Power and Electrical Engineering

On crystal surfaces, nanotubes self-guide themselves into dense structures with exciting potential applications as sensors or integrated circuits

USC researchers have found that sapphire surfaces spontaneously arrange carbon nanotubes into useful patterns — but only the right surfaces. Nanotubes are one-atom thick sheets of carbon rolled into seamless cylinders. They can be used to work as chemical sensors and transistors, like devices made from carbon’s close chemical cousin,

Using a new electrically-assisted microbial fuel cell (MFC) that does not require oxygen, Penn State environmental engineers and a scientist at Ion Power Inc. have developed the first process that enables bacteria to coax four times as much hydrogen directly out of biomass than can be generated typically by fermentation alone.

Dr. Bruce Logan, the Kappe professor of environmental engineering and an inventor of the MFC, says, “This MFC process is not limited to using only carbohydra

Relief from soaring prices at the gas pump could come in the form of corncobs, cornstalks, switchgrass and other types of biomass, according to a joint feasibility study for the departments of Agriculture and Energy.

The recently completed Oak Ridge National Laboratory report outlines a national strategy in which 1 billion dry tons of biomass – any organic matter that is available on a renewable or recurring basis – would displace 30 percent of the nation’s petroleum consu

Zhiyu Hu believes it is possible to match nature’s highly efficient method to convert chemicals into thermal energy at room temperature, and he has data and a published paper to support his theory.

In a paper scheduled to appear in the May 18 print issue of the American Chemical Society’s Energy & Fuels, Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Hu describes a novel method to achieve spontaneous ignition and sustained combustion at room temperature. He achieves this “nano-c

Basic building blocks of nanotech, carbon nanotubes will help carry the $850 billion electronics industry forward

A Case Western Reserve University engineer has created the “seeds” that can grow into today’s and tomorrow’s computer and phone chips.

In a development that could lead to smaller but more powerful computers and electronic communication devices, Massood Tabib-Azar, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at Case, and engineering graduate s

Mechanical engineers at Purdue University have new findings offering promise for modifying household refrigeration technology with small devices to cool future weapons systems and computer chips.

The devices, called “micro-channel heat sinks,” circulate coolant through numerous channels about three times the width of a human hair. Such devices might be attached directly to electronic components in military lasers, microwave radar and weapons systems, as well as in future computers t