Video of the week – Corning’s ‘A Day Made of Glass 2: Unpacked. The Story Behind Corning’s Vision’
A year ago, Corning published a promotional video, “A Day Made of Glass… Made possible by Corning” that provide an intriguing peek into some of the technologies the company is considering—and how it may affect our lifestyles. It proved to be a popular video, racking up well over 17 million views as of today.
As those of us old enough to remember Walt Disney’s movies about the future of communities, transportation and space, these visionary presentations are more informed guesswork than prophecy. Sometimes (most times?) these ideas just don’t work out for a number of reasons, but the exercise of compiling and publishing these visions helps bring excitement and motivation, especially to young people contemplating careers in science and engineering.
However, smart tech-oriented companies tend to be cautious about sharing their “visions” with the public (Steve Jobs was and Apple still is among those at the most secretive end of the spectrum) because they are both concerned about tipping their hand to competitors and, well, being embarrassed by being wrong about the future.
Corning, however, seems to be closer to the other end of the spectrum and has clearly decided that there is value in teasing the public with how high-tech glass products may disrupt a lot of technologies in our future. Now today, nearly on the anniversary of its first “A Day Made of Glass” video, the company has published an update, ”A Day Made of Glass, Part 2″ that fleshes out more of Corning’s vision and also incorporates some of the market trends over the last year, such as the huge success of the iPad.
Some of the concepts illustrated in the new video include durable, multitouch screens; colossal- and large-scale edge-to-edge displays; ubiquitous electrochromic windows; entire dashboard surfaces made of soft, flexible glass displays; lightweight auto and sunroof glass; designer-friendly photovoltaic units; antimicrobial glass services for medical applications; and even advances in glass fiber optics.
Corning admits that a lot of these products aren’t right around the corner and acknowledges that there is still a lot of RD&D work that is needed to address existing problems with scalability and price.
To be clear, Corning is smart enough not to reveal all of its product and technology bets in this video. Furthermore, the Apple/Gorilla Glass story underlines how even Corning and other top-tier companies cannot always anticipate what external disruptions of the marketplace will rock their corporate world. Nevertheless, ADMOG Part 2 is an fascinating vision and I predict the number of views in the next year will easily exceed the 17 million of Part 1.
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Ceramics and glass business news of the week
Here is what we are hearing:
Integration of Hanse Chemie Inc. USA, into Evonik Goldschmidt Corp.
As of Jan. 1, 2012, the US Hanse Chemie business of Hanse Chemie AG and Nanoresins AG, has been merged into Evonik Goldschmidt Corp. At the same time, Hanse Chemie Inc. USA has been dissolved as a legal entity. The acquisition of the two firms by Evonik was finalized on May 12, 2011. Both companies are headquartered in Germany and produce raw materials and components for the manufacture of sealants, adhesives, molding and casting compounds, and other products. Most of the Hanse Chemie Inc. business is incorporated into the Interface & Performance business line whose activities surrounding the silicone specialties are directed at a variety of industrial markets. Activities in the paint and coatings industry, especially those concerning nanocomposites, extremely fine-particle silicas, are now part of the Coatings & Additives Business Unit of Evonik.
3M launches high density versions of its embedded capacitance material at DesignCon 2012
3M announced the initial availability of its high-capacitance Embedded Capacitance Material at DesignCon 2012, providing design engineers a new way to improve power integrity and reduce electromagnetic interference. Unlike previous 3M ECM versions, which have a maximum capacitance density of approximately 10 nF per square inch, and some existing commercial competitor offerings, which have a maximum capacitance density of approximately 6 nF per square inch, the 3M ECM high-capacitance density solutions offer a capacitance density range from 20 up to 40 nF per square inch, making it the one of the highest capacitance density, halogen-free ECM solutions on the market. This helps design engineers provide hi-fidelity signals, high-signal-to-noise ratio in radio frequencies and higher speed digital signals in a variety of high-performance applications such as small form factor computer hardware, high-performance RF boards, microphones, integrated circuit packaging and consumer electronics.
