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There is more than just graphene: In an interdisciplinary project, researchers have focused on a new class of two-dimensional materials known as MXenes. This versatile group of materials is suitable for a wide range of applications, from energy storage to medicine. Two-dimensional materials consisting of a single layer of atoms are currently the subject of intense research.

Solid-state batteries do not use flammable liquid electrolytes and are therefore safer than conventional lithium-ion batteries.

It is not easy to bring new technologies from the laboratory to market. Researchers and companies face very different demands for new developments and do not always find common ground. Scientists at Empa and other institutions have analyzed two emerging solar cell technologies to identify the greatest risks.

Metallic glasses are novel materials with applications in space technology, but also in medicine and the watch industry. To better understand their properties and improve their production, researchers are conducting various experiments on board the International Space Station (ISS) in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA).

Anyone who has ever had to get a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan knows that magnetic and highly conductive materials are a no-go in the tube-shaped scanners. However, for complex diagnoses and medical research, this imaging technique often needs to be combined with other methods that require conductive cables.

Modeling the formation and distribution of trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) in the atmosphere In collaboration with the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (FoeN) and the University of Bern, researchers have investigated how trifluoroacetic acid (TFA), the smallest of the PFAS molecules, is formed in the atmosphere and enters water bodies via precipitation.

Ultra-light, super-flexible, highly insulating: An aluminum-coated polymer film is used to shield satellites from temperature extremes. Researchers at Empa have succeeded in making the material even more resistant by implementing an ultra-thin intermediate layer. The technology could in future also be used to improve flexible electronics and medical sensors.

To date, CO2 emissions in urban areas were typically monitored using emissions inventories. In the city of Zurich, they can now also be determined reliably based on atmospheric measurements. As part of the Europe-wide research project ICOS Cities, researchers tested this new approach and achieved results that were very close to the values calculated beforehand.

Researchers from Empa, EPFL and CSEM have developed a green smart sensing tag that measures temperature and humidity in real time - and can also detect whether a temperature threshold has been exceeded. In future, this could be used to monitor sensitive shipments such as medicines or food. The sensor tag itself is completely biodegradable.

When the forever chemicals known as PFAS enter the environment, they remain there for generations and can harm humans and nature. Despite increasing bans, many PFAS are still in circulation - including on Swiss ski slopes and cross-country trails, where the toxins enter the environment through abrasion from ski wax.

A study conducted across 43 European sites by an international scientific team coordinated shows that the ability of airborne particles to generate oxidative stress in the lungs varies according to environmental type and emission sources. Notably, oxidative stress can be up to three times higher in urban areas with heavy road traffic than in rural regions.

Modern printed circuit boards are made from petroleum-based materials and are difficult to recycle. researchers have developed a biodegradable version - an important step toward sustainable electronics. Their biomaterial is based entirely on wood and can be processed into functional circuit boards for electronic devices.

Hydrogen damages steels. High-strength steels, particularly those used to construct bridges, high-rise buildings and oil and gas infrastructure, are susceptible to embrittlement caused by atomic hydrogen coming from the environment. The complex mechanisms behind this are not yet fully understood. Native oxide films on steel can act as barriers to block hydrogen from entering the steel workpiece.

Researchers have succeeded for the first time in binding organic porphyrin molecules with functional metal centers to a graphene nanoribbon with atomic precision. The resulting hybrid system is magnetically and electronically coupled, paving the way for a wide range of applications in molecular electronics, from chemical sensing to quantum technologies.

Amorphous aluminum oxide is often used in the form of protective thin films and membranes. However, what happens at the atomic level in the material is poorly understood. Thanks to innovative experiments and machine learning, an interdisciplinary team of researchers was able to model its disordered structure with a high degree of accuracy for the first time.

Supercapacitors, or supercaps in short, are fast, powerful energy storage devices. They complement the relatively slow (dis-)charging batteries in numerous applications ranging from electric cars to industrial machines and wind turbines.

Researchers have developed innovative sound absorbers made of mineral foams. Not only are they significantly thinner than conventional materials, they can also be designed specifically for different frequencies. They have now been tested for the first time in a driveway in the city of Zurich to dampen street noise.

African scaly-tailed squirrels use their scaled tails to safely move across the smooth bark of trees in their native rainforest habitats. Researchers from Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, and the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems have for the first time investigated the physics of these thorn-covered scales located on the underside of the squirrel tails through mathematical and physical models.

Empa and the Touring Club Switzerland (TCS) have, for the first time, conducted a joint research project. The study set out to investigate how the noise levels of electric cars and cars with combustion engines differ. While hardly any differences can be detected at constant speed, e-cars are significantly quieter when accelerating.

Taking better photos with less light: That is the promise of perovskite-based image sensors. The innovative semiconductor material enables better color reproduction and fewer image artefacts. Moreover, perovskite sensors are particularly suitable for machine vision. Researchers at Empa and ETH Zurich have developed the technology from scratch.