Top TechTop Tech #146: Carbon-Capturing Micro-Motors, Photon-Capturing Quanta, Salt Water-Storing Electric Car
Important innovations in science and technology
By Paul Worthington
Tuesday’s Top Tech:
• Microscopic carbon-capturing motors
• Quanta captures photons
• Electric car runs on salt water
Microscopic carbon-capturing motors
Self-propelled microscopic motors may reduce carbon dioxide levels in oceans — by capturing carbon as they move about.
“Nanoengineers” at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering have invented tiny tube-shaped micromotors that zoom around in water and efficiently remove carbon dioxide, the school reports.
The machines are smaller than the width of a human hair, and the surfaces are “functionalized with the enzyme carbonic anhydrase, which enables the motors to help rapidly convert carbon dioxide to calcium carbonate.” In experiments, engineers demonstrated that the micromotors rapidly decarbonated water solutions that were saturated with carbon dioxide. Within five minutes, the micromotors removed 90 percent of the carbon dioxide from a solution of deionized water.
“We’re excited about the possibility of using these micromotors to combat ocean acidification and global warming,” a lead scientist says.
Here is the full announcement.
Quanta captures photons
New image sensors could let cameras all-but see in the dark.
Just as CCDs have mostly made way for CMOS chips, next up may be the Quanta Image Sensor developed at Dartmouth.
The QIS “is a revolutionary change in the way we collect images in a camera,” with the goal is to count “every photon that strikes the image sensor,” the school says.
Quanta Image Sensors have been discussed for years; the breakthrough claimed here is a “new pixel” and a process that is “almost completely compatible with today’s CMOS image sensor technology so it’s easy for industry to adopt it,” says the lead developer.
It will also provide resolution of 1 billion or more specialized photoelements per sensor, and read out bit planes hundreds or thousands of times per second resulting in terabits/sec of data, the school says.
The QIS has applications in medicine and the life sciences. “Photon-counting X-ray image sensors are being explored with a major medical equipment company,” Dartmouth adds. “Application of our photon-counting QIS technology to low light fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy is also being explored.”
Here is the full announcement.
PhysOrg reports more on it here.
Electric car runs on salt water
Okay, it’s not powered by salt water — that’d be a bit too much to ask — but this cool-looking car from NanoFlowcell stores its energy in salt water batteries.
And it’s not just about cars, of course: the company says its technology has promise for wherever electricity is used. (Y’know, everywhere.) “The high efficiency and environmental sustainability of the nanoFlowcell opens new horizons in many areas,” it says. Examples include the aerospace industry, rail transport, and domestic use.
Electrolyte fuel and ionic liquids (salt water) are also nontoxic and nonflammable, meaning “great advantages in mass production, logistics, and storage” with no need for high-level safety protocols.
The company first introduced the tech last year, with its Quant car. The F model will have a driving range up to 800 kilometers. NanoFlowcell says.
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