Ultra-thin Flexible Glass for OLED Products

KONFECT, a German collaborative research project developed a 25 microns thick flexible glass that can be used as the substrate for organic electronics and solar panels, as well as for the further development of future generations of OLED applications.

The thickness of ultra-thin glass can be up to 150um, and it is produced in a factory located in Schott, Germany, using a direct thermoforming process, in which the molten glass extends through the nozzle to the desired thickness of Grunenplan. The key point is that the glass can be produced in a low cost volume to volume (R2R) process. At present, the process is being further developed and is expected to be optimized before the middle of 2018. Tape manufacturer TESA is a special adhesive and functional layer for the glass to the final lamination step to provide comprehensive protection.

The researchers said that the use of flexible glass substrate can be in the optical quality, temperature stability, chemical consistency, gas density and mechanical resistance and a series of benefits. It can also be used as a substrate for low cost solar cells.

From  :  https://www.landvac.net/

US Scientists Developed New Glass Battery

John Goodenough, professor in the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin and co-inventor of the lithium-ion battery, recently published a paper on the development of a new battery technology. The new technology uses glass doped with alkali-metal atoms such as lithium or sodium as the battery electrolyte (the medium that transports the ions between the anode and the cathode during battery charging or discharging).

They find, for instance, that the lithium- or sodium-glass battery has three times the energy storage capacity of a comparable lithium-ion battery. But its electrolyte is neither flammable nor volatile, and it doesn’t appear to build up the spiky “dendrites” that have plagued lithium-ions as they charge and discharge repeatedly and can ultimately short out, causing battery fires. Besides, the glass battery charges in “minutes rather than hours and early tests of their technology suggest it’s also capable of perhaps thousands of charge-discharge cycles, and could perform well in both extremely cold and hot weather. (Initial estimates place its operating range between below -20º C and 60º C.) 

Goodenough said that his team is ready to welcome the golden moment. The next step is to solve the issues with the cathode. Commercialization is possible after practical application testing.

From  :  https://www.landvac.net/

FunGLASS research center in Slovakia established with €25M

The global glass community received excellent news of a €25 million investment in glass research to establish the new Centre for Functional and Surface-Functionalized Glasses (FunGLASS) in Trencín, Slovakia. The Centre includes partner institutions in Germany, Spain, and Italy.

The establishment of this European centre boosts the momentum and importance of glass research on a global scale. The purpose of the Centre is to conduct cutting edge research on glasses with special functional properties, as well as investigate novel strategies for functionalizing conventional glasses. The aim is to modify properties and add new functionalities to expand the range of applications in the optical, energy, structural, and biomedical sectors.

https://www.vacuum-glass.net/

Passive radiative cooling glass was developed

Passive radiative cooling draws heat from surfaces and radiates it into space as infrared radiation to which the atmosphere is transparent. Radiative cooling is an extremely attractive concept in the 21^st century. This technology has attracted broad interests from both fundamental sciences and real world applications, ranging from passive building cooling, renewable energy harvesting and passive refrigeration in arid regions. 

Recently, a team of University of Colorado Boulder engineers has developed a scalable manufactured metamaterial — an engineered material with extraordinary properties not found in nature — to act as a kind of air conditioning system for structures. It has the ability to cool objects even under direct sunlight with zero energy and water consumption. When backed with silver coating, the metamaterial shows a noon-time radiative cooling power of 93 W/m2 under direct sunshine. More critically, the reserarchers demonstrated high-throughput, economical roll-to-roll manufacturing of the metamaterial, vital for promoting radiative cooling as a viable energy technology.

https://www.vacuum-glass.net/

Bringing Night Vision to Normal Glass

Night vision goggles have always been a sophisticated device to many people. But thanks to the “magic recipe” developed by the researchers at the Australian National University (ANU), adding this new material will grant night vision powers to an ordinary pair of glass. 

The principle of night vision goggles is to convert the incident photons into electrons that light up a phosphor screen inside the device to create a visual image of the surrounding area. But this process consumes power and makes most of night vision goggles a power hungry device. The material (known as nanocrystal) created by the ANU team can be used to create night vision devices that forgo electricity completely by converting the incoming photons from infrared spectrum into visible light.  

The major breakthrough ANU made is to successfully apply this unique nanocrystal on a plane of glass. The nanocrystal particle can be fabricated currently is 300 nanometers in diameter. Also, it requires light intense enough to make a conversion from infrared light to visible light. However, the research team hopes that further development will allow them to improve the efficiency and sensitivity of the conversion. By the time they are able to create a large quantity of these particles to cover the entire plane of glass, they can turn normal eye glasses to into night vision enabled goggles.

https://www.vacuum-glass.net/

Transparent as Glass - JDI Announced the Development of New Display Technology

Recently, Japan Display Inc. (JDI) demonstrated its high-transmittance LCD display at “JDI Tech Expo” held in Japan. It is reported that the prototype’s size and resolution are 4 inches and 300 x 300 respectively. The technology is expected to have wide applications in Augmented Reality (AR), automobile, and smart window display fields in the future.

The newly developed transparent display achieves a high transmittance level of 80%, 1.5 times higher than the previous technology and products. The new technology allows viewers to see the background image and the displayed foreground image clearly and contemporaneously, just like watching TV on a piece of glass. The transmittance of a previous model LCD display with a polarizing plate is merely “10-30% and OLED is 45%.

https://www.vacuum-glass.net/

The Thirteenth Five-year Plan for Energy Conservation and Green Buildings

Recently, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development released “The Thirteenth Five-year Plan for Building Energy Conservation and Green Building Development”, aimed at establishing an energy saving, low carbon, green ecological, intensive, and highly efficient building energy use system, promoting the supply side structural reforms in the fields of residential housing and urban-rural development.

The objectives are to improve the energy efficiency for newly built constructions in cities and towns by 20% compared with 2015 while building energy conservation standards in some regions and for key architectural components such as windows and doors shall meet or come very close to the current international advanced level by 2020. The green building area shall account for more than 50% of total newly built constructions in cities and towns with the use of green building materials exceeding 40%. Through energy efficiency renovation of more than 500 million m² for existing residential buildings and 100 million m² for public buildings, the energy efficient housing among existing residential buildings in cities and towns shall account for more than 60 % nationwide.

The Thirteenth Five-Year Plan makes it clear that majority of future buildings shall be energy efficient in nature and encourages the use of new green building materials. At present, LandGlass has successfully developed fully tempered vacuum glass with U-value as low as 0.4 W/(m²·K). The outstanding performance of this product in thermal insulation and noise reduction while retaining the safety properties of fully tempered glass makes it an ideal choice for green, energy-saving, and passive buildings.

https://www.vacuum-glass.net/