Nanosys is Working to Improve LED Light Quality

Image via Treehugger.

Nanosys is currently working on LED technology that will greatly improve the quality of light produced. They describe it as “spectrum engineering for LCD device displays using Nanosys’ QuantumRail™, where high-brightness applications call for improved color gamut, saturation and power efficiency from LED sources.” Using nanotechnology, fluids are created out of semiconductor materials, which are then layered over blue LED lights, the most energy efficient of the hues. All colors displayed will be more vivid and just as energy efficient as present LED technology.

With the advancements made, Nanosys has discovered how to produce LEDs in any color that are far more saturated than current LED-backlit LCD displays and in warmer tones. Standard blue LEDs are used with the addition of a nanomaterial based phosphor material to create warm white lights, a process nature uses that provides a greater wavelength range. They claim that energy input can remain low while boosting picture quality.

Nanoysys CEO, Jason Hartlove, estimates that we will see around 60% of notebooks made in 2010 utilizing LED backlights. With mandates such as the ones in California, the television market is also sure to jump on a technology that creates displays of higher picture quality without consuming additional energy.

Via Treehugger.

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Wearing Your Batteries On Your Sleeve

A new research break-through at Stanford University is bringing us one step closer to wearable electronics and conductive fabrics. Beginning their investigation into how carbon nanotubes can be used to create thin, flexible batteries with plastic and paper, the team has now discovered that fabric such as cotton and polyester might be a better alternative.

The team has developed single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) ink that allows them to turn paper and fabric into highly conductive batteries with a remarkably low resistance. In their paper experiments they found that, “The small diameter helps the nanomaterial ink stick strongly to the fibrous paper, making the battery and supercapacitor very durable. The paper supercapacitor may last through 40,000 charge-discharge cycles – at least an order of magnitude more than lithium batteries.” The use of fabric allows for increased flexibility and durability over paper.

BBC reports, “The interwoven fibres of fabrics, like those of paper, are particularly suited to absorbing the nanotube ink, maintaining an electrical connection across the whole area of a garment. Cloth is simply dipped into a batch of nanotube dye, and is then pressed, to thin and even out the coating. The fabric maintains its properties even as it is stretched or folded. Even rinsing the samples in water and wringing them out does not change their electronic properties.”

There is still a lot of research needed in this area, such as how the fabric can be applied to more useful batteries, the safety factors of having carbon nanotubes in fabric that could be worn against human skin, exactly how much more efficient this is over current battery technology, how long the storage capacity will last, and many other important elements. However, the researchers feel that this could be a next step for wearable solar cells, giving our clothing the ability to charge – or become – our gadgets.

Via Treehugger (Nanotechnology Turning Your Cotton T-Shirt and Polyester Pants Into Batteries and Breakthrough? Ordinary Paper + Ink + Nanotubes = Battery)

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An Adjustably Bright Idea

Sharp’s new line of LED lamps with shade options.

Sharp Corporation is making brilliant changes, literally, with their new line of LED lamps for use at home. The Japanese market has welcomed nine models of lamps, one of which features a bulb with an adjustable color function with a remote control! Users can choose the shades of the emitted light between 7 different warmer and cooler versions of white according to the weather, season, or other preference, making these LEDs high in energy efficiency. And saving energy means reduced CO2 emissions and less consumption of electricity. In fact, the estimated cost of running one of the offered models for 11 hours is one yen (that’s one cent in America).

It will also be incredibly easy to replace ordinary lamps because these bulbs all feature the standard screw-in base and will be able to fit ordinary incandescent lamp sockets. In addition, the service life of these lamps is 40 times longer than that of ordinary incandescent lamps (40,000 hours). If used for 10 hours a day, these bulbs would still not need to be replaced until 10 years later.

Other characteristics of the new Sharp LED lamps are lead-free solder, no bromine specific flame-retardant agents, and it promises to be free of mercury.

Sharp released these LED lamps on July 15, 2009 in Japan, starting around $40 US.

Via Engadget and Sharp’s Press Release.

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What Chemicals Are Around You?

