A team of engineers and material scientists in the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering at 兔子先生传媒文化作品 has developed a new technology to turn thermal radiation into electricity in a way that literally teases the basic law of thermal physics.

The breakthrough was discovered by the , led by Assistant Professor Longji Cui. Their work, in collaboration with researchers from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, was recently .

The group says their research has the potential to revolutionize manufacturing industries by increasing power generation without the need for high temperature heat sources or expensive materials. They can store clean energy, lower carbon emissions and harvest heat from geothermal, nuclear and solar radiation plants across the globe.

In other words, Cui and his team have solved an age-old puzzle: how to do more with less.

鈥淗eat is a renewable energy source that is often overlooked,鈥� Cui said. 鈥淭wo-thirds of all energy that we use is turned into heat. Think of energy storage and electricity generation that doesn鈥檛 involve fossil fuels. We can recover some of this wasted thermal energy and use it to make clean electricity.鈥�

Breaking the physical limit in vacuum

High-temperature industrial processes and renewable energy harvesting techniques often utilize a thermal energy conversion method called thermophotovoltaics (TPV). This method harnesses thermal energy from high temperature heat sources to generate electricity.

But existing TPV devices have one constraint: Planck鈥檚 thermal radiation law.

PhD student Mohammad Habibi showcasing one of the group's TPV cells used for power generation. Habibi was the leader of both the theory and experimentation of this groundbreaking research.

鈥淧lanck鈥檚 law, one of most fundamental laws in thermal physics, puts a limit on the available thermal energy that can be harnessed from a high temperature source at any given temperature,鈥� said Cui, also a faculty member affiliated with the Materials Science and Engineering Program and the Center for Experiments on Quantum Materials. 鈥淩esearchers have tried to work closer or overcome this limit using many ideas, but current methods are overly complicated to manufacture the device, costly and unscalable.鈥�

That鈥檚 where Cui鈥檚 group comes in. By designing a unique and compact TPV device that can fit in a human hand, the team was able to overcome the vacuum limit defined by Planck鈥檚 law and double the yielded power density previously achieved by conventional TPV designs.

鈥淲hen we were exploring this technology, we had theoretically predicted a high level of enhancement. But we weren鈥檛 sure what it would look like in a real world experiment,鈥� said Mohammad Habibi, a PhD student in Cui鈥檚 lab and leader of both the theory and experiment of this research. 鈥淎fter performing the experiment and processing the data, we saw the enhancement ourselves and knew it was something great.鈥�

The zero-vacuum gap solution using glass

The research emerged, in part, from the group鈥檚 desire to challenge the limits. But in order to succeed, they had to modify existing TPV designs and take a different approach.

鈥淭here are two major performance metrics when it comes to TPV devices: efficiency and power density,鈥� said Cui. 鈥淢ost people have focused on efficiency. However, our goal was to increase power.鈥�

The zero-vacuum gap TPV device, designed by the Cui Research Group.

To do so, the team implemented what鈥檚 called a 鈥渮ero-vacuum gap鈥� solution into the design of their TPV device. Unlike other TPV models that feature a vacuum or gas-filled gap between the thermal source and the solar cell, their design features an insulated, high index and infrared-transparent spacer made out of just glass.

This creates a high power density channel that allows thermal heat waves to travel through the device without losing strength, drastically improving power generation. The material is also very cheap, one of the device鈥檚 central calling cards.

鈥淧reviously, when people wanted to enhance the power density, they would have to increase temperature. Let鈥檚 say an increase from 1,500 C to 2,000 C. Sometimes even higher, which eventually becomes not tolerable and unsafe for the whole energy system,鈥� Cui explained. 鈥淣ow we can work in lower temperatures that are compatible with most industrial processes, all while still generating similar electrical power than before. Our device operates at 1,000 C and yields power equivalent to 1,400 C in existing gap-integrated TPV devices.鈥�

The group also says their glass design is just the tip of the iceberg. Other materials could help the device produce even more power.

