Lightweight and flexible yet strong? Versatile fibers with dramatically improved energy storage capacity

The Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) announced that a joint research team has developed a fiber-like electrode material that can store energy. The fibers are strong, lightweight, and highly flexible, enabling greater freedom in wearable device form factors and the ability to be made into various shapes and applications.

Hanging by a colored thread

High-performance fibres that have been exposed to high temperatures usually lose their mechanical properties undetected and, in the worst case, can tear precisely when lives depend on them. For example, safety ropes used by fire brigades or suspension ropes for heavy loads on construction sites. Empa researchers have now developed a coating that changes color when exposed to high temperatures through friction or fire.

How to Make it Easier to Turn Plant Waste into Biofuels

Researchers have developed a new process that could make it much cheaper to produce biofuels such as ethanol from plant waste and reduce reliance on fossil fuels. Their approach, featuring an ammonia-salt based solvent that rapidly turns plant fibers into sugars needed to make ethanol, works well at close to room temperature, unlike conventional processes, according to a Rutgers-led study in the journal Green Chemistry.