Mantec consolidates ceramic activities
Mantec, the British technology group with a portfolio of manufacturing businesses based in Stoke-on-Trent, has announced that with immediate effect the three companies previously operated as subsidiaries of the technical ceramic division have now merged into a single, business - Mantec Technical Ceramics Ltd (www.mantectechnicalceramics.com). The three companies involved are Taylor Tunnicliff, Ceramic Gas Products and Fairey Filtration Systems. They have in any case been operating under common management, from the same premises, for the past four years and so this a logical step to take. While the name of Mantec Technical Ceramics will now be the one associated with all administrative, legal, accounting and sales channels, leading brand names owned and manufactured by the group will naturally be retained.
Polycrystalline ceramics with cubic spinel structure transmit well in the visible and mid IR wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum. ALON and magnesia spinel are especially attractive, and are leading lightweight transparent armor candidates for future combat systems. These have enormous performance advantage over glass and justify their rapid development. Surmet achieves full density and transparency using the conventional sinter/hot isostatic Ppress process that includes green body formation and high-temperature sintering, followed by HIPping.
Molycorp Inc. announced that Molibdenos y Metales S.A. (Molymet), the world’s largest processor of the strategic metals molybdenum and rhenium, has agreed to invest approximately $390 million in the company in exchange for 12.5 million shares of Molycorp common stock. The price of the Molycorp shares to be purchased were valued based on the 20-day volume weighted average share price as of the close of trading on Jan. 30, 2012 plus a 10% premium. Molycorp has agreed to appoint to its board of directors upon the closing of the proposed investment a nominee to be designated by Molymet.
Thermablok aerogel insulation strips installed in new ‘green’ US Border Patrol station in Texas
Crews working construction on the environmentally sustainable Fabens US Border Patrol Station in Clint, Texas have just completed installing 21,000 linear feet of Thermablok aerogel insulating strips on studs throughout the 51,000 square foot facility. The strips reduce thermal bridging, the prime cause of energy loss in buildings. When RVK Architects of San Antonio collaborated with Jacobs Engineering Group of Houston to design the eco-friendly structure already years in the planning, they included Thermablok in the original design. The strips went up easily since they have peel and stick adhesive already attached to the back of the product. The facility also is fitted with solar heaters, sky lights, glazed windows and energy efficient equipment for a low-carbon footprint.
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Mechanism offered for how seawater could corrode nuclear fuel
Damaged seawater pump used to cool cores of Fukushima-Daiichi reactors. Credit: IAEA Image Bank.
When Japanese officials acted out of desperation and used seawater to cool the cores at the Fukushima-Daiichi reactors last year, it looks like they made the right call. But, others that might be tempted to use seawater to cool fuel rods in the future might not be so lucky.
ACerS emeritus member and University of California, Davis professor, Alexandra Navrotsky, Notre Dame researcher Peter Burns and several of their colleagues have offered some cautionary food for thought. They say in a new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that there does seem to be a mechanism for how nuclear fuel rods could be corroded by contact with sea water.
It should immediately be pointed out that the authors aren’t in any way suggesting that this type of corrosion happened during the Fukushima-Daiichi incident, and they say there is no evidence of uranium dispersion during that episode due to the seawater.
However, they say it appears there is a way for the fuel rod–seawater combination to form “uranium compounds that could potentially travel long distances, either in solution or as very small particles,” according to a UC Davis news release.
The release quotes Navrotsky, a distinguished professor of ceramic, earth and environmental materials chemistry, as saying, ”This is a phenomenon that has not been considered before. We don’t know how much this will increase the rate of corrosion, but it is something that will have to be considered in future.”
The uranium compounds in the fuel rods are thought to be generally insoluble in ordinary water. Nevertheless, she says it was previously known that if some of the water is converted to peroxide (radiation has the ability to do this conversion), the peroxide can then oxidize the uranium in the rods to uranium-VI, forming spherical uranium peroxide clusters that can dissolve in water.
The new wrinkle in this is that Navrotsky et al. discovered that if alkali metal ions are present — such as the sodium that is plentiful in seawater — the uranium peroxide clusters ”are stable enough to persist in solution or as small particles even when the oxidizing agent is removed.”
