One NASA researcher noted, “There are 3,000 sensors on Ikhana that are imperceptibly small because they’re located on fibers approximately the diameter of a human hair.” Weight savings on an aircraft with an array of fiber optics would reduce operating costs and improve fuel efficiency, according to NASA. But these new sensors also “enable adaptive wing shape control.” NASA’s Lance Richards, of Dryden’s Advanced Structures and Measurements Group, says, “’Active wing-shape control represents the gleam in the eye of every aerodynamicist. If the …
Solid, Man! Electrolytes Go Granular
Most liquid battery electrolytes that conduct ions between anode and cathode also carry with them a flammability problem, especially as chemists try to pack more power into smaller batteries. Recent fires which have grounded all Boeing 787s in the world highlight the danger. The blog has noted before the dangers of overcharging lithium batteries and especially of leaving even model airplane sized packs lying about unattended during charging. Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers claim to have demonstrated safety advantages with a nanoporous electrolyte, according to a January 23, 2013 release. ORNL’s Chengdu Liang says, “To make a safer, lightweight battery, we need the design at the beginning to have safety in mind. We started with a conventional material that is highly stable in a battery system – in particular one that is compatible with a lithium metal anode.” In line with objectives set by Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, using pure lithium metal as an anode could produce batteries with …
Is This the Plop, Plop Fizz, Fizz of Energy?
Back in the early reaches of television advertising, one jingle was credited with nearly doubling sales of Alka-Seltzer, a popular over-the-counter remedy for acid indigestion. “Plop, plop; fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is,” became a defacto instruction on how to use the pill, implying two were needed. Alka-Seltzer’s users got the idea and sales went up appreciably, reinforced by new instructions on the packaging. The sparkly image of the “cure” brings to mind a current effort by State University of New York at Buffalo researchers to drop nano-sized particles of silicon in water, with resulting bubbles of hydrogen escaping in large enough quantities to power portable devices. They have, “Created spherical silicon particles about 10 nanometers in diameter. When combined with water, these particles reacted to form silicic acid (a nontoxic byproduct) and hydrogen – a potential source of energy for fuel cells,” according to a UB press release. Most promising, the reaction does not require light, heat …
PAL-V, Carving Its Way into the Sky
John van den Heuvel, Science & Technology Advisor (Innovatie Attaché) for the Netherlands Office for Science & Technology (NOST), and working in the Dutch Consulate General in San Francisco, wants people to know about his country’s innovative answer to bland or grating driving experiences. It may even signal a first wave in freeing up freeways and opening new aerial vistas for commuters. Think of the automobile commercials that show thousands of commuters trapped in grinding bumper-to-bumper traffic, only to be outdone by a spiffily-dressed, cheerful-looking soul who just happens to own the sponsor’s vehicle and to somehow find the magic exit road that takes the driver down open roads and past idyllic views. We envy the thought, but most of us know it’s a fantasy. The Dutch government is intervening and showing its ideas to the rest of the world through the PAL-V (personal air and land vehicle) which combines three-wheel ground vehicle and gyrocopter. According to its makers, “The …
Cambridge, MIT Chasing Room-Temperature Hydrogen
News from Cambridge University shows some promise for inexpensive production of hydrogen, an elusive process considering the lightest element in creation is also the most common, said to make up 90 percent of the visible universe. On earth, it readily combines with oxygen to form water, a handy thing to have around for the benefit of our species. Getting hydrogen out of the water so that we can burn it in our cars and airplanes is a frustrating process, though, often requiring more energy for the extraction than can be obtained from its combustion. According the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, “To make [hydrogen] usable in fuel cells or otherwise provide energy, we must expend energy or modify another energy source to extract it from the fossil fuel, biomass, water, or other compound in which it is found. Nearly all hydrogen production in the United States today is by steam reformation of natural gas. This, however, releases carbon dioxide in the …
First Polish Electric Motorglider
Michael Friend, Boeing Technology Director, met Maciej Kalwara a faculty member in mechanical engineering and aerodynamics from Rzeszow University, Poland at the 2012 ILA Berlin, or Berlin Air Show. Maciej showed him the AOS-71 electric motorglider – a first in Poland. The airplane made its initial test flights just weeks ago, perfectly according to the test pilot. A joint project between Rzeszow and Warsaw Universities of Technology and a derivation of the PW-6 tandem sailplane, the AOS-71 has a Sineton A30K016, 30 kilowatt (continuous power) motor. As shown in the video and pictures from Maciej, the flight looked smooth, lasted 20 minutes and achieved an altitude of 250 meters (820 feet). The airplane landed with 30 percent of its battery’s energy still available despite the climb and -17° C/-14° F temperature. Wind chill factor on wing runner must have been numbing An outgrowth of the Universities’ ultralight glider program, the 16.6 meter span sailplane has an empty weight of 385 …
The Icarus Cup – As Green As It Gets
Dreams of human-powered flight go back at least to the myth of Daedelus and Icarus attempting to flee their Cretan prison by fashioning wings from feathers and wax. Your editor doesn’t know why we continue to name festivals of flight for Icarus, since he was the young, foolish soul who flew too close to the sun and melted his wings. His older, wiser father heeded his own advice and made the trip safely because he was not so bold. Maybe we use Icarus’ name out of respect for his sacrifice. In the spirit of the two mythical aviators and Leonardo daVinci, Italian designer Enea Bossi and builder Vittorio Bonomi oversaw several bungee-launched flights in 1936 with their spruce, balsa wood and light fabric covered Pedaliante. A 17-meter (55 feet) wingspan, twin propeller airplane, the 220-pound vehicle made as many as 40 flights, but the records are apparently hazy on their duration and distance under human power. World War II intervened …
A Layer of Graphene, A Layer of Nanowires…
Combine nano-anything with graphene, and that seems to describe most of what’s driving physics and chemistry laboratories at our major universities. The blog reported last week on Princeton researchers who’ve created a thin, flexible solar cell that absorbs 96-percent of received light and draws energy from off-axis and varied wavelengths of light. MIT researchers, too, have created a thin, flexible solar cell, but one based on layers of flexible graphene sheets, each coated with a layer of nanowires. Besides flexibility, these sheets offer transparency, enabling their use on windows as well as other surfaces. David Chandler, reporting for MIT states that the new cells may prove to be far less expensive than today’s silicon equivalents, which require high-purity silicon that undergoes crystallization and extremely thin slicing. Alternatives use indium tin oxide (ITO), itself an expensive substitute for or adjunct to silicon. Nanostructured cells such as that from Princeton may allow lower-priced material, although one version uses a gold foil top layer. Silvija …
Burrito Bombing – A Kinder, Gentler UAV Use
An engineering threesome apparently not finding a sense of accomplishment in their daily routine, have developed an integrated hardware and software system to deliver hot burritos in the time it takes to fly them to a customer. Quadrotors are being tested and used for an amazing range of tasks, including taking medicine and other humanitarian deliverables to remote villages and finding hostages while providing tactical intelligence to ground forces. The hope of tacos being delivered to San Francisco Bay area residents, as advertised on a web site listing itself as a “private beta” link was busted as a hoax by Christina Bonnington of Wired. She wrote that TacoCopter was the brainchild of, “Star Simpson, an MIT grad who stumbled into the limelight in 2007 after being arrested for wearing a hoax explosive device comprised of a circuit board and green LEDs.” This was after 14,000 “likes” on Wired’s Facebook page and 4,000 tweets excited about the possibility of tacos from the sky. But who …