I resent the noise of the printer, printer jams, shaking the toner cartridge, the harsh chemicals involved, and the amount of electricity it takes to print on a sheet of paper. I resent those things with the heat of a thousand suns.

But … just when I believed that I had calcified in my negative stance on all forms of printing, I learned that MIT engineers recently revealed a process they’ve developed to produce printed solar cells.  Their flexible cells can be printed on paper or fabric and folded over 1,000 times without losing efficiency, and they’re not energy-intensive to produce!  I was cautiously optimistic: maybe, I thought, printing doesn’t have to be completely evil?

Photos: Patrick Gillooly/MIT

The creation of typical solar cells involves exposing substrates to intense chemicals and high temperatures, which necessitates a whole lotta energy consumption.  MIT’s new fancy solar cells “are formed by placing five layers of material onto  a single sheet of  paper in successive passes. A mask is utilized to form the cell patterns, and  the entire printing process is done in a vacuum chamber” (Singh).  Fabric and paper substrates weigh less than the glass and other heavy backing materials that are typically used, and researchers think that they’re well on the way to developing scalable cells for use in photovoltaic arrays.

So here’s what I’ll say: the day my office printer can power itself by printing out solar cells is the day I will let go of these negative emotions and learn to forgive.

Click  here to see the technology in action (via Inhabitat).

WU XING:

I have filed MIT’s solar cells under water (because of the gentle process) and wood (because they’re flexible and can be printed on paper). And also, privately, under awesome.

Cited:

Singh, Timon. “MIT Unveils Flexible Solar Cells Printed on Paper.” Inhabitat.com 07/11/11. Accessed 07/12/11. URL.

So given these conditions, it will come as no surprise that researchers led by Peter McGrail out of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have been working a new porous nanomaterial that improves an existing process used for refrigeration and air conditioning called adsorption chilling.

Image courtesy colmaccoil.com

All refrigerators and air conditioners make the environment cooler by creating phase changes in a refrigerant so that the chemical absorbs heat.  Most familiar air conditioners use electrically driven compressors to mechanically compress the vaporized refrigerant, whereas adsorption chillers use heat to condense the refrigerant. Evaporated refrigerant “adheres to a surface of a solid, such as silica gel. The silica gel can hold a large amount of water in a small space—it essentially acts as a sponge for the water vapor. When the gel is heated, it releases the water molecules into a chamber. As the concentration of water vapor in the chamber increases, the pressure rises until the water condenses” (Bullis). When that happens, heat is absorbed out of the environment and the newly cooled people rejoice!

Image courtesy emissionless.com

Historically, bulky adsorption chillers have been more expensive and far less efficient to operate than chillers that use electrical compressors.  The flip side is that they are cheap to operate and, if you’re an industrial facility or power plant manager who has massive quantities of waste heat lying around, you can practically run them for free. That’s right people: absolutamente GRATIS.

The new material will make it easier to cool smaller buildings with solar water heaters or waste heat from generators by shrinking the hulking adsorption machines by 75% in size and cutting associated costs in half (Bullis).  Size and cost reductions could make adsorption chillers competitive with compressor driven chillers.

The researchers’ nanomaterial consists of “nanoscopic structures that self-assemble into complex three-dimensional shapes. It’s more porous than silica gel, with a larger surface area for water molecules to cling to. As a result, it can trap three to four times more water, by weight, than silica gel, which helps reduce the size of the chiller” (Bullis). The other interesting thing about the material is that it forms weak bonds with water molecules.  This is a good thing because it means less heat is required to free the molecules (or other refrigerants), making the process of adsorbing and desorbing water 50-100 times faster.

While the nanomaterial definitely makes adsorption chilling more attractive, it’s tricky to match the demand for cooling with the production of heat. For example, if you needed to run the chiller when the sun had set because you lived somewhere humid, you might need a heat storage system (and those can be expensive). Still, anytime things get more efficient a little fairy creature gets some wings!

