Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2022 - 43

Sustainable Technology
A Biodegradable Filtration System for Waste Metal Recovery
An inexpensive biological approach to removing or adsorbing a target substance or material
from solution.
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
R
apid socio-economic development and
technological advancement has made
the hazardous chemical components of
end-of-life electronics waste (e-waste) an
imminent challenge. Conventional extraction
methods rely on energy-intensive
processes and are inefficient when applied
to recycling e-waste or waste streams that
contain mixed materials and small
amounts of metals. NASA Ames Research
Center has developed an inexpensive biological
approach to removing or adsorbing
a target substance or material, for example
a metal, non-metal toxin, dye, or
small molecule drug, from solution.
This invention is a method of removing
or adsorbing a target substance or
material, for example, a metal, non-metal
toxin, dye, or small molecule drug,
from solution, by functionalizing a substrate
with a peptide configured to selectively
bind to the target substance or material
and to bind to the substrate. The
substrate is fungal mycelium, and the
naturally occurring or bioengineered
peptide is called a target-binding domain,
which is chemically bonded to a
selected solid substrate.
The target chemical species binds to
the target-binding domain and is removed
from solution. The target can be
any chemical species dissolved or suspended
in the solution. Capture of the
target by the substrate can isolate and
allow removal of the target substance
from solution, or for utilization in water
filtration, or recovery of targeted chemical
species from solution, particularly
aqueous solution applications.
The peptides used include fusion peptides
and/or
proteins
containing
metal-binding domain sequence and optionally
containing substrate-binding domain
sequence; fusion peptides/proteins
containing a metal-binding domain
and a chitin-binding domain; and (nucleic
acids encoding fusion peptides
and/or proteins containing metal-binding
domain sequence.
The technology enables simple scale
up to a level that could be successfully
implemented in an environment with
limited resources, such as on a space mission
or on earth in developing countries
with poor access to clean water.
NASA is actively seeking licensees to
commercialize this technology. Please
contact NASA's Licensing Concierge at
Agency-Patent-Licensing@mail.nasa.gov
or call at 202-358-7432 to initiate licensing
discussions. For more information,
visit https://technology.nasa.gov/patent/
TOP2-295.
Using AI to Help Scale Up Advanced Solar
Cell Manufacturing
A new approach to machine learning could help make the next generation of solar power
a reality.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
P
erovskites are a family of materials
that are currently the leading contender
to potentially replace today's silicon-based
solar photovoltaics. Manufacturing
perovskite-based solar cells involves
optimizing at least a dozen or so variables
at once, even within one particular manufacturing
approach among many possibilities.
But a new system based on a novel
approach to machine learning could
speed up the development of optimized
production methods and help make the
next generation of solar power a reality.
The system, developed by researchers at
MIT and Stanford University over the last
few years, makes it possible to integrate
data from prior experiments, and information
based on personal observations by exTech
Briefs, September 2022
perienced workers, into the machine
learning process.
While most laboratory-scale development
of perovskite materials uses a
spin-coating technique, that's not practical
for larger-scale manufacturing, so companies
and labs around the world have been
searching for ways of translating these lab
materials into a practical, manufacturable
product.
The MIT team looked at a process that
they felt had the greatest potential, a method
called rapid spray plasma processing
(RSPP). The manufacturing process
would involve a moving roll-to-roll surface,
or series of sheets, on which the precursor
solutions for the perovskite compound
would be sprayed or ink-jetted as the sheet
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rolled by. The material would then move
on to a curing stage, providing a rapid and
continuous output.
Within that process, at least a dozen variables
may affect the outcome, some of
them more controllable than others.
These include the composition of the
starting materials, the temperature, the
humidity, the speed of the processing
path, the distance of the nozzle used to
spray the material onto a substrate, and
the methods of curing the material. Many
of these factors can interact with each other,
and if the process is in open air, then
humidity, for example, may be uncontrolled.
Evaluating all possible combinations
of these variables through experimentation
is impossible, so machine
43

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Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2022

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