A battery built with molecule-sized tubes of carbon can be made as thin and flexible as a sheet of paper, researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute say.
The new technology, described in a report published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is 90 percent cellulose, the material used in paper, imprinted with carbon nanotubes and impregnated with conductive liquid salt.
The battery works like any other, while it can be twisted and rolled without impairing its function, the researchers said. That may make it useful in medical devices such as pacemakers, digital displays, electric cars and smart cards, they said.
“It’s essentially a regular piece of paper, but it’s made in a very intelligent way,” researcher Robert Linhardt, a Rensselaer engineering professor, said in a statement. “The components are molecularly attached to each other.”
The tiny carbon nanotubes store power, while the cellulose provides insulation and the salt acts as an electrolyte, researchers said.
“The end result is a device that looks, feels and weighs the same as paper,” Linhardt said.
DOUGLAS COUNTY
EchoStar shares rise after rating raised
Shares of EchoStar Communications Corp. gained the most in five months after Buckingham Research raised the company’s rating and said the stock price was undervalued after a recent decline.
Shares of Douglas County- based EchoStar climbed $1.27, or 3.3 percent, to $40.02 in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading Monday.
The stock of the second-largest U.S. satellite-television service had dropped 22 percent since May 21, making the shares “very compelling,” analyst Qaisar Hasan wrote in a note to clients. He raised the shares to “neutral” from “underperform” and his price estimate to $38 from $35.
CENTENNIAL
National CineMedia stock jumps 7.5%
Shares of National CineMedia Inc., the company that sells advertising in movie theaters, increased 7.5 percent after an analyst upgraded the stock, citing a new agreement with a cinema chain.
The shares rose $1.71 to $24.52 at the close of regular trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The Centennial-based company has gained 17 percent since going public on Feb. 7.
National CineMedia will provide on-screen advertising in theaters owned by Sumner Redstone’s National Amusements, JPMorgan Chase & Co. analyst Barton Crockett said in a Friday report.
LONGMONT
DigitalGlobe satellite to launch on Sept. 18
Longmont-based DigitalGlobe announced its WorldView-1 satellite is scheduled to launch Sept. 18, the first of two new satellites the company plans to launch. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. in Boulder built the WorldView-1 satellite.
Separately, GeoEye, which is based in Dulles, Va., and has a Thornton facility, said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this month that “slower-than-anticipated progress” on its GeoEye-1 satellite has delayed its launch beyond the fourth quarter of this year. GeoEye now expects its launch to come in the late first quarter or early second quarter of 2008.
BOULDER
Wild Oats exec put on administrative leave
Freya Brier, senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary for Wild Oats Markets Inc., was placed on administrative leave, according to a company filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The problem is based on a dispute surrounding Brier’s severance agreement, signed in November 2002, about job status and compensation if control of the company changes.
Whole Foods is trying to buy Wild Oats, but the merger is on hold until a federal judge decides whether to continue the injunction against the merger. The case is before the judge this week.
DOUGLAS COUNTY
CSG Systems finalizes acquisition of Prairie
CSG Systems International Inc., a Douglas County-based provider of customer care and billing solutions, announced Monday that it completed the acquisition of Prairie Voice Services Inc. CSG initially announced the acquisition on July 30.
Additionally, CSG and Prairie have agreed to rename the company Prairie Interactive Messaging Inc., and it will operate as a wholly owned CSG company.
LAS VEGAS
Riviera to confer with buyout group
Riviera Holdings Corp., the owner of casinos in Las Vegas and Black Hawk, will talk to a group offering a $424 million buyout after a Nevada district court ruled Friday the company wasn’t barred from negotiations.
Riviera will “promptly contact” Riv Acquisition Holdings Inc., a group that includes investor Barry Sternlicht, as well as other bidders, the company said in a regulatory filing Monday.
DENVER
Grant to Metro State for teacher training
Metropolitan State College of Denver’s Center for Improving Early Learning/Tools of the Mind program will create a Web-based tool for teacher educators with a $100,000 Daniels Fund grant.
The Daniels grant will create a Web-based training system for Metro State faculty to train teachers nationwide in Tools of the Mind techniques.
DENVER
Quixtar associates sue firm, allege scheme
More than a dozen longtime associates of Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Quixtar Inc. sued the firm in California federal court last week alleging they’d been harnessed into a pyramid scheme and want out.
Represented by Shugahart, Thomson & Kilroy in Denver, the 15 independent business owners of Quixtar say the products they are to sell – personal health and hygiene items – are so overpriced they can’t be marketed in retail outlets. As a result, they’re forced to buy the items themselves to qualify for bonuses.
INDIANAPOLIS
Chinese toothpaste in hotels is recalled
Chinese toothpaste distributed to hotels worldwide by a U.S. company has been recalled because it may contain a chemical used in antifreeze, adding to recent cases of unsafe food and drug imports.
Indianapolis-based Gilchrist & Soames voluntarily recalled 0.65-ounce tubes of Chinese-made toothpaste after independent tests showed some samples contained diethylene glycol, or DEG, according to a company statement posted Monday on the Food and Drug Administration’s website.
