Hydrogels developed by MIT (Source: Melanie Gonick/MIT)

MIT researchers develop tough new hydrogel hybrid


Products

Engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have found a way to prevent hydrogels from dehydrating, with a technique that could lead to longer-lasting contact lenses, stretchy microfluidic devices, flexible bioelectronics and even artificial skin.

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The InTrace Cannula from SMARTRAC

SMARTRAC introduces ready-to-use animal ID implanting kit


Products

The leading RFID technology provider SMARTRAC Technology Group (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) has launched InTrace Cannula, an animal ID product solution. The enhanced transponder implanting system can be used for easy and efficient RFID tagging of most animal species including pets, cattle, sheep, horses, fish, birds or reptiles.

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Dr Andrew Cottone, president of Adesis

Universal Display announces strategic acquisition of Adesis


Companies / Markets

The Universal Display Corporation (Ewing (NJ), USA), enabling energy-efficient displays and lighting with its UniversalPHOLED technology and materials, has announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Adesis, Inc., a privately held contract research organisation with 43 employees based in New Castle (DE), USA. It specialises in organic and organometallic synthetic research, development and commercialisation.  Adesis is a critical technology vendor to companies in the pharmaceutical, fine chemical, biomaterials, and catalyst industries, and has worked with Universal Display over the last few years to help advance and accelerate a number of Universal Display’s product offerings.

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Opaque HeliaFilm on steel application (source: Kandil Steel)

Heliatek deploys its first large BIOPV project on the African continent


Companies / Markets

The German organic photovoltaics supplier Heliatek GmbH has teamed up with Kandil Steel to realise its first building-integrated organic photovoltaic (BIOPV) pilot project in Africa. HeliaFilm, Heliatek’s organic solar film, is at the core of this installation in Egypt, which represents a first test project for further steel applications by Kandil Steel.

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Bendable solar cells might power the next wave of wearable electronics (Source: American Institute of Physics)

Gwangju scientists make ultra-thin solar cells that easily bend around a pencil


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Scientists from South Korea have made ultra-thin photovoltaics flexible enough to wrap around the average pencil. The bendy solar cells could power wearable electronics like fitness trackers and smart glasses. Thin materials flex more easily than thick ones – think a piece of paper versus a cardboard shipping box. The reason for the difference: The stress in a material while it is being bent increases farther out from the central plane. Because thick sheets have more material farther out, they are harder to bend.

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