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- Natural coatings as an alternative to petroleum-based packaging
Empa and Lidl Switzerland have jointly developed a cellulose protective coating for fruit and vegetables. The novel coating is made from so-called pomace - squeezed fruit and vegetable peels. The i...
- Infrared technology - seeing the world through different eyes
Short-wave infrared light (SWIR) is useful for many things: It helps sort out damaged fruit and inspecting silicon chips, and it enables night vision devices with sharp images. But SWIR cameras hav... - Molecules in collective ecstasy
When fluorescent dye molecules nestle perfectly together, something completely new is created: an excited state distributed over many molecules. Such collective excitations can be used in a variety... - The biodegradable battery
The number of data-transmitting microdevices, for instance in packaging and transport logistics, will increase sharply in the coming years. All these devices need energy, but the amount of batterie... - Shiny mega-crystals that build themselves
An international team led by Empa and ETH Zurich researchers is playing with shape-engineered nanoscale building blocks that are up to 100-times larger than atoms and ions. And although these nano ... - Nanoplastics - an underestimated problem?
The images leave no one cold: giant vortices of floating plastic trash in the world's oceans with sometimes devastating consequences for their inhabitants - the sobering legacy of our modern lifest... - High Performance Ceramics against water germs
Removing pathogens from drinking water is especially difficult when the germs are too tiny to be caught by conventional filters. Researchers at Empa and Eawag are developing new materials and proce... - Fighting harmful bacteria with nanoparticles
Multi-resistant pathogens are a serious and increasing problem in today's medicine. Where antibiotics are ineffective, these bacteria can cause life-threatening infections. Researchers at Empa and ...
- The development of a high-performance thin-film battery
Empa researchers have achieved a milestone in the search for a solid electrolyte, the conductive medium for future solid-state batteries. On the one hand, this material must be highly conductive fo... - Mini power plants from coated blue-green algae
Blue-green algae are among the oldest living creatures on Earth and have perfected the use of sunlight over billions of years. Empa scientists have now equipped these humble unicellular organisms w... - Antibacterial cellulose - a wound dressing that kills bacteria
In order to combat bacterial wound infections, Empa researchers have developed cellulose membranes equipped with antimicrobial peptides. Initial results show: The skin-friendly membranes made of pl... - What comes after the lithium-ion battery?
The demand for batteries to store renewable energy will grow drastically in the coming years. Could we develop more sustainable technologies to save precious natural resources, besides the familiar... - New biosensor for COVID-19 virus
A team of researchers from Empa, ETH Zurich and Zurich University Hospital has succeeded in developing a novel sensor for detecting the new coronavirus. In future it could be used to measure the co... - Printing complex cellulose-based objects
Researchers from ETH Zurich and the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa) have set a new world record: they 3D printed complex objects with higher cellulose content... - Closely spaced hydrogen atoms could facilitate superconductivity in ambient conditions
An international team of researchers has discovered the hydrogen atoms in a metal hydride material are much more tightly spaced than had been predicted for decades - a feature that could possibly f... - Tiny pharmaceuticals in the environment
Nanomedicine is making headways. However, the tiny nanoparticles that are being used as carriers for drugs could find their way into water, soil and air. Empa researchers are investigating potentia...
- Award for more efficient electrochemical energy storage
Empa young researcher Léo Duchêne received the prestigious Battery Division Student Research Award of the Electrochemical Society in Atlanta, USA. Since 1979, this research prize has been awarded t... - On the road to safe nanomedicine
Tiny particles that can fight cancer or that can easily pass through any interface within our body are a great promise for medicine. But there is little knowledge thus far about what exactly will h... - Fighting unwanted biofilms with novel materials
Biofilms are enormously resistant accumulations of germs, which can cause serious problems, especially in hospitals. Like a single large creature, they can spread within wounds or colonize implants... - Rössler Prize for work on bright nanoparticles
A brilliant blue, a luminous green, a deep red - the range of colours Maksym Kovalenko presents in an array of test tubes in his lab is fascinating. But what is fascinating about the colours isn't ... - Source of new CFC emissions discovered
Since 2013, annual emissions of the banned chlorofluorocarbon CFC-11 have increased by around 7,000 metric tons from eastern China, according to a new study by an international team of scientists i... - Microplastics in freshwaters - the risks to the environment
As small as a grain of dust - but of great global significance. The word microplastics is familiar to many, but the dangers are virtually unexplored. In recent years, plastic pollution has become a... - Unique insights into concrete - watching concrete explode
Even if concrete is not flammable, it can be hazardous in tunnel fires: high-performance concrete can explode at high temperatures. Although the phenomenon is well known, the physics behind it have... - Quantum cascade laser measures large molecules
Quantum cascade lasers are able to measure the smallest molecules with high precision. But the technology has failed to measure larger gas molecules - until now! Empa researchers have succeeded in ... - How safe is graphene? - Effects on people and the environment
Graphene is considered one of the most interesting and versatile materials of our time. The application possibilities inspire both research and industry. But are products containing graphene also s...