Gizmorama - June 3, 2015

Good Morning,

Here is the next step towards the future of consumer technology... light-emitting paper. That's right, folks. Bendable electronics will be on everyone's Christmas list in, I'm gonna say, two years.

Learn about this and more interesting stories from the scientific community in today's issue.

Until Next Time,
Erin

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*-- Light-emitting paper paves way for flexible electronics --*
CHENGDU, China (UPI) - Researchers in China have developed light-emitting, transparent and flexible paper -- technology that may soon enable bendable electronics.

The glowing paper is produced using an eco-friendly technique called suction-filtration. The thin, clear paper is made by mixing wood flour biocompatible quantum dots -- nanoscale, semiconducting crystals formed from zinc and selenium.

The team of researchers were led by Yu-Zhong Wang and Fei Song, material scientists at Sichuan University. Their study was published this week in the American Chemical Society's journal Applied Materials and Interfaces.

"This material can bring a new thinking on future electronic displays and 3D printing papers," the scientists wrote in their new paper.

They hope that their work opens the door to greener electronics, and enables tech innovators to abandon the rigidity and toxicity of petroleum-based plastics and other problematic materials used to make today's smartphones and tablets.

The paper, which glows at room temperature and can roll and unroll without creasing or cracking, is pretty cool. But it's not yet available with a side of fried chicken. The same can't be said of the new KFC Tray Typer, a paper-thin wireless Bluetooth keyboard that now arrives alongside combo meals as the fast food chain's outposts in Germany as part of a recent PR campaign.

The device allows eaters to type and text on their phone without touching the actual screen with their greasy fingers. According to the organizers of the campaign, all of the Tray Typers delivered in the first week of the promotion were taken home by the users.


*-- New class of swelling magnets to boost energy efficiency --*
PHILADELPHIA (UPI) - Researchers have discovered a new class of magnets that swell when placed in a magnetic field and have a small heat signature, attributes that scientists believe will make a variety of energy-harvesting devices more efficient.

Until now, it was assumed iron-based magnets could only change shape, not volume. It's a principle -- first described in the 1840s by physicist James Prescott Joule -- called "Joule Magnetostriction." The principle describes all magnetic materials used today. These limitations make magnets one-directional, able to exert a force in a only a single direction. This limits their efficiency when employed as actuaries in energy harvesting devices and other technologies.

But new research by scientists at Temple University and University of Maryland suggests a new type of magnetic material can change shape and volume -- making them omnidirectional -- and can transfer energy without generating much heat.

"We have discovered a new class of magnets, which we call 'Non-Joulian Magnets,' that show a large volume change in magnetic fields," Harsh Deep Chopra, professor and chair of mechanical engineering at Temple, explained in press release. "Moreover, these non-Joulian magnets also possess the remarkable ability to harvest or convert energy with minimal heat loss."

Chopra and his research partner, Manfred Wuttig, a material scientist at Maryland, discovered the new magnetic material after baking iron-based alloys in an oven at 1,400 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes, before rapidly cooling them. The process changed the organization of the magnets' molecules, creating a organized, cell-like structure, and altered the way they responded to magnetic energy.

These omnidirectional magnets could be used as sensors and actuators, and find a range of applications in aerospace, automobile, biomedical, space and robotics fields.

"Chopra and Wuttig's work is a good example of how basic research advances can be true game changers," said Tomasz Durakiewicz, director of the condensed matter physics program at the National Science Foundation, which provided funding for the study. "Their probing of generally accepted tenets about magnetism has led to a new understanding of an old paradigm. This research has the potential to catapult sustainable, energy-efficient materials in a very wide range of applications."

The new research is published in the journal Nature.

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