WU XING:

Cited:

Bullis, Kevin. “Using Heat to Cool Buildings.” Technology Review Online. 03/30/11. Accessed 06/29/11. URL.

Image courtesy todayifoundout.com

A fascinating new metal alloy material under development by researchers at the University of Minnesota, led by Professor Richard James, works similar to a generator, producing electric current in the presence of heat energy.

Ni45Co5Mn40Sn10 is a composite of nickel, cobalt, manganese and tin that is multiferroic (has both magnetism and ferroelectricity, yeilding permanent electric polarization).  The alloy “undergoes a reversible phase transformation, in which one type of solid turns into another type of solid when the temperature changes…. Specifically, the alloy goes from being non-magnetic to highly magnetized. The temperature only needs to be raised a small amount for this to happen” (Boyle).  So when you heat this stuff up and place it near a permanent magnet (perhaps a rare-earth magnet) the alloy’s magnetic force increases with all the dramatic intensity of Joan Crawford, producing a current in a nearby coil.

Image courtesy popsci.com

A process called hysteresis, which makes me imagine sixteen distraught women in togas running down the street screaming, crying, and tearing their hair out, causes a small fraction of the heat energy to be lost. Despite all the hysteresis, researchers believe the alloy could be used to convert waste heat energy into large amounts of electricity. Cha ching!

Auto manufacturers are currently working on heat transfer devices that can convert hot car exhaust into useable electricity.  General Motors has been looking at alloys called “skutterudites” made from cobalt-arsenide materials “doped with rare earths” (Boyle). The material could also be used to make heat-capture devices that could be placed near the rare earth magnets in hybrid car batteries, or used for power plants or even ocean thermal energy generators, according to the researchers.

WU XING:

I have filed this post under Metals due to the prevalence of the alloys and the metals and whatnot.

Cited:

Boyle, Rebecca. “New Alloy can Convert Heat Directly into Electricity.” Popsci. 06/22/11. Accessed 06/24/11. URL.

When I think about a gas mask, for some reason my mind flits to a memory of a series of drawings by British sculptor Henry Moore, which I encountered at the Hirshorn while wandering through the Smithsonian one afternoon during college. The London Underground functioned as a shelter during WWII, and Moore made a series of dark gray moody drawings that convey his experiences sleeping in the tunnels along with thousands of other Londoners at the height of the Blitz.  I’m not really sure if any of the drawings actually depicted people wearing gas masks, but that feeling of darkness and suffocation seems like it might be the common thread.

Image courtesy www.tate.org.uk

You may be asking yourself why on earth a person would be thinking about gas masks on a rainy morning while conducting materials research; let me assure you it’s not because somebody forgot to take out the garbage last night (but seriously, how hard is it to take out the trash!?)

Image courtesy thesurvivalzone.com

Gas masks and respirators, worn by emergency response teams and others who require protection from harmful vapors, contain carbon filters (activated charcoal), which traps the toxins before they can enter the lungs. The problem is that once the carbon filter saturates, it allows harmful chemicals to fly on through the canister without so much as a by-your-leave. Emergency workers currently rely on safety protocols that describe the length of time a gas mask can be worn without changing the mask, but there are too many variables to be completely certain that the charcoal filters are working.

In response to this problem, researchers at the University of California, San Diego working with Tyco Electronics have created a new kind of sensor from carbon nanostructures that could be used to warn emergency workers when the filters in their respirators have become saturated and no longer offer adequate protection. The new microsensors can provide a more accurate reading of how much material has been absorbed by the carbon in the filters (R&D Magazine). 

The researchers “assembled the nanofibers into repeating structures called photonic crystals that reflect specific wavelengths, or colors, of light. The wing scales of the Morpho butterfly, which give the insect its brilliant iridescent coloration, are natural examples of this kind of structure.  The sensors are an iridescent color too, rather than black like ordinary carbon. That color changes when the fibers absorb toxins – a visible indication of their capacity for absorbing additional chemicals” (Brown). You can learn more about the nanoscale structures that make up butterfly wings here.

