BiotechMashup

(Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA)) It was Michael Sauter's idea -- an intelligent bed which would prevent patients from developing bedsores and reduce the strain on health care professionals. Within just two years he has succeeded in building a secure financial base for his company, «compliant concept». The first round of funding has drawn to a successful conclusion; the company can now grow and by the end of this year its first products will be available on the Swiss market.

(Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA)) In June a monitoring system is becoming commercially available that will allow nursing staff to accurately record the mobility of bedridden persons. The system has been developed for the prevention of bedsores by Compliant Concept, a start-up at Empa's glaTec technology center.

(Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA)) Various biofuels, first hailed as a way to a sustainable energy supply, have since fallen out of favor because of the overall negative impact they have on the environment. Now researchers at Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, have together with their colleagues at the Swiss Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels and the HTW Berlin, Germany, developed an online tool to assess the sustainability of biofuel production.

(Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA)) For some time now nanocellulose has been at the focus of a good deal of industrial and scientific interest as a novel biomaterial. Potential applications range from the creation of new kinds of commercially useful materials and uses in medical technology all the way to the food and pharmaceutical industries. Empa researchers have now developed a manufacturing process for nanocellulose powder, the raw material for creating polymer composites.

(Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA)) Scientists at Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, have further boosted the energy conversion efficiency of flexible solar cells made of copper indium gallium (di)selenide (also known as CIGS) to a new world record of 18.7 percent -- a significant improvement over the previous record of 17.6 percent achieved by the same team in June 2010. The measurements have been independently certified by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems in Freiburg, Germany.

(Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA)) The technology yielding flexible solar cells with an 18.7 percent world record efficiency developed by scientists at Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, has now been published in Nature Materials. Key to the breakthrough is the control of the energy band gap grading in the copper indium gallium (di)selenide semiconductor, also known as CIGS, the layer that absorbs light and converts it into electricity.

(Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA)) DuPont Kapton colorless polyimide film, a new material currently in development for use as a flexible superstrate for cadmium telluride thin film photovoltaic modules, has enabled a new world record for energy conversion efficiency. A team at Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, has demonstrated a conversion efficiency of 13.8 percent using the new colorless film, leapfrogging their previous record of 12.6 percent and nearing that of glass.

(Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA)) For the first time, scientists from Empa and ETH Zurich have, in collaboration with a Dutch team, managed to measure the atomic structure of individual nanoparticles. The technique, recently published in Nature, could help better understand the properties of nanoparticles in future.

(Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA)) A new handbook has been published under Empa leadership which aims to unify European standards in nanoparticle research. It contains detailed regulations for the manufacture and analysis of specific nanoparticles in the laboratory environment, placing research work in this field on a unified foundation and enabling valid comparisons to be made between studies. The editor, Prof. Harald Krug, is head of Empa's Materials meet Life Department.