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New device could cut costs on household products, pharmaceuticals

Sometimes cost saving comes in nanoscale packages.

A new procedure that thickens and thins fluid at the micron level could save consumers and manufacturers money, particularly for soap products that depend on certain molecules to effectively deal with grease and dirt. Researchers at the University of Washington published their findings online April 9 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Read the back of most shampoos and dishwashing detergents and you’ll find the word “surfactant” in the list of active ingredients. Surfactant molecules are tiny, yet they are the reason dish soap can attack an oily spot and shampoo can rid the scalp of grease. (more…)

Flexing Fingers for Micro-Robotics: Berkeley Lab Scientists Create a Powerful, Microscale Actuator

By Guest PostDecember 18, 2012Scienceartificial muscles, beckoning finger, berkeley lab, chromium metal layer, chun cheng, electron, electronic behaviors, flex, human muscle cells, junqiao wu, kai liu, kevin wang, metal, microactuator, microfluidics, micron, microscale actuator, natural application, oxide material, phase transitions, phenomena, phillip m. duxbury, piezoelectric device, piezoelectric technology, ramamoorthy ramesh, subhendra d mahanti, Technology, temperature variation, university of california, vanadium dioxide, zhenting cheng

Berkeley, Calif., Dec. 2012 — Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California, Berkeley, have developed an elegant and powerful new microscale actuator that can flex like a tiny beckoning finger. Based on an oxide material that expands and contracts dramatically in response to a small temperature variation, the actuators are smaller than the width of a human hair and are promising for microfluidics, drug delivery, and artificial muscles.

“We believe our microactuator is more efficient and powerful than any current microscale actuation technology, including human muscle cells,” says Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley scientist Junqiao Wu. “What’s more, it uses this very interesting material—vanadium dioxide—and tells us more about the fundamental materials science of phase transitions.” (more…)

Tag Archives: microfluidics

New device could cut costs on household products, pharmaceuticals

Flexing Fingers for Micro-Robotics: Berkeley Lab Scientists Create a Powerful, Microscale Actuator