They don’t know how it works, but it does.

A team of researchers at Georgia Tech has developed a new high-tech ceramic material that could make solid oxide fuel cells less costly and less finicky, and much more durable and efficient. The material is called Barium-Zirconium-Cerium-Yttrium-Ytterbuim Oxide. [Ed note: Say that three times fast and you get a gold star.] I don’t know if it’s any less of a tongue twister, but it’s known as BZCYYb for short.

Solid oxide fuel cells are of interest because they can generate energy without the need for an expensive catalyst such as platinum, which is typically used in hydrogen fuel cells. While nanotechnology is enabling the development of hydrogen fuel cells that use less platinum, with BZCYYb the prospects look good for ditching the precious metal entirely in favor of more sustainable technology—if solid oxide systems can be developed in a commercially viable form, that is.

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The algae! Yes – the same slimy brown-green ‘plant’ that makes a pond or a lake look yucky – is the creating a great buzz as the most promising source of alternative energy. And now nanotechnology is being leveraged to add some more zing to the promise!

Algae are some of the simplest of the living organisms and can’t even be classified as plants as they lack any differentiation into various structures such as leaves, roots or other organs that characterize a plant. Yet this simple structure is the very reason for the alarming growth rate of the algae: Under optimal conditions, it can double its mass overnight.

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A team of US and Korean scientists have announced a major breakthrough in energy storage that could pave the way to a new generation of ultra-efficient electric cars, mobile phones and laptops.

The prototype capacitor, much more powerful than exisiting batteries, is capable of storing power at the same massive density as a supercapacitor (an incredible 10 billion tiny capacitors in every square centimetre), but releasing it as quickly as the fastest electrostatic capacitors.

Speaking about the invention, Gary Rubloff of the University of Maryland said, “Our primary target [for this technology] is as part of a hybrid battery-capacitor system for electric cars, but there are many [potential] small scale applications, [including] better electrical storage systems for cellphones or laptops.”

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A new European Union funded research project called “ROD-SOL” aims to improve the efficiency of thin-film solar cells using nanotechnology.  The three year project has a budget of EUR 4 million and may yield a breakthrough for solar power.  

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It involves the manipulation of matter at the nanometer (nm) scale, which is one-billionth of a meter.  The nano scale is so incredibly tiny that a human hair (which is about 50,000 nm thick) is huge by comparison.

Many researchers believe this technology has the potential to create new and unique risks to human health and the environment.

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Some have argued that current technology is sufficient — that the ability to drive 1 1/2 hours to 3 hours nonstop is good enough for the overwhelming majority of trips, and that paired with a range extender, rapid chargers, or battery swapping, you have a viable means of replacing the gasoline car. However, there still is a great deal of pressure to get electric vehicle range up to that of gasoline.

Enter Yi Cui. Again.

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US Scientists have figured out a way to mass produce the nanomaterial graphene, opening the door to significant advances in the storage of hydrogen, as well as the electricity produced by solar and wind energy.

Graphene, produced by reducing graphite down to a sheet only one atom thick, is one of the strongest materials known to man. It has been shown to have huge potential for hydrogen and renewable energy storage, but up until now has been held back by a lack of supply. Now the team, based at the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) at UCLA, have discovered a method of producing graphene sheets in large quantities.

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Researchers at the Bhabha Atomic Research Center in India are investigating the hollow carbon fibers as a potential water filter. They believe the unique chemical properties of nanotubes mean that only water molecules can pass through their interiors, while toxic metal ions, viruses, and bacteria cannot.

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Editor’s Note: This post was originally published by the Stanford News Service in December 2007.

Last December, researchers at Stanford University found a way to use silicon nanowires to store 10 times the amount of energy of existing lithium-ion batteries. A laptop that now runs on battery for two hours could operate for 20 hours, but more importantly, this technology can be applied to electric vehicle batteries.

The breakthrough is described in a paper, “High-performance lithium battery anodes using silicon nanowires,” published online Dec. 16 in Nature Nanotechnology. The paper was written by Yi Cui, assistant professor of materials science and engineering, his graduate chemistry student Candace Chan, and five others.

According to Cui: “Given the mature infrastructure behind silicon, this new technology can be pushed to real life quickly.”

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There’s a lot of hype out there about new technologies that will “change everything”. Sometimes it’s nice to sit back and “smell the roses”. In that spirit, here are five plants with surprising super powers - they have provided a boost to technological innovation or invention, often with a green lining.

