science wire

The new Technology Outlook of the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences (SATW) showcases the most important findings of numerous Swiss experts from science and industry for a prosperous future. In the areas of Energy and Environment, Manufacturing Processes and Materials as well as Life Sciences, eleven scientists contributed to the identification of the most important trends and their impact on technology and society.

Converting electricity into hydrogen in order to store sustainable energy over a longer period is a hot topic. With the expertise and the tools of researchers, a master's student at ETH Zurich has investigated whether the use of a so-called power-to-hydrogen-to-power system in a multi-family house makes sense.

Researchers want to accelerate the development of urgently needed new energy storage systems with the help of the Aurora battery robot.

Switzerland is built, at least as far as the road network is concerned. Therefore - and despite recycling - significantly more reclaimed asphalt is generated today than can be reused in new roads.

Research institutes of the ETH Domain strengthen cooperation in strategic areas Energy transition, climate change, biodiversity and resource scarcity - today's challenges are complex, and the clock is ticking.

Switzerland hosts major events on the governance of mineral and metal resources Climate change discussions often overlook the central role played by the excessive extraction and use of natural resources.

The shortage of skilled workers is particularly pronounced in technical professions. Empa supports and promotes talented individuals at all levels, be it during their apprenticeship, studies, academic career or when starting a business.

At Empa, Dorina Opris is researching how to synthesize complex electroactive polymers for robotic components, sensors or batteries - a promising project that the European Research Council (ERC) is currently funding with one of its prestigious ERC Consolidator Grants.

Bruno Schuler and his young team are embarking on an ambitious research project: He will selectively generate defects in atomically-thin semiconductor layers and attempt to measure and control their quantum properties with simultaneous picosecond temporal resolu­tion and atomic precision. The resulting insights are expected to establish fundamental knowledge for future quantum computers.

New vehicles are responsible for around ten percent of plastic demand in the EU, and the automotive sector is the number one consumer of raw materials like aluminum, magnesium, platinum group metals, and rare earth elements.

The future Empa and Eawag campus is set to become an inspiring space for new ideas and innovation, also with a view to environmentally and climate-friendly construction of the future.

Plastics contain thousands of chemicals that can harm the environment and human health. Yet we know too little about approximately half of them.

Empa research helps Swiss watches to glow in the dark: The luminescent material Swiss Super-LumiNova, which was refined at Empa, now adorns the hands and dials of a number of wristwatches, including the MoonSwatch collection from Swatch and Omega.

The "Empa Zukunftsfonds" seeks private donors for outstanding research projects that are not (yet) supported elsewhere. For example a project from Empa's Surface Science and Coating Technologies laboratory: With the support of the Helmut Fischer and Anni Walther Foundation the researchers aim to accelerate the development of multifunctional thin films, which could be applied in electronic devices or high-performance optics.

We hope to lead you on a gripping journey through the world of research and innovation; you may be surprised at how broad the term "applied research" is defined at Empa.

If Switzerland wants to achieve its goal of zero net greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, it will have to rely on the use of negative emission technologies (NET), i.e. processes that remove CO2 from the atmosphere and store it for the long term. Although NETs can - in principle - help achieve climate targets, much is still unclear at present.

Interview with Peter Richner, energy expert and Empa's deputy director, on our energy future - and the pitfalls of "forecasting".

Glass bricks have long been popular in architecture for bringing more light into buildings. Until now, however, they have not been suitable for load-bearing walls and have not insulated well.

JUICE, the European spacecraft that is scheduled to launch later today, will explore Jupiter and its icy moons. Some of the components on board have been manufactured at Empa using a specially developed soldering process. Vibrations, vacuum, radiation and extreme temperature fluctuations: Scientific instruments intended for spacecraft must be able to withstand harsh conditions for years and still function with the utmost precision and reliability.

The Association for the Decarbonization of Industry (AfDI) has set itself the goal of developing rapidly implementable and holistic approaches for CO2 reduction in industrial processes.

Empa researcher Amy Knorpp wants to bring systematics into the young research field of high-entropy oxides.

Two young scientists each receive an Empa Entrepreneur Fellowship to develop innovative products based on their research.

Developing a product from an innovative technology takes years, sometimes decades. Gabor Kovacs has lived through this process with his spin-off CTsystems AG and electroactive polymers at Empa.

What might life in a circular economy look like? Empa and the St. Gallen University of Teacher Education (PHSG) are collaborating with gifted children to develop visions for a sustainable future and to compile them into an illustrated children's book.

Ice cores are a unique climate archive. Thanks to a new method developed by researchers at the University of Bern and Empa, greenhouse gas concentrations in 1.5 million year old ice can be measured even more accurately. The EU project "Beyond EPICA" with the participation of the University of Bern aims to recover such old ice in Antarctica.

Three institutes in the ETH Domain are conducting research on so-called perovskite-based optoelectronics, such as solar cells, photodetectors, and light-emitting diodes (LEDs). In a project called AMYS, labs of EPFL, ETH Zurich and Empa have now joined forces for four years to explore new chemical compositions, but also simple and scalable low cost production methods.

Electronic components are becoming smaller, more complex and more powerful - this calls for new solutions for joining them. An Empa team is developing nanostructured joining materials for the next generation of microelectronics and other demanding applications. Gordon Moore was right. In April 1965, the US engineer and later co-founder of Intel predicted that the number of transistors on a chip would double about every two years.

Researchers have analyzed soil samples from the Josefwiese on behalf of the city of Zurich and detected elevated dioxin levels.

Researchers want to develop a novel type of insulating material from plant-based raw materials or waste products that can permanently bind the CO2 it contains by means of a special heat treatment - and thus act as a CO2 sink.

Large amounts of particulate matter in the air are known to be harmful to human health. But many questions remain unanswered: Which components are particularly dangerous? At what concentrations? The "oxidative potential" of particulate matter could serve as a criterion for assessing risks in the future - and researchers have explored it for Switzerland.

Synthetic energy carriers are carbon-neutral and make renewable energy transportable and storable in the long term. Synthetically produced methane is one of them. The problem: The production involves rather high energy losses; moreover, existing processes require the methane to be purified. To change this, researchers have developed a new, optimized reactor concept for methanation.

Pierangelo Gröning, President of the Advanced Manufacturing Technology Transfer Center (AM-TTC) Alliance and Empa's Research Commission and member of Empa's Directorate, explains the research institute's role in AM research. What does the buzzword Advanced Manufacturing actually mean? What is so new about it? Today, modern materials science involves more than just the development of materials.

With a new project, Energy Future 2050, the Association of Swiss Electricity Companies VSE together with Empa shows based on various scenarios what Switzerland's energy supply could look like by 2050.

Empa researcher Thijs Defraeye has been appointed Special Professor Data and Simulations for Self-care Postharvest Fresh-food Supply Chains at the University of Wageningen's group of Food, Quality and Design.

Internationally recognized atmospheric scientist and Distinguished Senior Researcher at Empa: Dominik Brunner is a scientist who has explored his subject area from many angles - with a weatherproof motivation and curiosity that drives him to this day.

A consortium with researchers from the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), Empa and ETH Zurich has won funding of almost CHF1.3 million for a three-year project on open and reproducible materials science research.

With sensors that measure health parameters and can be worn on the body, we do let technology get very close to us.

Although they are indispensable nowadays, there is still a lack of knowledge and skepticism about batteries.