Photon up-converting devices for solar fuels
Karl Börjesson, Damir Dzebo, Bo Albinsson and Kasper Moth-Poulsen Employing a molecular solution capable of triplet-triplet annihilation in a layered microfluidic device enables the solar spectrum to be locally modified toward the UV, increasing solar energy system efficiency.  Solar power production and solar energy storage are important technologies on the road toward obtaining a sustainable society, independent of access to fossil fuels. To achieve this goal, challenges must be overcome regarding intermittency (the inherent changeability in the supply of solar energy) and load leveling (the variability in consumer demand for electricity). As a consequence, technologies for solar energy storage in the form of latent electrical power (voltaics) and energy-rich chemical bonds (solar fuels) are becoming increasingly important. |
Measuring the surface profile of objects with large depth is becoming important in several industrial applications (e.g., car manufacturing). Surface profilometers can be used to determine the profile of an object by simply measuring the distance between a reference and sample points on the object. The accuracy of such measurements, however, is limited by the stability of the mechanical parts in the instrument.
Nanoparticles are essential building blocks for many energy-related applications, ranging from lithium ion batteries, catalysis, and photocatalysis to electrochromic windows. The ability to synthesize nanoparticles with well-defined size, shape, and structure is critically important. In recent years, there have been two main trends to improve the efficiency of nanoparticle synthesis by use of microwave or microfluidic reactors.1, 2 Microwave reactors provide a higher nanoparticle yield in shorter reaction times than conventional batch reactors,1 and microfluidic reactors have the separate advantage that reaction conditions, such as heat and mass transfer rates, can be independently controlled for small volumes of reaction solution.2 Integrating such miniaturized reactors with microwave heaters would combine the advantages of both and so improve nanoparticle synthesis.
Graphene/poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-trifluoroethylene) multilayer films enable the fabrication of transparent, flexible nanogenerators and acoustic devices.
When pumped with a spatially modulated light beam, random lasers can be tuned to emit into specific, predetermined directions.
