13 ADVANCED MATERIALS & PROCESSES | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024 EMERGING TECHNOLOGY AWARD SUPPORTS CARBON NANOTUBES RESEARCH A collaborative team of international researchers is studying carbon nanotube synthesis and its potential for producing industrial materials more sustainably. With over $4M of funding through the Los Angeles-based Kavli Foundation, the project will enable the development of new experimental and theoretical methods with wide-ranging applications in nanomaterials, energy, and more. The foundation’s $1.9M Kavli Exploration Award in Nanoscience for Sustainability sparked an additional $2.2M from Rice University’s Carbon Hub to pursue this important research. When synthesized and assembled properly, carbon nanotube fibers can achieve steel-like strength and conductivity comparable to copper, making them a promising and more sustainable candidate to replace conventional materials widely used in infrastructure. Raw materials to make nanotubes—natural gas and other hydrocarbons—can be accessed in vast quantities but are currently burned as fuels. As the world turns to non-carbon energy, this resource could become available to produce global quantities of nanotubes, replacing dirtier materials and generating clean hydrogen as a byproduct. Researchers hope to gain a more nuanced understanding of the reaction dynamics that produce carbon nanotubes. This includes creating new tools and analytical techniques to understand these complex reactions—including how temperature, pressure, and other conditions affect the products— and how to characterize the yielded carbon nanotubes. The approach of this project could also exemplify a path for other materials in the science of scaleup technologies. kavlifoundation.org, carbonhub.rice.edu. COOLING GLASS FIGHTS CLIMATE CHANGE To combat rising global temperatures, researchers at the University of Maryland (UMD) created a new cooling glass that can turn down the heat indoors without electricity by drawing on the cold depths of space. The new microporous glass coating can lower the temperature of the material beneath it by 3.5°C at noon and has the potential to reduce a mid-rise apartment building’s yearly carbon emissions by 10%, according to the research team. The coating works in two ways. First, it EMEREGNEINRG YTETCRHENDOSLOGY Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), Calgary, Alberta, launched Horizon New Energy, a company dedicated to increasing renewable energy in Canada. Horizon will focus on development and implementation of solar PV, onshore wind, and battery storage projects. www.horizonnewenergy.ca. BRIEF Scanning electron microscope image of carbon nanotubes. Courtesy of the Pasquali Research Group/Rice University. Prof. Liangbing Hu (le ) and assistant research scientist Xinpeng Zhao display a panel of steel coated with their new radiative cooling glass. Courtesy of A. James Clark School of Engineering/UMD. reflects up to 99% of solar radiation to stop buildings from absorbing heat. It then emits heat in the form of longwave infrared radiation into the icy universe, where the temperature is generally around -270°C, or just a few degrees above absolute zero. In a phenomenon known as radiative cooling, space effectively acts as a heat sink for the buildings. The new cooling glass design, in combination with the so-called atmospheric transparency window—a part of the electromagnetic spectrum that passes through the atmosphere without boosting its temperature—enables buildings to dump large amounts of heat into space. The team is now focusing on further testing and practical applications of their cooling glass and are optimistic about its commercialization prospects. umd.edu.
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