Algae and Biofuel

If you keep track of the news, algae should already be on your radar. Depending on your favorite species, algae can be eaten, burned for heat, or used to produce hydrogen, methane, biodiesel, or plain old fertilizer. Algae is so prolific, and comes in so many varieties, that it’s actually a chore to isolate your preferred species for cultivation out of a water sample from the wild. The best part is that algae soaks up the sun and lots of CO2 to work it’s magic. That’s two forms of renewable energy used to produce fuels or foods (sushi anyone?) in high demand.

An algaculture biodiesel plant is already in operation today, happily churning out 4.4 million gallons of algal oil per year. That may not sound like a lot, but as the first operational algae oil factory, you can bet they’ll make enough money to build bigger. Other companies are also in the game to make algae the biggest thing since oil. As a renewable source of fuel, algae is becoming one of many solutions to our energy problems. Not too shabby for pond scum.

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Food Aid Also Gives a Helping Hand to GMO Agribusiness
As countries around the world try to grapple with the food crisis, the Bush Administration’s The $770 million aid package causes a bit of a controversy by including language that would promote the use of genetically modified crops in food-deprived countries. (Chicago Tribune).

Agribusiness Profits Rise Dramatically Alongside Food Prices
An article in The Independent discusses how major players in the agriculture industry are enjoying record increases in profits, doubling in a three month period in some cases, from both the demand for food and biofuel. Investor speculation plays a significant part in the profits, as well as in driving up food prices. (The Independent).

More issues and updates.

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That’s part of the reason the Project on Emerging Technologies got started in the first place. Established in 2005 by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and The Pew Charitable Trusts, the Project on Emerging Technologies says its goal is “helping business, government and the public anticipate and manage possible health and environmental implications of nanotechnology.”

So what is nanotechnology? As the project’s website puts it in its “30-second primer,” “Nanotechnology is the art and science of manipulating matter at the nanoscale (down to 1/100,000 the width of a human hair) to create new and unique materials and products.”

Matter does some pretty weird stuff when you get down to that scale. For instance, at the nanoscale, copper becomes transparent and gold becomes liquid. The unique properties of nanomaterials promise all sorts of innovations, from stronger materials for construction to cheaper ways to generate and store energy to better cures for diseases.

For now, though, most of the nanomaterial-based products on the market are cosmetics, sporting goods, food storage containers and the like. Still, there’s a lot more of them than you might think: nearly 600, according to the last update to the project’s Inventory of Nanotechnology Consumer Products. And the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies is concerned that a) much of the buying public doesn’t know what they’re buying and b) if they find out about what they’re buying thanks to even a minor product scare or false alarm, consumer confidence could collapse and public support for the real potential benefits of nanotechnology could shrivel.

In a poll conducted by the project this summer, only 6 percent of Americans said they had heard “a lot” about nanotechology. And many of those who hadn’t, once given a quick briefing on potential risks and benefits, expressed concern about the technology’s safety.

“As in previous polls, the results of this survey indicate that public wants more information about nanotechnology,” said David Rejeski, director of the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies. “Most Americans will be reluctant to use nano food and food-related products until they know enough to evaluate the merits of these products.”

And that’s where the project’s website comes in so handy: not only does it offer a regularly-updated database of nanomaterial-based consumer projects, which makes for eye-opening browsing, but it also provides lots more information about nanotechnology in the marketplace that’s hard to find anywhere else. There are articles, blogs, research updates, podcasts, links, resources and even online events. In fact, the next event — “Consumers Talk Nano” — set for Oct. 23, offers the public a chance to chat online with experts from the project, Consumers Union and other institutions.

It’s one way in which the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies is hoping to take something small and turn it into something much bigger, and more meaningful, for the buying public.

It was hard for the average European to grasp the philosophical and religious implications of Copernicus' assertion that the Earth circled the sun and not the other way around. Today, we're confronted with a marketplace of ideas and products we often don't even realize are the products of cutting-edge technology: genetically modified crops, lab-synthesized fabrics, nanoparticle-containing cosmetics and more. And I think there's a real danger in not understanding fully what we're buying and using.

