A UK consortium has announced the development of its first generation of high performance composites made from natural renewable fibres such as hemp and flax, with polypropylene and polylactic acid. The COMBINE project could help create more environmentally friendly structural components in the transport, medical and construction sectors, say researchers.
The risk of fraudsters or terrorists hacking into our personal data will reduce if novel ultrathin switches are incorporated into biometric passports and contactless credit cards, says the team at Peratech in Richmond, UK. The technology is made from quantum tunnelling composites (QTCs) and allows the owner to restrict when sensitive information, contained in radio frequency identification (RFID) microchips, is read by pressing the control.
Spanish researchers hope to enhance the efficiency of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) by producing a super lattice that improves ionic conductivity near room temperature by a factor of almost 100 million.
Barrie James Hayes, formerly of the Bonded Structures Division of Ciba and Ciba Speciality Chemicals, both of Duxford, Cambridgeshire in the UK, is the 2008 recipient of the de Bruyne medal.
The Caparo T1 track car, made using novel manufacturing techniques
for carbon composite parts, is in its final lap as the first production
specification vehicles are to be launched later this year. Capro aims to make carbon composite parts more affordable for use in lightweight vehicles to reduce carbon emissions and improve fuel economy.
