Thermal energy management materials encompass engineered solids, fluids, and composites designed to control heat generation, transport, storage, and dissipation in devices, buildings, and wearables. The area integrates thermoelectric and thermomagnetic converters, elastocaloric and solid-state heat pumps, phase-change and thermochromic systems, and radiative or evaporative cooling structures, often with microfluidic or porous architectures. Emerging work couples these materials with machine learning, additive manufacturing, and bioinspired designs to optimize thermal performance, efficiency, and adaptability across scales from electronics to infrastructure.
Energy & Green Tech
Thermal batteries can efficiently store energy as heat. But building them requires a carefully designed system with materials that can withstand cycles of extremely high temperatures, without succumbing to problems like corrosion, ...
6 hours ago
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Engineering
Seoul National University College of Engineering has announced that a research team led by Prof. Jeonghun Kwak of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, with co-first authors Dr. Juhyung Park and Dr. Sun Hong ...
Mar 18, 2026
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Energy & Green Tech
Off-grid buildings in warm climates could cut their carbon emissions by more than half and reduce energy costs to just $0.15 per kilowatt-hour through a combination of rooftop solar panel shading and thin layers of heat-absorbing ...
Mar 17, 2026
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Robotics
As thermal cameras become commonplace on autonomous drones and vehicles, a University of Florida engineering professor is working to make sure they can't be maliciously tricked into "seeing" things that aren't there.
Mar 17, 2026
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Engineering
A recent study in Advanced Science reports an innovative, low-cost polymer heat exchanger that could transform how industries manage heat. The device was developed by a Rice University research team led by Daniel J. Preston, ...
Mar 11, 2026
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Telecom
Engineers at UNSW Sydney and Monash have developed an innovative way of sending hidden information that's hard to intercept. Using a phenomenon known as "negative luminescence," the system works by making signals blend perfectly ...
Mar 9, 2026
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Energy & Green Tech
A cross-disciplinary team at Rice University has developed a new type of electric heating element—one that looks less like a traditional metal coil and more like a high-performance thread. In a study published in Small, ...
Mar 6, 2026
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Engineering
Data centers—the warehouse-sized buildings that store photos, stream movies and train artificial intelligence—are voracious consumers of electricity. A surprisingly large share of that power never reaches a microchip. ...
Mar 4, 2026
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Engineering
Superhydrophobic surfaces—those famously "never-wet" materials that make water bead up and roll away—have a stubborn weakness: hot water. Once temperatures climb above roughly 40 degrees Celsius, many superhydrophobic ...
Feb 23, 2026
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Energy & Green Tech
An international research team has demonstrated how conventional radiative cooling coatings can be optimized to further reduce building surface temperatures, cutting energy consumption, while also improving fire safety.
Feb 19, 2026
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