鈥淭his is the first demonstration of this new TPV concept,鈥� explained Habibi. 鈥淏ut if we used another cheap material with the same properties, like amorphous silicon, there is a potential for an even higher, nearly 20 times more increase in power density. That鈥檚 what we are looking to explore next.鈥�

The broader commercial impact

Assistant Professor Longji Cui (middle) and the Cui Research Group.

Cui says their novel TPV devices would make its largest impact by enabling portable power generators and decarbonizing heavy emissions industries. Once optimized, they have the power to transform high-temperature industrial processes, such as the production of glass, steel and cement with cheaper and cleaner electricity.

鈥淥ur device uses commercial technology that already exists. It can scale up naturally to be implemented in these industries,鈥� said Cui. 鈥淲e can recover wasted heat and can provide the energy storage they need with this device at a low working temperature.

鈥淲e have a patent pending based on this technology and it is very exciting to push this renewable innovation forward within the field of power generation and heat recovery.鈥� 

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When it comes to putting science into action, last year was one for the record books. From July 2023 to June 2024, 兔子先生传媒文化作品 helped to launch 35 new companies based on research at the university鈥攁 big tick up from the previous record of 20 companies in fiscal year 2021.

The new businesses are embracing technologies from the worlds of healthcare, agriculture, clean energy and more鈥攊ncluding sensors that could one day help farmers improve their crop yields and breathalyzers that can detect signs of infection in the air you breathe out.

Here鈥檚 a look at how scientists, with the help of the university鈥檚 commercialization arm Venture Partners at 兔子先生传媒文化作品, seek to use discoveries from the lab to make a difference in peoples鈥� lives.

Mana Battery: Cheaper, longer lasting batteries for clean energy

This company is set to spark a renewable energy revolution. Founded by Chunmei Ban, associate professor in the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering, along with CU alumni Nick Singstock and Tyler Evans, Mana Battery is developing a cheaper, safer and longer lasting alternative to the traditional lithium-ion battery.

Lithium-ion batteries are the most common type of rechargeable battery on the planet, powering everything from TV remotes to cell phones and even electric vehicles. But the materials used in these batteries, such as lithium and cobalt, are rare and expensive. In contrast, Mana鈥檚 batteries run on sodium, an abundant mineral, offering a more affordable and sustainable alternative.

Currently, sodium-ion batteries come with a host of technological challenges. For example, they typically store less energy than lithium-ion batteries of the same size. 

Ban and her team are working on improving sodium-ion battery designs to increase the amount of energy they can store. Their goal is to develop sodium-ion batteries with the same energy density as lithium-ion batteries at just 35% to 75% of the cost. 

The renewable energy industry could reap the benefits. Sodium-ion batteries could store excess clean energy generated by solar panels or wind turbines, providing power even during cloudy or windless days.  

鈥淭he use of batteries has significantly supported, and will continue to promote, the widespread use of electric vehicles and low-cost energy storage solutions for the power grid,鈥� Ban said. 

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兔子先生传媒文化作品鈥檚   played a key role in studying tiny bioglass lenses that were designed to form on the surface of engineered microbes, a scientific breakthrough that could pave the way for groundbreaking imaging technologies in both medical and commercial applications.

The project, led by the University of Rochester and published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was inspired by the enzymes secreted by sea sponges that help them grow glass-like silica shells. The shells are lightweight, durable and enable the sea sponges to thrive in harsh marine environments.

鈥淏y engineering microbes to display these same enzymes, our collaborators were able to form glass on the cell surface, which turned the cells into living microlenses,鈥� said Wil Srubar, a coauthor of the paper and professor of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering and the Materials Science and Engineering Program. 鈥淭his is a terrific example of how learning and applying nature鈥檚 design principles can enable the production of advanced materials.鈥�

Professor Wil Srubar

Using imaging and X-ray techniques, 兔子先生传媒文化作品 researchers analyzed the silica, also known as 鈥渂ioglass,鈥� and quantified the amount surrounding different bacterial strains. The 兔子先生传媒文化作品 researchers demonstrated that bacteria engineered to form bioglass spheres contained significantly higher silica levels than non-engineered strains. Combined with optics data, the results confirmed that bacteria could be bioengineered to create bioglass microlenses with excellent light-focusing properties.

