Tech Briefs Magazine - March 2022 - 57

weapons-grade materials and detecting secret
weapon tests, and trains the next generation of
nonproliferation experts.
Adiabatic
The goal of the PRedictive Integrated Structural
Materials Science Center, or PRISMS, is
to develop a predictive understanding of how
structure relates to material properties, so that
researchers can engineer materials that have
the qualities that they need to invent new technologies.
This effort to model materials from
the macroscale to the nanoscale is backed with
$11 million from the Department of Energy's
Materials Genome Project.
The MURI Center for Dynamic Magneto-Optics
seeks to use the magnetic properties
of light for purposes such as energy conversion.
With a $7.5-million grant from the Department of
Defense, this is a collaboration between the University of
Michigan, Northwestern University, Columbia University,
and the University of Central Florida.
Breakthrough Technologies
A team at the University of Michigan showed how a network
of nanofibers, fashioned out of recycled Kevlar, can allow lithium-sulfur
batteries to overcome issues surrounding cycle life,
such as the number of times it can be charged and discharged.
The research team integrated ionic selectivity of cell membranes
and toughness of cartilage. Their integrated system approach
enabled them to address the overarching challenges of
lithium-sulfur batteries.
In an advance that could dramatically
improve the productivity of solar panels
in cold climates, a University of Michigan-led
team demonstrated an inexpensive,
clear coating that reduced snow and
ice accumulation on solar panels, enabling
them to generate up to 85 percent
more energy in early testing.
The coating is made chiefly of PVC
or PDMS plastic and silicon or vegetable-based
oils.
It can be sprayed or
brushed on in cold weather and in its current
iteration, can keep shedding snow
and ice for up to a year.
Researchers at the University of Michigan
in collaboration with the University
of Bath have also shown that twisted
nanoscale semiconductors
manipulate
light in a new way. The effect could be
harnessed to accelerate the discovery and
development of life-saving medicines as
well as photonic technologies.
Specifically, the photonic effect could
help enable rapid development and
screening of new antibiotics and other
drugs through automation. It offers a
Tech Briefs, March 2022
Design domain
(copper and wax)
Copper
Heat flux
The new algorithm reduced the computational time needed to reach the best solution by
roughly 100 to 100,000 times over traditional approaches. (Photo: University of Michigan)
new analysis tool for high-throughput screening, a method to
analyze vast libraries of chemical compounds. A tiny sample of
each compound fills a well on a microplate. The wells can be as
small as a cubic millimeter, and a plate the size of a chocolate
bar can contain a thousand of them.
A new algorithm developed by researchers at the University
of Michigan and Northeastern University promises to maximize
the performance and efficiency of structures - everything
from bridges to computer components - by determining
the combination that gives the highest load capacity with
lowest cost.
The team tested their algorithm in four optimization scenarios:
designing structures to maximize their stiffness for carrySingle
sensor consisting of 1.6M nanopillars, arranged into 64 nodes consisting of pairs of arrays
placed at right angles to each other. (Photo: University of Michigan)
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Tech Briefs Magazine - March 2022

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