Common Paradox Tech Blog

It seems like we’re constantly hearing about promising battery technologies that could ultimately lead to longer battery life, more power, and smaller units, but as of yet, that big breakthrough hasn’t occurred. Maybe nanotechnology, which is the current hot topic in the battery innovations field, will prove to be different.

Right at this moment, a ton of research is being put into carbon nanotubes (CNTs) for a bunch of uses, including electronics and batteries. Researchers are drawn to CNTs because, according to them, carbon nanotubes are near perfect. That has paved the way for a professor and a UC San Diego graduate student to discover a breakthrough that involves introducing purposeful defects into CNT structures. By doing so, the ‘defective’ CNTs actually work better for the development of super capacitors, DailyTech reports.

"While batteries have large storage capacity, they take a long time to charge; while electrostatic capacitors can charge quickly but typically have limited capacity. However, super capacitors electrochemical capacitors incorporate the advantages of both," Professor Prabhakar Bandaru said.

The duo also discovered that other methods, such as bombarding CNTs with argon or hydrogen, could also increase or decrease the charge capacity. In the end, the two researchers believe that their discovery could ultimately lead to electronics that charge faster and last longer than what’s available today.

Image Credit: jacobsschool.ucsd.edu

It seems like we’re constantly hearing about promising battery technologies that could ultimately lead to longer battery life, more power, and smaller units, but as of yet, that big breakthrough hasn’t occurred. Maybe nanotechnology, which is the current hot topic in the battery innovations field, will prove to be different.

Right at this moment, a ton of research is being put into carbon nanotubes (CNTs) for a bunch of uses, including electronics and batteries. Researchers are drawn to CNTs because, according to them, carbon nanotubes are near perfect. That has paved the way for a professor and a UC San Diego graduate student to discover a breakthrough that involves introducing purposeful defects into CNT structures. By doing so, the ‘defective’ CNTs actually work better for the development of super capacitors, DailyTech reports.

"While batteries have large storage capacity, they take a long time to charge; while electrostatic capacitors can charge quickly but typically have limited capacity. However, super capacitors electrochemical capacitors incorporate the advantages of both," Professor Prabhakar Bandaru said.

The duo also discovered that other methods, such as bombarding CNTs with argon or hydrogen, could also increase or decrease the charge capacity. In the end, the two researchers believe that their discovery could ultimately lead to electronics that charge faster and last longer than what’s available today.

Image Credit: jacobsschool.ucsd.edu

It’ll be a while before the first commercially viable fusion facility, ITER in France, is powered up. But before that can even ever happen, there’s a need for a massive amount of coconut-shell charcoal which’ll absorb byproducts of thermonuclear reactions.

Yes, coconut-shell charcoal plays a key role in a facility which is estimated to turn into a $10 billion project because for some weird reason the stuff acts like an “environmental sponge” and sucks up helium and hydrogen byproducts like nothing else. Experiments with the Tokamak reactor which is the heart of the ITER facility won’t even start until 2018, but I’m already getting concerned about what’s going to happen to the world supply of coconuts now. [H+ Magazine via Slashdot]

An anonymous reader writes “The CEO of an Australian ISP has driven his Tesla Roadster into the record books, completing 501km on a single electric charge in the 2009 Global Green Challenge — beating the Roadster’s official specifications, which rate the all-electric sports car as being capable of a maximum of 390km per charge. The previous record was held by another Roadster in the 387km Rallye Monte Carlo d’Energies Alternatives in April this year. In a race specifically designed for alternative energy vehicles (such as hydrogen and electricity), the Roadster was the only vehicle to complete the entire course. Though to be fair, that race course was a mixture of twists, turns and hills.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader writes “It would take about 39 days to reach Mars, compared to six months by conventional rocket power. ‘This engine is in fact going to be tested on the International Space Station, launched about 2013,’ astronaut Chris Hadfield said. The Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR®) system encompasses three linked magnetic cells. The ‘Plasma Source’ cell involves the main injection of neutral gas (typically hydrogen, or other light gases) to be turned into plasma and the ionization subsystem. The ‘RF Booster’ cell acts as an amplifier to further energize the plasma to the desired temperature using electromagnetic waves. The ‘Magnetic Nozzle’ cell converts the energy of the plasma into directed motion and ultimately useful thrust.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

You don’t need crazy parents to fly away in the atmosphere and spark a massive police search. In fact, there’s a whole subculture of backyard blimp crazies.

The big trick with these homemade blimps is using hot air (read:fire) for lift power, like a hot air balloon, instead of helium or hydrogen. Dan Nachbar’s Skyacht is one of the more intensely engineered crafts, with steerable thrust and an intricate system of ribs that lets the engine sit in the tail itself. Brian Boland’s Lips, on the other hand, has a simpler design, and fits in the back of a car.

If I built a blimp, I would make it look like a shark, and I would sneak up on other people’s blimps, so it would look like my blimp was about to eat theirs. [Popular Mechanics]

Researcher Mohd Abubakr says that his circular periodic table is better than Mendeleev’s. I’d have given him the Nobel in chemistry—if Obama hadn’t got it first for mixing himself a whiskey with Red Bull onboard Air Force One.

Abubakr—who works at Microsoft Research in Hyderabad—says that if you arrange the table in circular form it gives you an idea of the size of the atoms. The closer to the center, the smaller the atom element would be. That’s why hydrogen and helium—with less atomic weight—are the nearest to its center. His table also preserves the periods and groups, and manages to look neat and pretty at the same time.

The Physics arXiv Blog at MIT’s Technology Review disagrees. They said that the table is flawed because it can only be read by rotating it—which doesn’t make much sense, since you can easily rotate an image on the screen. Their other criticism is valid, however: They say that the genius of Mendeleev’s table is that it can “predict the properties of undiscovered elements,” arguing that Abubakr’s table is not as intuitive.

Whatever MIT people, you chemistry dorks you, I just like how it looks. [Technology Review]

Matt_dk sends word that NASA has chosen a new target crater into which to crash the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) mission vehicles. “The decision means that when NASA’s LCROSS probe and its spent Centaur rocket stage slam into the moon on Oct. 9, they will crash into the large crater Cabeus, and not the nearby (and smaller) Cabeus A crater that was previously targeted. … The data suggests the new target Cabeus has a concentration of hydrogen — an indication of possible water ice — that’s higher than anywhere else at the lunar south pole. … A small valley etched into the otherwise tall crater ridge of Cabeus should allow sunlight to shine on the ejecta cloud kicked up when LCROSS and its Centaur rocket stage crash into the moon in successive impacts.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.