Microlenses are very small lenses that are only a few micrometers in size鈥攁bout the size of a single human cell and designed to capture and focus or manipulate light into intense beams at a microscopic scale.  Because of their small size, microlenses are typically difficult to create, requiring complex, expensive machinery and extreme temperatures or pressures to shape them accurately and achieve the desired optical effects.

The small size of the bacterial microlenses makes them ideal for creating high-resolution image sensors, particularly biomedical imaging, allowing sharper visualization of subcellular features like protein complexes. In materials science, these microlenses can capture detailed images of nanoscale materials and structures. In diagnostics, they provide clearer imaging of microscopic pathogens like viruses and bacteria, leading to more accurate identification and analysis.

The University of Rochester contributed to this report.

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兔子先生传媒文化作品 researchers are exploring the use of sodium-ion batteries as an alternative to lithium-based energy storage.

While sodium is abundant and could help address supply chain issues linked to lithium scarcity, current sodium-ion batteries have not performed as well as lithium-ion batteries due to their lower energy density and shorter lifespans.

To tackle these challenges, Chunmei Ban, associate professor of mechanical engineering and materials science, and her research team are developing new electrolytes and studying how they interact with battery electrodes to enhance performance and longevity.

Funded by the , this work aims to improve the overall effectiveness of sodium-ion batteries making them a more viable energy storage option.

Ban notes that sodium, widely distributed in the Earth鈥檚 crust, is an appealing candidate for large-scale energy storage solutions and is an emerging market in the United States.

鈥淭he sodium-ion battery market provides significant opportunities for new companies and a pathway to domestic manufacturing dominance,鈥� said Ban. 鈥淪odium may offer a potential remedy to concerns over resource scarcity with lithium-ion batteries.鈥�

Researching battery alternatives

Kangmin Kim, a fourth-year chemical engineering student and BOLD Scholar, participated in the research project through CU SPUR gaining hands-on experience in hopes to further his research interest in battery technologies for graduate school.

鈥淟ithium battery technology is reaching a point where improvements are becoming more incremental than transformative,鈥� said Kim, 鈥渟o we need alternative renewable technologies that we can rely on.鈥�

Kangmin completes a summer research experience on sodium-ion batteries.

He believes improved battery technology is essential for advancing society and fostering a more sustainable energy future.

鈥淲e will need these improved battery technologies for everything from electric vehicles to drones and cell phones,鈥� he said.

Through Kim鈥檚 research experience, he developed battery fabrication skills and learned the importance of precision and attention to detail in creating high-quality batteries.

鈥淭he lab work was actually quite similar to cooking, which is an activity I love to do,鈥� said Kim. 鈥淜nowing what ingredients we need, what precautions must be taken, what tools and techniques are used are just like working in the lab.鈥�

In mentoring students like Kim, Ban highlights how fulfilling it is to work with students who demonstrate a strong passion for science and technology and eagerness to learn.

鈥淚t has been a rewarding experience to witness undergraduate students like Kangmin grow their research and scientific skills in helping to solve some of our major global challenges.鈥�

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Go to the doctor to provide a blood sample and you鈥檙e typically faced with a needle and syringe and hours or even days of waiting to get results back from a lab.

兔子先生传媒文化作品 researchers hope to change that with a new handheld, sound-based diagnostic system able to deliver precise results in an hour with a mere finger prick of blood.

The team describes the system in a new paper published .

鈥淲e鈥檝e developed a technology that is very user friendly, can be deployed in various settings and provides valuable diagnostic information in a short time frame,鈥� said senior author Wyatt Shields, assistant professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at 兔子先生传媒文化作品.

The findings come as scientists have been racing to democratize diagnostic testing, which can be hard for people in rural areas or developing countries to access and, in the case of blood tests, frightening for those averse to needles.