Image: Timothy Kelly, UCSD Chemistry and Biochemistry

 Image: Brian King, UCSD Chemistry and Biochemistry

The UCSD team fabricated nanotubes that are less than half the width of a human hair.  The photonic sensors can be placed on the tips of optical fibers less than a millimeter across, and can be inserted into respirator cartridges.  According to the researchers, the crystals are sensitive enough to detect chemicals such as toluene at concentrations as low as one part per million (R&D Magazine).

I think these sensors have a wider applicability than just gas masks, however.  Green Building certification systems such as LEED or Green Globes give points for “flushing” a building after construction but prior to handing it over to occupants in order to lower the concentration of volatile organic compounds being emitted by things like paint, adhesives, carpet, plastics, etc. Imagine if you could tell by looking at the color of a sensor whether a building is safe to inhabit from a VOC standpoint?

WU XING:

Filed under fire and wood – because of the carbon and the charcoal.

Cited:

Brown, Susan. “New Material Could Improve Safety for First Responders to Emergencies.” UC San Diego News Center. 04/29/11. Accessed 05/02/11. URL.

R&D Magazine. “New Material Could Improve Safety for First Responders to Chemical Hazards.” 05/02/11. Accessed 05/02/11. URL.

Have you met TED?

No, I’m not playing wingman for Ted Mosby.  TED is a conference during which exceedingly smart, skillful people present their work in 20 minutes or less.  The presentations are published on the Internets and made available to the world at large for the low price of $free.99.  TED talks are an amazing source of inspiration and information – and some of them feature innovative materials! Therefore, in this post I present three TED talks that relate in some way to the content on ARCHITERIALS:

 1. Thomas Thwaites: How I built a Toaster from Scratch – TED Salon London, 2010.

“It takes an entire civilization to build a toaster. Designer Thomas Thwaites found out the hard way, by attempting to build one from scratch: mining ore for steel, deriving plastic from oil … it’s frankly amazing he got as far as he got. A parable of our interconnected society, for designers and consumers alike.”

This talk resonated for many reasons, not the least of which is that I’ve been trying to make plastic at home and it’s quite difficult. You can see the results of some of my early experiments here on flickr.

2. Kate Orff: Reviving New York’s Rivers – with Oysters! TED women, 2010.

“Architect Kate Orff sees the oyster as an agent of urban change. Bundled into beds and sunk into city rivers, oysters slurp up pollution and make legendarily dirty waters clean — thus driving even more innovation in “oyster-tecture.” Orff shares her vision for an urban landscape that links nature and humanity for mutual benefit.”

Oysters are amazing creatures. Laste year I wrote about the adhesive they use to adhere themselves to this and that underwater object (read the post here) and I will admit that since the time of that writing I ate one. That’s right people – I ate an oyster (cooked and covered with butter and cheese). I’d be lying if I said I didn’t like it, but then again is there anything that doesn’t taste pretty good when coated in butter and cheese? On second thought, don’t answer that.

3. Eben Bayer: Are Mushrooms the New Plastic? TED global, 2010.

“Product designer Eben Bayer reveals his recipe for a new, fungus-based packaging material that protects fragile stuff like furniture, plasma screens — and the environment.”

I also wrote about mushrooms as a building material/packing material, and it’s nice to be able to learn about the product from the horse’s mouth, so to speak. Not that Eben Bayer is in any way like a horse (it’s a metaphor). And, in case you wondered, I have not voluntarily eaten mushrooms since I wrote about how they are being used as a packing material.

Hope you enjoyed these talks as much as I did – and if you stumble across any other videos that are materials-centric please let me know in the comments or send me an email.

ARCHITERIALS is a year old now, and like most healthy, well-adjusted one-year-olds it needs to be changed constantly, crawls all over my apartment, and makes strange burbling noises.  No, really – it does.  It’s terrifying.

