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Like some tantalizing cursed treasure, boron nitride nanotubes have been tempting researchers with their promise of high heat tolerance, which makes them excellent candidates for components in the next generation of microscopic-scale high efficiency electronics.  But for years the tiny nanofibers, which are similar to carbon nanotubes, have lead researchers down one blind alley after another. tweetmeme_url="http://cleantechnica.com/2010/01/28/carpet-of-boron-nanotubes-could-lead-to-new-generation-of-nano-scale-electronics/"; The fact is that boron nanotubes are much harder to produce than carbon nanotubes.   They won’t catch on until that obstacle is overcome - and it seems that a team of researchers at Michigan Technological University has done just that.  Working with the same instrumentation used for carbon nanotubes, the team has developed a way to grow virtual “Persian carpets” of boron nitride nanotubes in the lab, paving the way for their commercial use.

The brain of any electronic device is the circuitry that operated the machine. Without the circuitry, the device is not even worth the cost of the plastic that it is made of. Any electronics device requires some kind of battery or it is nothing more than a paperweight. Recently, some new technology was created by scientists from the University of Pennsylvania that will no longer require a device to use a battery as the power can come from light-powered circuitry.

Fabrizio Longo, Tyco Electronics product manager, says: "Many medium- and high-volume manufacturers of FHP motors for appliance, heating ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) equipment are evaluating a switch from copper to aluminium magnet wire to reduce raw material costs. Copper contributes on average about 30 per cent to the overall production cost of a FHP electric motor. Switching from copper to aluminium conductors can also reduce transportation costs, as aluminium is about one-third of the weight of copper. Our interconnection system allows manufacturers to easily and cost-effectively bridge the transitions many are making from copper to aluminium magnet wires."

with a flood of electronic products with wireless charging capability arriving on the market in the coming years, causing global shipments of such solutions to soar to 234.9 million units in 2014, up by a factor of 65 from 3.6 million in 2010, according to iSuppli Corp.

While a number of serious challenges continue to present barriers to immediate wide adoption, wireless chargers will start shipping in meaningful volume this year and then quickly ramp up as the devices achieve greater market acceptance

Researchers have demonstrated a simple, cheap way to create self-assembling electronic devices using a property crucial to salad dressings.

This means, right from the start, we need to consider imposing strict efficiency standards on these technologies to make sure efficiency isn’t abandoned for the sake of convenience. I hope Energy Star is on this case. That said, it’s quite possible that wireless charging will elminate a considerable amount of electronics waste, because we won’t have a lot of wired chargers being sent to the dump. That’s assuming, of course, that manufacturers stop selling wired chargers with the device and require it as a separate purchase.

Leveraging technologies developed under GE’s Nanotechnology Advanced Technology Program, they have fabricated a prototype substrate that can cool electronic devices such as a laptop computer twice as well as copper.

Researchers report metallic-like conduction of an electrical charge across the biofilm of specialized bacteria, opening new possibilities for environmentally-sustainable nanomaterials and nano-electronic devices.