Apr 21, 2023 | Electromobility
Electric cars are on the rise. On behalf of the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE), the research and consulting company INFRAS, together with researchers from Empa, has developed a basic report that identifies and...
Apr 20, 2023 | Building insulation
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...
Apr 18, 2023 | Biodrones
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...
Apr 12, 2023 | Empa-made components on board the space probe
JUICE, the European spacecraft that is scheduled to launch later today, will explore Jupiter and its icy moons. Some of the components on board have been manufactured at Empa using a specially developed soldering...
Apr 6, 2023 | The ETH Domain as partner of the Swiss Museum of Transport
Energy is the basis of our mobility. Therefore, the Swiss Museum of Transport is dedicating its latest exhibition to the topic of energy and opened the purpose-built "House of Energy" on 3 April. The "Experience Energy!"...
Apr 3, 2023 | Loopholes in the Montreal Protocol
A new analysis has found rapidly increasing emissions between 2010 and 2020 of five ozone-depleting chemicals whose production for most uses had been banned under the Montreal Protocol. The emissions of these five...
Mar 30, 2023 | Synthetic fuels from the Earth's sun belt
The Association for the Decarbonization of Industry (AfDI) has set itself the goal of developing rapidly implementable and holistic approaches for CO2 reduction in industrial processes. The focus is on industrial...
Mar 27, 2023 | Empa Young Scientist Fellowship
Empa researcher Amy Knorpp wants to bring systematics into the young research field of high-entropy oxides. The latter are crystals whose specialty is not order, but disorder. By using these crystals, Amy Knorpp aims to...
Mar 21, 2023 | Empa Entrepreneur Fellowships awarded
Two young Empa scientists each receive an Empa Entrepreneur Fellowship to develop innovative products based on their research. Abdessalem Aribia is developing environmentally friendly and safe batteries, while Subas...
Mar 21, 2023 | Does daylight saving make sense from an energy point of view?
The elimination of daylight-saving time is a frequently – and heatedly – discussed topic. Often, only the aspect of electricity consumption due to artificial lighting is considered. In a new study, Empa researchers have...
Mar 17, 2023 | Successful spin-off acquisition
Developing a product from an innovative technology takes years, sometimes decades. Gabor Kovacs has lived through this process with his spin-off CTsystems AG and electroactive polymers at Empa. From the idea, through...
Mar 14, 2023 | For sports and physiotherapy alike
Researchers at ETH Zurich, Empa and EPFL are developing a 3D-printed insole with integrated sensors that allows the pressure of the sole to be measured in the shoe and thus during any activity. This helps athletes or...
Mar 7, 2023 | Perovskite nanocrystals for better computing
Researchers at Empa, ETH Zurich and the "Politecnico di Milano" are developing a new type of computer component that is more powerful and easier to manufacture than its predecessors. Inspired by the human brain, it is...
Mar 2, 2023 | A children's book for our future
What might life in a circular economy look like? Empa and the St. Gallen University of Teacher Education (PHSG) are collaborating with gifted children to develop visions for a sustainable future and to compile them into...
Feb 28, 2023 | A highly complex design
The next unit at NEST, the research and innovation building of Empa and Eawag, goes by the name of STEP2. For about two years, partners from research and industry have been working on various innovations in the fields of...
Feb 23, 2023 | Interview Lorenz Herrmann
Lorenz Herrmann has been head of Empa's Advanced Materials and Surfaces Department for around six months. In this interview, he describes areas, in which he would like to make progress with novel materials, and explains...
Feb 21, 2023 | Incineration of graphene-containing plastics
Empa researchers have studied residues from the incineration of graphene-containing plastics. Conclusion of the study: Burned composite materials containing graphene nanoparticles can be considered harmless in case of...
Feb 16, 2023 | High-precision analysis of precious ice samples
Ice cores are a unique climate archive. Thanks to a new method developed by researchers at the University of Bern and Empa, greenhouse gas concentrations in 1.5 million year old ice can be measured even more accurately....
Feb 10, 2023 | International Day of Women and Girls in Science
Research thrives on diversity of thought, new perspectives, talent and creativity. Empa is convinced that by involving and supporting female researchers, today's greatest challenges can be addressed and solved. To mark...
Feb 7, 2023 | Photovoltaics
Three institutes in the ETH Domain are conducting research on so-called perovskite-based optoelectronics, such as solar cells, photodetectors, and light-emitting diodes (LEDs). In a project called AMYS, labs of EPFL, ETH...