Over the past year I’ve profiled approximately 65 materials and learned about blogging, bacteria, and biscuits, although I must confess that the biscuts were a side project.  A delicious, buttery side project.  Anyhow, to celebrate the birthday of ARCHITERIALS and the fact that the tagline “Investigating architectural materials since 2010” has finally attained temporal legitimacy, I’ve compiled for this, the 10th day of January,  a list of 10 materials from 2010 that are generally awesome.  I’ve also summarized the awesomeness of each material in a brief paragraph, and I’ve tried to frame each one as part of a larger, sort of big-picture trend in materials science that I’m studying.  Should you click on the links and read the detailed posts about each material for more information? Definitely. 

Finally, thank you so much to those who’ve submitted information, followed, liked, and posted photos over the past year, I appreciate it more than you can imagine!  Keep the materials coming and do tell your friends if your friends seem like people who might be interested in ARCHITERIALS.

Ten Awesome Materials from 2010 and Reasons They are Awesome:

1.  Materials that can be deployed in disasters or used to improve living conditions:  Concrete Cloth

Concrete cloth is a concrete-impregnated fabric that is fire-proof, waterproof, moldable, drapeable, durable and generally fantastic.  Applications include: gabion reinforcement, sandbag defenses, ground surfacing/dust suppression, ditch lining, landing surfaces, formwork, spill containment and landfill lining, waterproofing, building cladding, boat ramps, erosion control, roof repair, water and septic tanks.  Concrete cloth solves problems you don’t even know you have, although nothing can repair your terrible relationship with your mother-in-law.   

2.  Sustainable, non-toxic materials:  Reclaimed Wood and Agricultural Fiber Panels

Kirei Board, Kirei Coco Tiles and Kirei Wheatboard made from the non-food portions (stalks and husks) of sorghum, coconut, and wheat plants.  The agricultural fiber that’s not sold by farmers for use in the manufacture of Kirei board takes up space in landfills or gets burned up and pollutes the air – therefore repurposing it cuts down on that sort of thing.  Sustainable building materials make the planet happy, and a happy planet makes for happy people. 

3.  Biodegradable materials:  Arbofoam

As it turns out, lignin can be transformed into a renewable plastic if it’s combined with resins, flax and other natural fibers. The resulting bio-plastic, called Arboform, can be thermoformed, foamed, or molded via injection machines.  It’s durable and super-precise when it’s cast, and it degrades similar to wood into water, humus, and carbon dioxide. It’s very cool stuff indeed and I’d love it if someone would send me information about a project where it’s been used.  Biodegradable materials cut down on landfill and reduce environmental pollution. 

4.  Thermoplastic/thermoelastic/thermoformed/thermo-etcetera materials:  Chemical Velcro

How could you not get excited about an adhesive 10 times stickier than Velcro and the reusable gecko-inspired glues that many research groups have been trying to perfect that comes apart when heated??!  I have been trying without success to get my hands on some of this to build demountable partition walls for my tiny apartment, and I’m not giving up.  Materials that respond to changes in temperature by changing their behavior or attributes will find widespread application in the future. 

5.  Materials that clean and sanitize themselves:  Liquid Glass

Liquid glass a coating that takes advantages of the unique properties of materials at nanoscale.  It is environmentally harmless and non-toxic, and easy to clean using only water or a simple wipe with a damp cloth. It repels bacteria, water and dirt, and resists heat, UV light and even acids.  According to manufacturers, you can spray liquid glass on everything from wood to seeds to your sneakers.  It could someday replace all the toxic cleaning products you currently use to tidy and disinfect, and it reportedly costs about 8 dollars.  Materials that clean and sanitize themselves cut down on the need for toxic chemicals and pollutants. 

