Materials Science
A piece of Empa on your wrist
TechTransfer
Empa
Empa research helps Swiss watches to glow in the dark: The luminescent material Swiss Super-LumiNova, which was refined at Empa, now adorns the hands and dials of a number of wristwatches, including the MoonSwatch collection from Swatch and Omega.
“It all comes down to the last atom”
Research
ETH Board
Empa researchers have developed novel materials made of carbon that exploit quantum effects to exhibit previously unattainable electronic and magnetic properties. The Werner Siemens Foundation is providing the CarboQuant project with a grant of CHF 15 million. Graphene, nanotechnology and quantum science are now widely used at Empa.
Circuit boards from renewable raw materials
Research
Empa
Can ecologically sustainable circuit boards for the electronics industry be produced from cellulose fibers? Empa researcher Thomas Geiger looked into this question. He is now part of a multinational EU project called "Hypelignum". Its goal: biodegradable electronics.
Progress in alternative battery technology
Research
ETH Zurich
It is not easy to make batteries cheap, efficient, durable, safe and environmentally friendly at the same time. Researchers at ETH Zurich have now succeeded in uniting all of these characteristics in zinc metal batteries.
Translucent bricks
TechTransfer
Empa
Glass bricks have long been popular in architecture for bringing more light into buildings. Until now, however, they have not been suitable for load-bearing walls and have not insulated well. An Empa team has now developed a translucent glass brick with good insulation properties thanks to aerogel, which can even be used for load-bearing elements. This makes it possible to build aesthetic, translucent walls that reduce the need for artificial lighting inside the building.
Delicate, diligent, transient
Research
Empa
Their task is to monitor the condition of ecosystems, for instance in the forest floor – and crumble to dust when their work is done: bio-gliders modeled on the Java cucumber, which sails its seeds dozens of meters through the air. Empa researchers have developed these sustainable flying sensors from potato starch and wood waste.
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