At Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), physicist Professor Thomas Schimmel and his team have developed a single-atom transistor, the smallest transistor worldwide. This quantum electronics component switches electrical current by controlled repositioning of a single atom, now also in the solid state in a gel electrolyte. The single-atom transistor works at room temperature and consumes […]
Counterfeits And Product Piracy Can Be Prevented By Security Features, Such As Printed 3-D Microstructures
Security features are to protect bank notes, documents, and branded products against counterfeiting. Losses caused by product forgery and counterfeiting may be enormous. According to the German Engineering Association, the damage caused in 2016 in its branch alone amounted to EUR 7.3 billion. In the Advanced Materials Technologies journal, researchers of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and […]
Butterfly Wing Inspires Photovoltaics: Light Absorption Can Be Enhanced By Up To 200 Percent
Sunlight reflected by solar cells is lost as unused energy. The wings of the butterfly Pachliopta aristolochiae are drilled by nanostructures (nanoholes) that help absorbing light over a wide spectrum far better than smooth surfaces. Researchers of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have now succeeded in transferring these nanostructures to solar cells and, thus, enhancing their light […]
Secure Payment Without Leaving A Trace
No matter whether payment of the public passenger transport ticket is made via a smartphone app or whether a prepaid card is used for the public swimming pool or a bonus card for the supermarket: Many people already open their “electronic purses” every day. However, most of them are not aware of the fact that […]
Power-to-Liquid: 200 Liters of Fuel from Solar Power and the Air’s Carbon Dioxide
Production of liquid fuels from regenerative electric power is a major component of the energy turnaround. The first 200 l of synthetic fuel have now been produced from solar energy and the air’s carbon dioxide by Fischer-Tropsch synthesis under the SOLETAIR project. Here, INERATEC, a spinoff of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), cooperates with Finnish […]
Solar Glasses Generate Solar Power
Organic solar cells are flexible, transparent, and light-weight – and can be manufactured in arbitrary shapes or colors. Thus, they are suitable for a variety of applications that cannot be realized with conventional silicon solar cells. In the Energy Technology journal, researchers from KIT now present sunglasses with colored, semitransparent solar cells applied onto lenses that supply […]
Natural Molecule To Boost The Performance Of Electrodes For Rechargeable Batteries
Chlorophyll, blood, and vitamin B12 are all based on the porphyrin molecule. But porphyrin can also be used as an electrode material where it speeds up the charging process of rechargeable batteries. In the “Angewandte Chemie International Edition” journal, researchers from KIT now present the new material system that could mark the beginning of an […]
Hardened Steels For More Efficient Engines
Combustion engines still have much potential to save energy and reduce emissions. The present trend is to use smaller engines of the same or even increased power. Engines with a reduced cylinder capacity consume less fuel due to their smaller weight, smaller friction, and smaller amount of exhaust heat. This so-called downsizing, however, is associated […]
First solar cell made of highly ordered molecular frameworks
“We have opened the door to a new room,” says Professor Christof Wöll, Director of KIT Institute of Functional Interfaces (IFG). “This new application of metal-organic framework compounds is the beginning only. The end of this development line is far from being reached,” the physicist emphasizes. Metal-organic frameworks, briefly called MOFs, consist of two basic […]
New Electrolyte for the Construction of Magnesium-Sulfur Batteries
The Helmholtz Institute Ulm (HIU) established by Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) is pushing research relating to batteries of the next and next-but-one generations: A research team has now developed an electrolyte that may be used for the construction of magnesium-sulfur battery cells. With magnesium, higher storage densities could be achieved than with lithium. Moreover, […]