Innovative uses of nanotechnology could be good for the environment, and people’s health.
The Bavarian project association – UMWELTnanoTECH – is given funds by the Bavarian State Ministry for the Environment and Consumer Protection each year to fund around ten projects.
This year, some of the findings have been exciting from an environmental perspective, Nanowerk revealed.
Among the projects highlighted by the website was one looking at increased storage capacity for hybrid capacitors. Professor Gerhard Sextl and his team at the University of Würzburg have been working on making hybrid capacitors into highly energy efficient stores.
What’s more, the researchers have found a way to do this in an environmentally compatible process.
It involves coating the electrodes, which are at the heart of the hybrid capacitors, with modified active materials including lithium iron phosphate and lithium titanate. This means the researchers have been able to achieve storage capacities twice as high as those that use traditional supercapacitor electrode materials.
Professor Sextl told the website that what they’ve developed takes advantage of the benefits of both systems.
“This has brought us one step closer to implementing a new, fast and reliable storage concept,” he added.
A report published earlier this month by Grand View Research revealed that the global technical ceramics market is predicted to grow in value by ten per cent between 2016 and 2024.
The report also highlighted titanates as the fastest growing material segment in this time, largely due to their increasing use as capacitors. According to the research, they’re expected to experience a compound annual growth rate of 11 per cent in terms of revenue in the coming eight years.
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