So, the worrisome scenario is one where seawater comes in contact with the rods and forms these clusters. The clusters dissolved in the seawater are then carried away. Because, according to Navrotsky, little is known about quickly these uranium peroxide clusters break down in the seawater, the clusters may hang around for months or years before being converted back into a common form of uranium that will precipitate out to the bottom of the ocean.
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Toughened, flexible silica aerogel? Joint Japanese–Chinese group shows how to do it
Demonstration of the flexibility of cellulose–silica composite aerogel. Credit: J. Cai et al.; Angewandte Chemie.
This sounds like the type of breakthrough aerogel fans have yearning for.
A newly published paper in Angewandte Chemie reports on an Asian group’s success at using cellulose fibers as a scaffold/template for a resultant silica aerogel that delivers a product that has great mechanical strength and flexibility, while retaining a large surface area and semitransparency.
Aerogel has been something of a tease for many years. It has incredible insulating abilities, but the one enormous problem for silica aerogel is that it is frustratingly brittle and difficult to work into practical applications. Some developers have found limited success via hybridization techniques with support materials such as polyurethane, polystyrene or even nanofibrillar bacterial cellulose and microfibrillated cellulose gel.
However, with support from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science’s Foreign Researcher Fund of Japan and the National Basic Research Program of China, researchers at Wuhan University, China, and University of Tokyo, took a different cellulose-based route. They already knew that they could exploit “cellulose II” crystallinity (dissolution and then regeneration/reassembly of fibrils) to form aerogels with good mechanical strength, light transmittance and high porosity — characteristics that they suspected would make it an effective substrate for silica aerogel.
In brief, the group, led by Lina Zhang, impregnated a sample of nanoporous cellulose gel (with its interconnected nanofibrillar network) with a silica precursor, tetraethyl orthosilicate. According to the paper, “The resulting composite gels were dried with supercritical CO2 to give cellulose–silica aerogels with low density, moderate light transmittance, a large surface area, high mechanical integrity and excellent heat insulation.”
They then went one step farther and used calcination to remove the cellulose matrix, leaving a silica-only aerogel. The key point here is that this silica aerogel’s structure is much different than pure silica aerogel. In the latter, primary silica nanoparticles form and then randomly coagulate resulting in an isotropic 3D network. “In contrast,” again quoting from the paper, the authors say, “the formation of silica nanoparticles in the cellulose gel seems to cause their deposition onto the cellulose fibrils. As a result, removal of cellulose by calcination results in the nanofibrillar silica network.”
The group compared a variety of aerogels, including silica-only and cellulose-only aerogels; cellulose-silica composites, with varying levels of silica; and cellulose-templated silica aerogel.
What they found at the macroscopic level is that the composite aerogels didn’t inherit the fragility of the silica, but instead seem to inherit the flexibility and strength of the cellulose network (see knotted sample of one of the composites, above).
While the tensile modulus and strength of the cellulose–silica aerogel were less than pure cellulose aerogel, “the compression modulus of the composite (7.9MPa) is more than two orders of magnitude higher than that of silica aerogel, and about 50 times higher than that of the aerogel prepared from bacterial cellulose.”
Because of the cellulose content, the composite aerogels break down when used above 300°C. However, below that temperature, the cellulose-silica aerogel retained strong heat insulating properties. Thermal conductivity of the prepared samples ranged from 0.025 W m-1 K-1 to 0.045 W m-1 K-1.
These numbers compare favorably with polystyrene foam (0.030 W m-1 K-1), however, the researchers note that the ability of the cellulose–silica aerogels to perform up to 300°C give it a leg up on insulation materials made of polymer that soften and breakdown at similar temperatures.
“Thus,” according to the authors,”the cellulose–silica composite is potentially useful as heat insulating material with high mechanical stability, together with processability to form sheets, fibers, or beads. … [They] retained the mechanical strength and flexibility, large surface area, semitransparency, and low thermal conductivity of the cellulose aerogels. The ease of preparation and wide tuneability of composition/properties with this method are expected to form the basis for the development of various advanced nano-porous materials.”
