The Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology or Empa (German acronym for "Eidgenössische Materialprüfungs- und Forschungsanstalt") is an interdisciplinary Swiss research and service institution for applied materials sciences and technology. As part of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Domain ("ETH-Bereich") it is an institution of the Swiss federation. For the longest time since its foundation in 1880, it concentrated on classical materials testing. Since the late 1980s it has developed into a modern research and development institute.
Engineering
Research sometimes needs a sacrifice. Empa researcher Patrick Danner has just made one—and filmed it. "When I applied a good 2,000 volts to the sample, it caught fire," he reports drily in the debriefing. The mishap is ...
Nov 8, 2022
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Energy & Green Tech
During the winter months, renewable energy is in short supply throughout Europe. An international project is now considering an unconventional solution: Renewable hydrogen and carbon dioxide are pumped into the ground together, ...
Jun 23, 2021
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Energy & Green Tech
The global economy's demand for lithium-ion batteries will be rising sharply in the future. Electric cars depend on them, as do laptops, smartphones and power tools for the construction industry and the DIY sector. Soon another ...
Jul 13, 2020
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Energy & Green Tech
The Earth has its limits, as the climate crisis demonstrates. With the increasing extinction of species and the littering of the oceans (and even space) as a result of human activity, governments and institutions the world ...
May 12, 2021
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Energy & Green Tech
Modern, decentralized energy systems are a highly complex matter. Planning them in an optimal and cost-efficient way is a major challenge for energy planners. Sympheny, an Empa spin-off, offers a software that helps planners ...
Jul 2, 2021
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Energy & Green Tech
Empa researchers have, once again, improved the efficiency of CIGS flexible solar cells. Independently certified measurements revealed a power conversion efficiency of 22.2% to convert light into electricity, an improvement ...
Oct 11, 2022
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Computer Sciences
It is often a nuisance for residents living near railroad lines—and such a multi-faceted challenge for experts that there should be more than one word for "railroad noise." Sounds from steel wheels on rough or smoother ...
Sep 21, 2023
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1
Energy & Green Tech
The semiconductor perovskite is seen as a new hope to bring the production price of solar cells down below that of silicon used so far. Empa is developing new manufacturing processes to make perovskite solar cells not only ...
Feb 6, 2020
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Energy & Green Tech
Heating and cooling of buildings is a major contributor to CO2 emissions in all industrialized countries. To achieve the Swiss government's climate targets—net zero by 2050—Switzerland's building stock must thus also ...
Aug 24, 2021
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Energy & Green Tech
Can buildings learn to save all by themselves? Empa researchers think so. In their experiments, they fed a new self-learning heating control system with temperature data from the previous year and the current weather forecast. ...
Jan 30, 2020
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