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.
Engineering
By combining topology optimization and additive manufacturing, a team of University of Wisconsin–Madison engineers created a twisty high-temperature heat exchanger that outperformed a traditional straight channel design in ...
May 12, 2025
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41
Energy & Green Tech
Deep in the bowels of the UN headquarters, a pump sucks in huge amounts of water from the East River to help cool the complex with an old but energy-efficient mechanism.
May 12, 2025
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23
Energy & Green Tech
The soft, waxy "solid refrigerant" being investigated in a UK laboratory may not look very exciting, but its unusual properties promise an air-conditioning revolution that could eliminate the need for greenhouse gases.
May 12, 2025
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131
Energy & Green Tech
By splitting water molecules, fuel cells can turn electricity into hydrogen fuel. Running in the opposite direction, they consume hydrogen fuel to cleanly power multiple sectors. Typically, heat is a key ingredient for achieving ...
May 8, 2025
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45
Electronics & Semiconductors
Scientists have developed a new microscope that significantly improves the way heat flow in materials can be measured. This advancement could lead to better designs for electronic devices and energy systems.
May 8, 2025
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39
Hardware
As demand grows for more powerful and efficient microelectronics systems, industry is turning to 3D integration—stacking chips on top of each other. This vertically layered architecture could allow high-performance processors, ...
Apr 29, 2025
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50
Energy & Green Tech
A Korean research team has developed a novel thermoelectric material and generator (TEG) that leverages sponge-like carbon nanotube (CNT) structures, improving the limitations of organic thermoelectric materials while retaining ...
Apr 29, 2025
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40
Engineering
Lithium-ion batteries have been a staple in device manufacturing for years, but the liquid electrolytes they rely on to function are quite unstable, leading to fire hazards and safety concerns. Now, researchers at Penn State ...
Apr 24, 2025
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100
Electronics & Semiconductors
MIT engineers have developed a technique to grow and peel ultrathin "skins" of electronic material. The method could pave the way for new classes of electronic devices, such as ultrathin wearable sensors, flexible transistors ...
Apr 23, 2025
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45
Electronics & Semiconductors
The exponential miniaturization of electronic chips over time, described by Moore's law, has played a key role in our digital age. However, the operating power of small electronic devices is significantly limited by the lack ...
Apr 17, 2025
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