Harvard recognized at Climate Leadership Conference for sustainability efforts

A team of researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) has recently developed a simple solution to address two of the world’s biggest problems—water scarcity and food shortage. They created a solar-powered, fully automated device called “SmartFarm” that is equipped with a moisture-attracting material to absorb air moisture at night when the relative humidity is higher, and releases water when exposed to sunlight in the day for irrigation.

Increasing the lifespan of different tribosensitive components while reducing environmental impacts is becoming a more important area of research. A possible approach to solving this issue is the use of solid lubricants to enhance the wear resistance of different components. Another approach is the use of “green or environmental” fluids for enhancing lubrication where removing or decreasing the use of ecotoxic oils for lubrication is the goal. Another answer is by using components that are wear-resistant through enhanced microstructure design.
Challenges facing the use of solid lubricants include:
•  Low mechanical strength
•  Limited temperature applicability
•  High application costs.
Andy Nieto, assistant professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif., says reducing friction and effectively dissipating frictional heating are key mechanisms in reducing wear. Two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials are one possible approach for solid lubricants that create protective surface layers as solid-state lubricants.