Tech Briefs Magazine - February 2021 - 53

farmable land around the globe to previously inhospitable
places and reducing water use in agriculture at a time of growing droughts. The atmospheric water irrigation system uses
super-moisture-absorbent gels to capture water from the air.
When the soil is heated to a certain temperature, the gels
release the water, making it available to plants. When the soil
distributes water, some of it goes back into the air, increasing
humidity and making it easier to continue the harvesting cycle.
Polymer-based data storage - A new type of security system
encodes information into a small piece of plastic that can be
unlocked only via a chemical reaction using a specific type of
substance. The devices that can read this information think
like human brains and have the ability to communicate seamlessly with today's electronics. A thin layer of polyurethane sits
atop an integrated circuit. The material is a polymer, meaning
it is made up of long strings of similar molecules called
monomers that are like beads strung on a necklace. Small
changes in electrical charges cause individual monomers to
respond chemically, taking on one of eight different electrochemical states, like letters in an eight-letter alphabet. These
letters can be written and read with the same electrical pulses
upon which integrated circuits operate.

Battery technology - A cobalt-free, high-energy lithium-ion
battery opens the door to reducing the costs of producing
batteries while boosting performance in some ways. The battery uses a new class of cathodes - the electrode in a battery
where all the cobalt typically resides - anchored by high
nickel content. More nickel in a battery means it can store
more energy. That increased energy density can lead to
longer battery life for a phone or greater range for an electric
vehicle with each charge.
Another new battery combines the benefits of existing
options while eliminating their key shortcomings and saving
energy. Most batteries are composed of either solid-state electrodes such as lithium-ion batteries for portable electronics, or
liquid-state electrodes; a new room-temperature, all-liquidmetal battery includes the best of both. The metallic electrodes
can remain liquefied at a temperature of 20 C (68 F), the
lowest operating temperature ever recorded for a liquid-metal
battery. This represents a major change, because current liquid-metal batteries must be kept at temperatures above 240 C.
Biofactories - UT chemical engineers developed a way to produce medicines and chemicals on demand and preserve them
using portable " biofactories " embedded in water-based gels

Luis Sentis, associate professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, is shown with the DRACO robot that incorporates a newly developed viscoelastic liquid-cooled actuator.

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Tech Briefs Magazine - February 2021

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