Engineering news

Engineering

Safer all-solid-state sodium battery could cut grid storage costs and reduce lithium dependence

Lithium-ion batteries dominate the market for large-scale energy storage today. However, the element's uneven global distribution and rising costs are driving the search for alternatives. Sodium is roughly a thousand times ...

Engineering

Perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells reach 32.89% certified efficiency with peak-selective passivation strategy

A team of Chinese scientists has developed a new passivation strategy that significantly improves both the efficiency and operational stability of perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells. The study has been published in the ...

Engineering

These brick walls are built to come apart, move, and rise again after demolition

The construction sector still has some way to go in terms of reducing the consumption of resources and greenhouse gas emissions. One of these relates to the construction waste produced during the demolition of buildings. ...

Engineering

Error correction tech boosts the 3D printing of big composite parts

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have created a new tool that can catch and correct potential mistakes in real time while 3D printing large plastic parts. The automated ...

Engineering

Custom device maps carbon capture reactions in real time

Removing carbon dioxide (CO2) directly from the air, a process called direct air capture (or DAC), is one of several approaches being developed to help reduce the concentration of this greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. Among ...

Engineering

Building the future with robotic construction

On April 24, the Architectural Robotic Construction Lab ( ARC Lab) in The University of Texas at Arlington's College of Architecture, Planning and Public Affairs demonstrated its new large-scale 3D printing technology.

Engineering

Basalt could be the key to greener and cheaper cement

Ideas to reduce carbon emissions often revolve around renewable power, electric vehicles and energy efficiency. But there's another, less colorful character that's often overlooked: cement.

Engineering

UV glow test measures air disinfection performance in minutes

The effectiveness of air disinfection devices may now be measured in minutes, rather than hours, with a new technique from University of Michigan Engineering. This is important for researchers developing better antiviral ...

Engineering

Diffusion-based AI model successfully trained in electroplating

Electrochemical deposition, or electroplating, is a common industrial technique that coats materials to improve corrosion resistance and protection, durability and hardness, conductivity and more. A Los Alamos National Laboratory ...

Engineering

AI turns simple text into realistic building designs

When working on projects, architects must quickly turn rough concepts into visual representations. Text-to-image models offer an opportunity in this field, where high-quality designs can be generated simply by typing a description. ...

Robotics

Q&A: Robots can't feel, but novel sensors could change that

A research team, including Huanyu "Larry" Cheng, James L. Henderson Jr. Memorial Associate Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics at Penn State, is using pressure sensors—tiny devices, roughly the size of a paperclip, ...

Engineering

AI-based model measures atomic defects in materials

In biology, defects are generally bad. But in materials science, defects can be intentionally tuned to give materials useful new properties. Today, atomic-scale defects are carefully introduced during the manufacturing process ...

Engineering

Eco-friendly plastic plates could replace steel bars in concrete

Researchers at the University of Sharjah have demonstrated that concrete can be reinforced using polymer plates instead of steel bars, with the new material showing superior strength, ductility, and energy dissipation. The ...