While existing rapid tests, known as lateral-flow assays, like COVID tests or pregnancy tests, can provide a quick 鈥測es鈥� or 鈥渘o鈥� as to whether a specific biomarker or biomolecule in the blood or urine is present, they typically can鈥檛 say how much, and they aren鈥檛 sensitive enough to detect very small amounts.

Meanwhile, the gold standard for clinical blood tests, known as an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), is highly sensitive and specialized enough to detect rare or scarce biomarkers but requires expensive equipment and complex techniques, and it can take hours or days for patients to receive results.

The authors acknowledge that skepticism exists in the biosensing field since the highly publicized downfall of Theranos Inc., which promised as far back as 2015 to detect hundreds of biomarkers with a drop of blood. Their invention works differently, they said, and , it is based on systematic experiments and peer-reviewed research.

鈥淲hile what they claimed to do isn鈥檛 possible right now, a lot of researchers are hoping something similar will be possible one day,鈥� said first-author Cooper Thome, a doctoral candidate in Shields鈥� lab. 鈥淭his work could be a step toward that goal鈥攂ut one that is backed by science that anybody can access.鈥�

Using sound waves in a new way

Shields and Thome set out to develop a tool that is simultaneously sensitive, highly portable and easy-to-use.

Their secret ingredients: tiny particles they call 鈥渇unctional negative acoustic contrast鈥� particles (fNACPs) and a custom-built, handheld instrument or 鈥渁coustic pipette鈥� that delivers sound waves to the blood samples inside.

As part of his doctoral work, Thome designed the fNACPs (essentially cell-sized rubber balls) to be customized with functional coatings so they recognize and capture a designated biomarker of interest, such as an infectious virus or a protein deemed a red flag for a brewing health problem. The particles also respond to the pressure from sound waves differently than blood cells. Thome designed the acoustic pipette to harness this unique response.

鈥淲e鈥檙e basically using sound waves to manipulate particles to rapidly isolate them from a really small volume of fluid,鈥� said Thome, who specializes in the study of 鈥渁coustofluidics.鈥� 鈥淚t鈥檚 a whole new way of measuring blood biomarkers.鈥�

When a small amount of blood is mixed with the custom particles and placed inside the acoustic pipette, sound waves force the particles to the side of a chamber where they are trapped inside while the rest of the blood is flushed out.

The remaining biomarkers, attached to the particles, are then labeled with fluorescent tags and hit with lasers to determine the amount present.

All this happens in under 70 minutes inside a device that can fit in the palm of a hand.

Matching the gold standard clinical test

鈥淚n our paper, we demonstrate that this pipette and particle system can offer the same sensitivity and specificity as a gold-standard clinical test can but within an instrument that radically simplifies workflows,鈥� said Shields, noting that this time could likely be reduced more with future refinements. 鈥淚t gives us the potential to perform blood diagnostics right at the patient鈥檚 bedside.鈥�

This could be particularly useful for assessing not only whether a patient has an infectious disease but also what their viral load is and how fast it is growing, he said. The device could also potentially play a role in measuring antibodies to determine whether someone needed a booster shot or not, testing for allergies or detecting proteins associated with certain cancers.

The study is a proof of concept, and more research is necessary before the device could be commercialized. The authors have worked with Venture Partners to apply for patents and are now exploring ways to make the technology work for multiple patients at once (which would be useful in mobile clinics in rural areas, for instance) or test for multiple biomarkers simultaneously.

鈥淲e think this has a lot of potential to address some of the longstanding challenges that have come from having to take a blood sample from a patient, haul it off to a lab and wait to get results back,鈥� said Shields.

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Anthony Straub is making major advances in water purification technology for industry and human consumption on Earth and in space, with his work on a nanotechnology membrane process taking a major step toward commercialization, thanks to a new NASA grant.

An assistant professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder, Straub鈥檚 research focuses on using membranes to improve water treatment.

鈥淭he membrane technology that is widely used now is essentially half a century old, and it has well-known limitations,鈥� Straub said. 鈥� It works well for many applications, but it has a tendency to let certain impurities through and it degrades if exposed to certain harsh chemicals.鈥�

NASA has awarded Straub and one of his PhD students, Kian Lopez, to develop a pilot water purification system for astronauts to use on a future Moon base.

