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MRC

Now, scientists design colourful solar collectors to decorate your roofs

Black coloured rooftops have become the norm of many of the cities’ landscape with increasing number of houses switching over to sustainable, efficient and clean energy source – solar energy. Solar-thermal power systems that convert solar energy to heat or electricity are becoming ubiquitous. These systems typically consist of a flat plate collector that utilizes solar absorber coatings to get maximum conversion efficiency from incident solar radiation to heat. These collectors are coated black to enhance the absorptance- the effectiveness of absorbing radiant energy. Now, a group of researchers, led by Prof. Bikramjit Basu from the Material Research Centre at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, and Dr. Harish C Barshilia from CSIR-National Aerospace Laboratories, has developed a new, colourful coating for flat plate collectors, thereby increasing its absorptance without compromising the aesthetic appearance of the roofs where they are installed.

 

Indulekha

A novel approach to store hydrogen efficiently

Researchers at Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore have found a new way to store hydrogen efficiently. Hydrogen has been acknowledged as an alternative energy source – it is abundant and a zero-emission fuel. Currently, hydrogen is used as a fuel for rocket propulsion at NASA. Hydrogen is also used in fuel cells, where chemical energy is converted into electricity. However, there are several challenges involved in utilising hydrogen as a fuel, like difficulty in storage of hydrogen and selectivity. A recent study by the researchers at IISc has addressed the hydrogen storage problem and is a huge step towards development of a hydrogen fuel cell.

Soumya

New non-invasive method for treating bacterial infections

Researchers from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore have developed a way to kill bacteria using dynamic magnetic fields. This is an important development because antibiotics are becoming somewhat ineffective as bacteria are learning to adapt to them thus making them ineffective.

Adrian Lyngdoh