New shape-shifting metals discovered. 4 October 2013Last updated at 08:00 ET By Simon Redfern Science writer Crystals seen on the fine scale: River-like patterns form and change as the metal morphs A new shape-changing metal crystal is reported in the journal Nature, by scientists at University of Minnesota.
It is the prototype of a new family of smart materials that could be used in applications ranging from space vehicles to electronics to jet engines. Called a "martensite", the crystal has two different arrangements of atoms, switching seamlessly between them. It can change shape tens of thousands of times when heated and cooled without degrading, unlike existing technology. [1203.0161] Self-Charged Graphene Battery Harvests Electricity from Thermal Energy of the Environment. Nanogenerators powered by your heartbeat could replace batteries in five years, say chemists. Fujifilm has printable, bendable thin film thermoelectric that can power devices using body heat. Fujifilm Corp developed a thermoelectric conversion material using an organic polymer material.
The selling point of the thermoelectric converter module is that it can be manufactured by using an organic material and printing technologies. The company expects that the module will be attached to a human body to be used as a power supply for a health monitoring device and installed on the back of a photovoltaic panel to efficiently collect energy. The dimensionless performance index (ZT) of a thermoelectric conversion device using AIST's material is 0.27. But Fujifilm realized a performance higher than that, it said.
The exhibited thermoelectric converter module has a power generation capacity of several milliwatts and is capable of generating electricity with a temperature difference of 1°C, the company said. Engineer designs self-powered nanoscale devices that never need new batteries. (Phys.org)—It's relatively simple to build a device capable of detecting wireless signals if you don't mind making one that consumes lots of power.
It's not so easy to design energy-efficient devices that function as well as the components they replace, or to do it at the nano scale. That's what Peter Kinget, a professor of electrical engineering, works on. He and his colleagues at the Engineering School are attempting to build self-powered systems using nanoscale devices that can transmit and receive wireless signals using so little power that their batteries never need replacing.