Current space water purification systems are bulky and prone to repairs. The technology Straub鈥檚 lab has developed only requires a pump to pressurize water, reducing size and weight. Low weight is especially important in moon missions, where every kilogram of cargo can cost tens of thousands of dollars.

鈥淐urrent membranes remove impurities based on size and charge and, as a result, allow for small impurities to bypass the membrane,鈥� Straub said. 鈥淲hat we鈥檝e designed traps a very small layer of air inside a membrane and the only way for the water to cross the barrier is by evaporating and then re-condensing on the other side, which impurities inherently cannot do.鈥�

The entire process occurs over a 100 nanometer span, a distance 160 times smaller than the width of a human hair, and the water that results is nearly pure H2O 鈥� distillation quality 鈥� since it has been turned to steam and then back to liquid.

These new membranes can be made from a wide variety of materials; the advance is in modifying them to create the air trapping layer. Although the work has been a longtime focus of Straub, he had not considered space applications or commercialization until Lopez returned from an internship at NASA.

鈥淢y mentor at NASA said this technology looks promising and the biggest impact we could have would be to start our own company,鈥� Lopez said.

Straub and Lopez decided to attend the New Venture Launch class together in the 兔子先生传媒文化作品 Leeds Business School, participating in campus technology transfer initiatives, including the New Venture Challenge and Lab Venture Challenge. They founded in January of this year.

Space is but one application. Other potential is in municipal water systems and industry, particularly semiconductor or computer chip manufacturing, which requires ultrapure water.

Although ultrapure sounds like a marketing buzzword, it has a water free of all minerals, particles, bacteria, microbes, and dissolved gasses. The needs go far beyond water that is safe for human consumption.

鈥淭he minimum for ultrapure water in chip manufacturing is a 14-step process right now. The final product must contain less than one 10-nanometer particle per milliliter of water, which would be the density equivalent of having only a single person on the entire planet Earth,鈥� Lopez said.

Semiconductor chips are manufactured in clean rooms, and ultrapure water is necessary to maintain temperature and humidity as well as to wash away residue produced during chip etching. Even the tiniest water impurities can damage the chips.

鈥淥ur work starts with NASA, but the beachhead market here on Earth is in ultrapure water production for semiconductors,鈥� Straub said. 鈥淭his is a huge potential market, and we have filed a provisional patents with CU Venture Partners.鈥�

Straub is optimistic the grant will enable them to make significant progress in the coming months.

鈥淭his has been a four-year process, and at the beginning we didn鈥檛 know if it would work,鈥� Straub said. 鈥淲e started with theory and then went into the lab to test. The fabrication has gone through several iterations here in the CU labs. Now we are moving towards a commercial product, and the performance is impressive.鈥�

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Batteries lose capacity over time, which is why older cellphones run out of power more quickly.  This common phenomenon, however, is not completely understood. 

Now, an international team of researchers, led by an engineer at 兔子先生传媒文化作品, has revealed the underlying mechanism behind such battery degradation. Their discovery could help scientists to develop better batteries, which would allow electric vehicles to run farther and last longer, while also advancing energy storage technologies that would accelerate the transition to clean energy. 

were published Sept. 12 in the journal Science.

鈥淲e are helping to advance lithium-ion batteries by figuring out the molecular level processes involved in their degradation,鈥� said Michael Toney, the paper鈥檚 co-corresponding author and a professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. 鈥淗aving a better battery is very important in shifting our energy infrastructure away from fossil fuels to more renewable energy sources.鈥�

Michael Toney

Engineers have been working for years on designing lithium-ion batteries鈥攖he most common type of rechargeable batteries鈥攚ithout cobalt. Cobalt is an expensive rare mineral, and its mining process has been linked to grave . In the Democratic Republic of Congo, which supplies more than half of the world鈥檚 cobalt, many miners are children. 

