Ions

Heating and cooling systems are among the biggest guzzlers of energy. Berkeley Lab has now developed a new technology that heats and cools by switching a material between solid and liquid states, inducing a large temperature change from a small voltage.

MIT engineers have developed a new type of artificial synapse that’s extremely energy efficient and ultra-fast, processing data a million times faster than synapses in the human brain. The analog device shuttles protons around instead of electrons.

A team of MIT engineers have flown what was long thought impossible – a heavier than air craft that needs no moving parts for achieving powered lift. The 5-lb (2.3-kg) does not use propellers, turbines, or fans, but relies on a silent stream of ionized air to maintain steady flight.

Seawater is a complex cocktail of useful minerals, but it’s hard to separate the ones we need. Now a team of scientists from Australia and the US has developed a new water desalination technique that can not only make seawater fresh enough to drink, but recover lithium ions for use in batteries.

Magnesium-ion batteries have potential if scientists can crack the problem of finding an efficient electrolyte. Now scientists have developed a solid-state material that appears to be one of the fastest conductors of magnesium-ions, which could lead to safer and more efficient batteries.

Self-healing is an increasingly common ability in the world of new materials. Now, researchers have developed a stretchy, transparent material that can not only repair itself, but act as an ionic conductor, opening the possibility for self-healing artificial muscles.

Boeing has announced that the first satellite with all-electric propulsion is now fully operational. Launched last March, the ABS-3A satellite was formally handed over to its owner, telecommunications company ABS, on August 31.