6.  Materials that emit light efficiently:   White LED Lights

White LED lights emit more light than a typical 20-watt fluorescent bulb, as well as more light for a given amount of power. With these improvements, the new LEDs can replace traditional fluorescent bulbs for all general lighting applications, and also be used for automobile headlights and LCD backlighting.  Shedding light on any given subject has never been more efficient.  As we transition to alternative forms of energy we are also looking for materials that emit light without using much energy in the first place.

7.  Nanomaterials:  Gold Nanoparticles

Gold nanoparticles can be used to further increase the efficiency of LED lights.  Researchers have implanted the particles in the leaves of aquatic plants, causing the leaves to emit red light.  Theoretically, the light produced by the leaves could cause their chloroplasts to conduct photosynthesis, meaning that no additional energy source would be needed to power the process.  In fact, the leaves would actually work overtime, absorbing CO₂ at night.  Nanomaterials allow us to intervene in processes like photosynthesis with a previously unheard-of degree of delicacy.

8.  Materials that augment already useful material properties:  Bendywood 

Bendywood is wood that has been pre-compressed so that it can be easily bent by hand.  The tension that forms on the outside of a bend merely returns the plant cells to their former shape, and the wood doesn’t break.  The material is delightfully flexible and pliable.  Bendywood was developed for indoor uses such as furniture, handrails, or curved mouldings, and it shows enormous promise.  Materials like Bendywood amplify the appealing properties of familiar materials so that it’s even easier to use them to our benefit.

9.  Bio-based materials:  Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP)

At the intersection of biology and solar tech, there are jellyfish that produce green fluorescent protein (GFP).  Dripping GFP onto a silicon dioxide substrate between two electrodes causes it to work itself into strands, creating a circuit that absorbs photons and emits electrons in the presence of ultraviolet light.  The electron current (aka electricity) can then be used to power your hairdryer.  I’m completely fascinated by materials that help us to blur the boundaries between biological and man-made machines.

10.  Materials that repair themselves:  Bacilla Filla

Bacilla Filla is a material that patches up the cracks in concrete structures, restoring buildings damaged by seismic events or that have deteriorated over time.  Custom-designed bacteria burrows deep into the cracks in concrete, where they produce a mix of calcium carbonate and a special bacteria glue that hardens to the same strength of the surrounding concrete.  Materials that can detect their own flaws and damage and repair themselves will revolutionize the way we build and think about building materials in the future.

By the way, ARCHITERIALS can also be searched by tags – look for the amazing tag cloud in the sidebar if you have flash, and for the less amazing tag list if you do not.

ARCHITIZER

“Architizer is a new way for architects to interact, show their work, and find clients. It is an open community created by architects for architects. One architectural project has dozens of contributors, from the intern who made the conceptual models to the construction administrator. A project on Architizer links all members of the architectural community.”

I tend to think of Architizer as a kind of portfolio-driven facebook/linked-in hybrid for Architect types.  If you scroll down the homepage past a slightly slow to load map, you will find a block titled “Materials” just above one called “Suppliers” where all the tags are listed.  These allow you to sort through projects by, you guessed it, material or vendor.  They’ve got an informative blog going as well, which is highly enjoyable.

ARCHDAILY

“ArchDaily was founded in March 2008 with the one mission of delivering the most complete information to architects around the world; every week, every day, every hour, every moment: as soon as it is happening. It is the online source of continuous information for a growing community of thousands of architects searching for the latest architectural news: projects, products, events, interviews and competitions among others.”

Here again you can sort blog posts by keyword, and although the keyword section is not particularly materials-centric, the cloud contains generic material related keywords.  Scrolling down and looking to the “Browse By Category” section, you will find the helpful “Building Technology and Materials Category” for your delectation.

OPEN BUILDINGS

Open Buildings is a “crowd sourced global directory of buildings” with a corresponding iPhone App.  You can use the app to find buildings that have been submitted to the site while you are on the go.  It’s also possible to visit their website and sort the projects that are featured there by material; simply navigate to the search page and scroll down until you see “by material” on the side of the page.

 Please enjoy searching through projects by material, and do let me know if you have other sources!