This is NASA’s new, inexpensive device which uses the iPhone to sense chemicals with 16 nanosensors. The phone can send this information to other devices and also the government over the internet. Turns out that there are numerous uses for chemical sensors including early information on a chemical attack, track emissions from factories, not to mention, allowing users to obtain info about the chemicals present in their everyday lives.

Read more about this on inhabitat.com.

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Sony “Bio Battery” Generates Electricty From Glucose

This has been out for a while, but other than the prototypes and studies shown on the press release I have not seen a commercial product out of it. In any case, for the sake of inspiration and information archival, I thought it was worth posting it here.

On August 2007, Sony announced the development of a “Bio Battery” that generates electricity from glucose.

Capable to generate up to 50mW of power (enough to power most small gadgets), this battery operates under the principle of breaking down enzymes and utilizing them as catalyst to generate power (just as they work on living organisms).

From the press release:
“Sony will continue its development of immobilization systems, electrode composition and other technologies in order to further enhance power output and durability, with the aim of realizing practical applications for these bio batteries in the future.”

Here’s a video with more details.

We definitely look forward to seeing applications of this technology.

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Graphene Promises Increased Energy Savings and Even Greater Storage Capacity

A new discovery by researchers at Rice University promises to be a game changer for the electronics industry. Graphene, which is naturally found in graphite, has been developed into a cutting edge, robust solid-state drive that is said to have a five-fold increase in storage capacity all while using far less energy.

The graphene layers have been engineered to hold circuitry around the size of 5 to 10 nanometers, compared to the 45-nanometer scale in today’s state of the art drives. In addition to the increased space on each 10 atom thick strip of graphene, the layers can be stacked on top of each other further multiplying the overall storage capacity.

If its storage capacity wasn’t exciting enough, the graphene strips work much like an e-ink device; the chips consume virtually no power but still keep data intact. This has huge implications for the comparably power hungry storage devices found in our cell phones and computers today. Graphene generates little heat, has been successfully tested in extreme temperatures, and is even resistant to radiation. Needless to say, large corporations around the world are watching this technology very closely. With its long life, huge potential storage capacity, and energy sipping properties, graphene drives will surely become an indispensable part of our electronics in the years to come.

For more on the graphene drive check out the Rice University Website

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New York e-waste Recycling Legislation

A study by the EPA estimates that New York City residents purchase about 12 million electronic devices each year amounting to 92,000 tons of product a year. When close to 25,000 tons of electronic waste is created each year in New York City (at the cities expense), it comes as no surprise that “The Big Apple” will be the first US city to enforce a electronic-recycling law. Come July 2009 all manufacturers of electronic goods will be required to start collecting old electronics for reuse and recycling, by July 2010 the Department of Sanitation will no longer collect certain electronic instruments, next by 2012 manufacturers will be required to collect 25% of their sold electronics (in weight), and finally by 2018 they will be required to collect 65% of their disposed product.

This requires electonic comanies to initiate a buy-back program. It also requires them to look at their overall manufacturing process and figure out where they can integrate reused parts and recycled materials. In addition, this law will encourage companies and manufacturers to take responsibility for the product they put on the market and design products to have a longer life.

The main concern presented by consumers on this topic is that this recycling initiative will take the cost right back out of the consumers pocket. In opposition, I say that if designed properly, companies could generate less waste, incorporate reused parts, have to source less raw material, and ultimately find themselves with more efficient manufacturing processes that will result in a lower cost.

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CES Goes Carbon Neutral?

Any eco conscious designer who has been will tell you it’s a trip. We couldn’t help but laugh when we saw the lifted, pimped-out pickup with TV’s in the wheel wells. If you looked hard enough you might have stumbled upon a small, tucked away section called “sustainable technologies”, a glimmer of hope. Aside from Nokia, Dell and HP, many large corporations had no environmental message. Consisting of about 140,000 people, this event is one of the largest in the world. For 2008, CES purchased $110,000 in carbon credits in an attempt to “offset” their impact.*

*Carbon credits are not a substitute for sustainability.

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