The paper, ”Cellulose-silica nanocomposite aerogels by in situ formation of silica in cellulose gel,” (doi:10.1002/ange.201105730) is written by Jie Cai, Shilin Liu, Jiao Feng, Satoshi Kimura, Masahisa Wada, Shigenori Kuga, and Lina Zhang.
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Other materials stories that may be of interest
Computer simulations show that metal oxides in water go through many short-lived shapes and structures (see story below). Credit: William Casey, UC Davis.
Check ‘em out:
Scorpions inspire scientists in making tougher surfaces for machinery
Researchers studied the bumps and grooves on the scorpions’ backs, scanning the creatures with a 3D laser device and developing a computer program that modeled the flow of sand-laden air over the scorpions. The team used the model in computer simulations to develop actual patterned surfaces to test which patterns perform best. At the same time, the erosion tests were conducted in the simple erosion wind tunnel for groove surface bionic samples at various impact conditions. Their results showed that a series of small grooves at a 30-degree angle to the flowing gas or liquid give steel surfaces the best protection from erosion.
US inactivity regarding strategic materials criticized at Washington hearing
At a hearing Jan. 26 before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, Jeff Green testified that the US has lost critical supply chain capabilities and significant technological capital to China and that the lack of a deliberately thought-out U.S. policy for strategic and critical materials has resulted in economic and national security vulnerabilities. The hearing on “China’s Global Quest for Resources and Implications for the United States” examined Chinese efforts to acquire and manage various natural resources. Green president of the J.A. Green & Co., assists industrial clients in government relations, business development and strategic planning matters and is the former staff director to the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness.
Imaging ‘invisible’ dopant atoms in semiconductor nanocrystals
In semiconductor nanocrystals, the physical effects of deliberately included impurities, called dopants, may depend on the dopant position with the crystal. To date, there has not been an effective technique to determine the location of individual dopant atoms in nanocrystals. IRG-4 researchers demonstrated that a combination of scanning transmission electron microscopy and electron energy loss spectroscopy can be used to reveal the position of such “invisible” dopants.he physical effects of deliberately included impurities, called dopants, may depend on the dopant position with the crystal. To date, there has not been an effective technique to determine the location of individual dopant atoms in nanocrystals. IRG-4 researchers demonstrated that a combination of scanning transmission electron microscopy and electron energy loss spectroscopy can be used to reveal the position of such “invisible” dopants.
Nano research could impact flexible electronic devices
A discovery by a research team at North Dakota State University, Fargo, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, shows that the flexibility and durability of carbon nanotube films and coatings are intimately linked to their electronic properties. The research could one day impact flexible electronic devices such as solar cells and wearable sensors.
Metal oxide simulations could help green technology
University of California, Davis, researchers have proposed a radical new way of thinking about the chemical reactions between water and metal oxides, the most common minerals on Earth. Using computer simulations and comparing the resulting animations with lab experiments they found that the behavior of an atom on the surface of the cluster can be affected by an atom some distance away. Instead of moving through a sequence of transitional forms, as had been assumed, metal oxides interacting with water fall into a variety of “metastable states” - short-lived intermediates, the researchers found.
Team develops cheaper way of separating nanotubes
Researchers in London have developed a cheaper way of producing high-quality carbon nanotubes in larger quantities than existing methods. A team from the London Center for Nanotechnology has licensed the process, which separates nanotubes into usable quantities without damaging them, to German-based industrial gases company the Linde Group. LCN’s solution was to charge the nanotubes with electrons so that they naturally repel each other, by reacting them with an alkali metal such as sodium in a solution of ammonia. This solution of separated nanotubes can then be used for manufacturing things such as composites, or the nanotubes can be precipitated out of the solution.
Collaborative learning in networks
“We found that collective exploration improved average success over independent exploration because good solutions could diffuse through the network. In contrast to prior work, however, we found that efficient networks outperformed inefficient networks, even in a problem space with qualitative properties thought to favor inefficient networks. We explain this result in terms of individual-level explore-exploit decisions, which we find were influenced by the network structure as well as by strategic considerations and the relative payoff between maxima. We conclude by discussing implications for real-world problem solving and possible extensions.”
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