article thumbnail

MIT engineers create 2D polymer that self-assembles into sheets

Green Car Congress

Using a novel polymerization process, MIT chemical engineers have created a new two-dimensional polymer that self-assembles into sheets, unlike all other polymers which form one-dimensional chains. Dubbs Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT and the senior author of the new study.

Polymer 435
article thumbnail

MIT, Scripps study examines behavior of midwater sediment plumes from deep-sea nodule mining

Green Car Congress

Now, oceanographers at MIT, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and elsewhere have carried out an experiment at sea for the first time to study the turbulent sediment plume that mining vessels would potentially release back into the ocean. —Thomas Peacock, professor of mechanical engineering at MIT and co-corresponding author.

MIT 397
article thumbnail

MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future suggests widespread autonomous driving at least a decade away

Green Car Congress

The MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future has released a new research brief examining the future of autonomous vehicles. The crucial role of public transit for connecting workers to workplaces will endure: the future of work depends in large part on how people get to work. The automated vehicle transition will not be jobless.

MIT 294
article thumbnail

MIT researchers significantly increase lifetimes of solid oxide fuel cells by changing pH

Green Car Congress

MIT researchers have found that changing the pH of the system can increase the lifetimes of a range of technologies including fuel cells. However, their commercial viability has been hampered, in part, because they degrade over time. An open-access paper on their work is published in the RSC journal Energy & Environmental Science.

MIT 218
article thumbnail

MIT, Brookhaven team develops simple method for stabilizing interfaces in solid-state lithium-ion batteries

Green Car Congress

Now, a team of researchers at MIT and Brookhaven National Laboratory has developed a way of achieving results that equal or surpass the durability of the coated surfaces, but with no need for any coatings. The findings are reported in an open-access paper in the journal Advanced Energy Materials.

article thumbnail

MIT proof-of-concept demo of ionic wind propulsion for aircraft

Green Car Congress

MIT researchers have demonstrated that an aircraft with a 5-meter wingspan can sustain steady-level flight using ionic-wind propulsion. The aircraft has no moving parts, does not depend on fossil fuels to fly, and is completely silent. The MIT team’s final design resembles a large, lightweight glider. —Xu et al.

MIT 303
article thumbnail

MIT Professor’s IoT Sensors Make Roads Safer

Cars That Think

Back in 2005, before smartphones were generally available, MIT Professor Hari Balakrishnan was so fed up with commuting delays in Boston that he built a mobile system to monitor road conditions. He interviewed for a faculty position at MIT and knew immediately it was where he wanted to work, he says. In the final year of his Ph.D.,

MIT 127