So far, scientists have tried to use other elements such as nickel and magnesium to replace cobalt in lithium-ion batteries. But these batteries have even higher rates of self-discharge, which is when the battery鈥檚 internal chemical reactions reduce stored energy and degrade its capacity over time. Because of self-discharge, most EV batteries have a lifespan of seven to 10 years before they need to be replaced. 

Toney, who is also a fellow of the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute, and his team set out to investigate the cause of self-discharge. In a typical lithium-ion battery, lithium ions, which carry charges, move from one side of the battery, called the anode, to the other side, called the cathode, through a medium called an electrolyte. During this process, the flow of these charged ions forms an electric current that powers electronic devices.  Charging the battery reverses the flow of the charged ions and returns them to the anode. 

Previously, scientists thought batteries self-discharge because not all lithium ions return to the anode when charging, reducing the number of charged ions available to form the current and provide power. 

Using the Advanced Photon Source, a powerful X-ray machine, at the U.S. Department of Energy鈥檚 in Illinois, the research team discovered that hydrogen molecules from the battery鈥檚 electrolyte would move to the cathode and take the spots that lithium ions normally bind to. As a result, lithium ions have fewer places to bind to on the cathode, weakening the electric current and decreasing the battery鈥檚 capacity.

鈥淲e discovered that the more lithium you pull out of the cathode during charging, the more hydrogen atoms accumulate on the surface,鈥� said Gang Wan, the study鈥檚 first author at Stanford University.鈥� This process induces self-discharge and causes mechanical stress that can cause cracks in the cathode and accelerate degradation.鈥�

Transportation is the single largest source of greenhouse gases generated in the U.S, accounting for of the country鈥檚 emissions in 2021. In an effort to reduce emissions, many automakers have committed to moving away from developing gasoline cars to produce more EVs instead. But EV manufacturers face a host of challenges, including limited driving range, higher production costs and shorter battery lifespan than conventional vehicles. In the U.S. market, a typical all-electric car can run about , about 60% that of a gasoline car. The new study has the potential to address all of these issues, Toney said. 

鈥淎ll consumers want cars with a large driving range. Some of these low cobalt-containing batteries can potentially provide a higher driving range, but we also need to make sure they don鈥檛 fall apart in a short period of time,鈥� he said, noting that reducing cobalt can also reduce costs and address human rights and energy justice concerns. 

With a better understanding of the self-discharge mechanism, engineers can explore a few ways to prevent the process, such as coating the cathode with a special material to block hydrogen molecules or using a different electrolyte. 

鈥淣ow that we understand what is causing batteries to degrade, we can inform the battery chemistry community on what needs to be improved when designing in batteries,鈥� Toney said. 

Additional co-authors of the study included Oleg Borodin, Travis Pollard and Marshall Schroeder at DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory, Chia-Chin Chen at National Taiwan University, Zihua Zhu and Yingge Du at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and Ye Zhang at the University of Houston.

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Professor Hendrik Heinz and his 兔子先生传媒文化作品 team, along with collaborators from University of California, Los Angeles, achieved a breakthrough that could boost clean energy production. The  was featured on the cover of the journal 鈥淣ature Catalysis鈥� in July.

In the study, researchers pinpointed the active sites of tiny platinum-alloy catalysts, which are crucial for making fuel cells more efficient at converting water into energy.

Fuel cells generate electricity through a chemical reaction, typically combining hydrogen with oxygen. Unlike traditional combustion engines, they produce energy without burning fuel, making fuel cells a clean, efficient technology, ideal for powering electric vehicles.

The catalysts accelerate the reactions that convert hydrogen and oxygen into electricity, making the process more efficient and enhancing the overall performance of the fuel cell. Using advanced 3D atomic imaging and machine learning, the study revealed how these catalysts work at an atomic level, providing insights that could help design better catalysts to address global energy challenges.

Cheng Zhu, a postdoctoral associate in the Heinz Group, made significant contributions to the study and recently joined the faculty at Guangdong Technion - Israel Institute of Technology (GTIIT) in China.