Take nanomaterials, for instance. Made with tiny particles approaching the size of molecules and atoms, nanomaterials exhibit unusual properties not typical of "ordinary" materials made from the same stuff. Nanoparticles of gold flow like a liquid. Nanoparticles of copper are transparent. Nanotechnology promises huge benefits in medicine, engineering and other areas, but it's also been widely adopted for more frivolous things: hair gels, sunscreen and cosmetics, for example. In fact, you can find more than 450 commercial products today made with nanomaterials … which is probably more than the number of consumers you can find who know that.

Here's the problem: we're eating stuff and putting stuff on our skin and out in the environment, and yet we don't really know what effects these actions have. Nanoscale titanium dioxide in sunscreen, for example, has been shown to have the potential to damage DNA. Even the scientists who specialize in nanotechnology are concerned about the rapid adoption of such products in the marketplace (see "EPA and Nanotechnology: Oversight for the 21st Century"). Is this responsible? How do we manage technological advances wisely without slowing progress that could benefit many? I don't know the answer, but I'll be interested in discussing potential solutions.

If solar power is going to play a significant role in the energy equation of the future, there must be advances in technologies to store that power and more investment by manufacturers, concludes a new federally funded study by University of Massachusetts Amherst scientist Erin Baker. But in New Zealand researchers have developed new solar energy-collecting dyes that promise to make solar energy much easier and less expensive to collect.

The UMASS researchers’ report “explores the viability of sun-fueled technologies through a combination of evaluations by experts and economic modeling, allowing the researchers to look at solar power’s role in the electricity sector in 15-year chunks through 2095,” says the UMASS-Amherst news release.

Baker has been invited to submit the article to Energy Economics as part of a special issue on Technological Change and Uncertainty in Environmental Economics. It is the first in a series; future reports will assess technologies that harvest wind, biofuels and carbon capture. The U.S. Department of Energy awarded $347,000 to Baker’s team last year to investigate the costs and benefits associated with investing in alternative energies.

The research report might be interesting reading and should be released to the public for free, not stuffed into a research journal that can only be accessed with a subscription or fee. After all, you already paid for it as it was funded by tax dollars. Still, I wonder about the value of the report’s economic predictions for solar power given that economists can’t predict human ingenuity.

The same day that the solar economic forecast report hits the news comes news of yet another solar technology breakthrough.

Researchers at the Nanomaterials Research Centre at New Zealand’s Massey University have developed synthetic dyes hat can be used to generate electricity at one tenth of the cost of current silicon-based solar panels. The dyes work similar to natural photosynthesis - and even work in low-light conditions. Researchers say they soon will be able to be cheaply incorporated into common products, turning those products into generators of electricity. Think: roofing materials and window panes. Or clothing.

Here’s how the Manawatu Standard reports the breakthrough:

This means teenagers could one day be wearing jackets that will recharge their equivalents of cellphones, iPods and other battery- driven devices. The breakthrough is a development of the university’s Nanomaterials Research Centre and has attracted world-wide interest already - particularly from Australia and Japan. Researchers at the centre have developed a range of synthetic dyes from simple organic compounds closely related to those found in nature, where light-harvesting pigments are used by plants for photosynthesis.

Science Daily sheds more light on the potential of the “porphyrin dye” technology. Turns out that not only may the new porphyrin dye solar sells may not only be better at generating electricity from sunlight, even the manufacturing process to make , the itself be more environmentally friendly than making silicon-based solar cells:

Dr Campbell says that unlike the silicon-based solar cells currently on the market, the 10×10cm green demonstration cells generate enough electricity to run a small fan in low-light conditions - making them ideal for cloudy climates. The dyes can also be incorporated into tinted windows that trap to generate electricity.

He says the green solar cells are more environmentally friendly than silicon-based cells as they are made from titanium dioxide - a plentiful, renewable and non-toxic white mineral obtained from New Zealand’s black sand. Titanium dioxide is already used in consumer products such as toothpaste, white paints and cosmetics.

”The refining of pure silicon, although a very abundant mineral, is energy-hungry and very expensive. And whereas silicon cells need direct sunlight to operate efficiently, these cells will work efficiently in low diffuse light conditions,” Dr Campbell says.

“The expected cost is one 10th of the price of a silicon-based solar panel, making them more attractive and accessible to home-owners.”

I’m going to make a prediction based not on economic modeling and data-crunching, but on 42 years of observing humans at work and more than a decade as a business and policy journalist: solar power is going to play a much larger role and much sooner than the UMASS-Amherst report predicts, and it will happen largely because innovators and entrepreneurs will make it happen.