This research was supported by the National Science Foundation's Materials Genome Initiative, (), including the first Special Creativity Award in the DMREF program. Heinz led the 兔子先生传媒文化作品-UCLA team, which has resulted in more than 60 publications, including more than 10 papers in top journals like 鈥淪cience鈥� and 鈥淣ature鈥� and high-level 鈥淣ature鈥� journals such as 鈥淣ature Catalysis.鈥� The UCLA team included the senior investigators Phillipe Sautet, Yu Huang and Jianwei (John) Miao. 

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In the quest to develop life-like materials to replace and repair human body parts, scientists face a formidable challenge: Real tissues are often both strong and stretchable and vary in shape and size.

A 兔子先生传媒文化作品-led team, in collaboration with researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, has taken a critical step toward cracking that code. They鈥檝e developed a new way to 3D print material that is at once elastic enough to withstand a heart鈥檚 persistent beating, tough enough to endure the crushing load placed on joints, and easily shapable to fit a patient鈥檚 unique defects.

Better yet, it sticks easily to wet tissue.

Their breakthrough, described in the Aug. 2 edition , helps pave the way toward a new generation of biomaterials, from internal bandages that deliver drugs directly to the heart to cartilage patches and needle-free sutures.

鈥淐ardiac and cartilage tissues are similar in that they have very limited capacity to repair themselves. When they鈥檙e damaged, there is no turning back,鈥� said senior author Jason Burdick, a professor of chemical and biological engineering at 兔子先生传媒文化作品鈥檚 BioFrontiers Institute. 鈥淏y developing new, more resilient materials to enhance that repair process, we can have a big impact on patients.鈥�

Worm 鈥榖lobs鈥� as inspiration

Historically, biomedical devices have been created via molding or casting, techniques which work well for mass production of identical implants but aren鈥檛 practical when it comes to personalizing those implants for specific patients. In recent years, 3D printing has opened a world of new possibilities for medical applications by allowing researchers to make materials in many shapes and structures.

Unlike typical printers, which simply place ink on paper, 3D printers deposit layer after layer of plastics, metals or even living cells to create multidimensional objects.

One specific material, known as a hydrogel (the stuff that contact lenses are made of), has been a favorite prospect for fabricating artificial tissues, organs and implants.

Jason Burdick in his lab at the BioFrontiers Institute with the 3D Printer. 

This 3D printed material is at once strong, expandable, moldable and sticky.

Laboratory tests show this 3D printed material molds and sticks to organs. Pictured is a porcine heart.

But getting these from the lab to the clinic has been tough because traditional 3D-printed hydrogels tend to either break when stretched, crack under pressure or are too stiff to mold around tissues.

鈥淚magine if you had a rigid plastic adhered to your heart. It wouldn鈥檛 deform as your heart beats,鈥� said Burdick. 鈥淚t would just fracture.鈥�

To achieve both strength and elasticity within 3D printed hydrogels, Burdick and his colleagues took a cue from worms, which repeatedly tangle and untangle themselves around one another in three-dimensional 鈥渨orm blobs鈥� that have both solid and liquid-like properties. Previous research has shown that incorporating similarly intertwined chains of molecules, known as 鈥渆ntanglements,鈥� can make them tougher.

Their new printing method, known as CLEAR (for Continuous-curing after Light Exposure Aided by Redox initiation), follows a series of steps to entangle long molecules inside 3D-printed materials much like those intertwined worms.

When the team stretched and weight-loaded those materials in the lab (one researcher even ran over a sample with her bike) they found them to be exponentially tougher than materials printed with a standard method of 3D printing known as Digital Light Processing (DLP). Better yet: They also conformed and stuck to animal tissues and organs.

鈥淲e can now 3D print adhesive materials that are strong enough to mechanically support tissue,鈥� said co-first author Matt Davidson, a research associate in the Burdick Lab. 鈥淲e have never been able to do that before.鈥�

Revolutionizing care

Burdick imagines a day when such 3D-printed materials could be used to repair defects in hearts, deliver tissue-regenerating drugs directly to organs or cartilage, restrain bulging discs or even stitch people up in the operating room without inflicting tissue damage like a needle and suture can.

His lab has filed for a provisional patent and plans to launch more studies soon to better understand how tissues react to the presence of such materials.

But the team stresses that their new method could have impacts far beyond medicine鈥攊n research and manufacturing too. For instance, their method eliminates the need for additional energy to cure, or harden, parts, making the 3D printing process more environmentally friendly.

鈥淭his is a simple 3D processing method that people could ultimately use in their own academic labs as well as in industry to improve the mechanical properties of materials for a wide variety of applications,鈥� said first author Abhishek Dhand, a researcher in the Burdick Lab and doctoral candidate in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania. 鈥淚t solves a big problem for 3D printing.鈥�

Other co-authors on the paper include Hannah Zlotnick, a postdoctoral researcher in the Burdick Lab, and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) scientists Thomas Kolibaba and Jason Killgore.

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Prometheus Materials eyes expansion through increased production 

Traditional cement production is responsible for about 7 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, making it a significant contributor to climate change. 

So faculty at 兔子先生传媒文化作品 started developing a greener alternative. A Department of Defense-funded project launched in 2016 led to the creation of an eco-friendly cement with a minimal carbon footprint, emitting little to no carbon dioxide and recycling 95 percent of the water used in production. 

In 2021, they made the move to commercialize the technology as Prometheus Materials. Founded by Associate Professors Sherri Cook, Mija Hubler and Wil Srubar of civil, environmental and architectural engineering, along with Jeff Cameron of biochemistry and CEO Loren Burnett, the Colorado-based company produces bio-concrete from the biomineralization of blue-green algae in a natural process similar to that which creates sea shells and coral reefs. 

While initially focused on research and development, the company has since entered a commercialization phase, exploring the establishment of new facilities to transition from a single production line to multiple lines and to increase production, Hubler said.

鈥淲e鈥檙e in flux,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e dreaming bigger.鈥�

Product development

Hubler said the 鈥渕ost exciting part鈥� is that Prometheus Materials has successfully scaled production and launched a commercial product for the construction industry. 

Initially, the team focused on assessing structural performance, particularly compressive strength. That led to the development of their inaugural product 鈥� the ProZero Bio-Block Masonry unit.

After constructing a pilot wall, the researchers put their ears to it and were met with a remarkable silence. Further tests confirmed the product鈥檚 efficacy in preventing sound from bouncing off or attenuating through walls. This discovery paved the way for another product, ProZero Sound Attenuation units. Potential uses include sound panels in large conference rooms and classrooms. 

The researchers also evaluated the product鈥檚 suitability for pedestrian and parking surfaces, analyzing its response to environmental moisture. The outcomes were positive, prompting the development of a third product.

Proof points

Mija Hubler with the Prometheus algae-growing system.

But consumers can鈥檛 yet walk into a hardware store and buy a ProZero product off the shelf.

While Prometheus Materials has performed some pilot studies with large companies like Microsoft and has discussed potential applications for its products in Microsoft鈥檚 offices and warehouses, it will take years before the products will be available in places like Home Depot.

Hubler emphasized that the construction industry prefers 鈥渢ried and true鈥� materials and is cautious to adopt new ones. Larger construction firms play a crucial role in pioneering and embracing innovative products, serving as trailblazers to introduce these newer products into the market. 

But there are multiple reasons why it鈥檚 the right time for the company to expand operations. 

鈥淭he construction industry, building owners and developers are paying a lot more attention to carbon emissions, and our materials have reduced emissions,鈥� Srubar said. 鈥淸Another] driver is the trend toward nature-based materials that don鈥檛 contain any 鈥榬ed list鈥� chemicals in them.鈥�

Cook added that many companies have ambitious corporate sustainability goals but lack practical means to achieve them. Prometheus Materials provides a tangible avenue for these companies to start realizing their sustainability objectives.

Srubar echoed the strategic importance of working with these firms, whose teams of architects and engineers collaborate in designing and engineering structures using innovative materials.

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