1. sciencetolife
  2. New materials for microwave cookware heat faster with less energy

New materials for microwave cookware heat faster with less energy

By sciencetolife on July 28, 2008.

You may soon be enjoying microwave popcorn and other 'nuked' foods and beverages faster than ever before, while saving on electricity. Researchers in Pennsylvania and Japan report development of new ceramic materials that heat up faster and retain heat longer than conventional microwave cookware while using less energy.

The ceramics are made from a mixtures of magnetite and petalite and are reported to heat faster than commercially available microwave cookware.

"Rice cooks in about half or less time," the researchers say. Other applications may include pizza delivery, since the food would stay warmer for longer.

A rice cooker and plates made from this material are already being sold by ASAHI Ceramics Research Co. in Japan.
i-73f4cbf5b1f06520fd94f8d7e1db4f5e-microwave.jpg
The report will be published in the August 26 issue of the journal Chemistry of Materials.

Image credit: Sridhar Komarneni

Tags
Technology

More like this

Japan's Tipping Point: Renewable Energy from Solar and Geothermal
by Mark Pendergrast This is my second post in a series of three about the state of Japan's renewable energy efforts, which are vital to prevent further climate change and to wean the country from fossil fuel and nuclear power. In the previous post, I covered the public-health impacts of climate…
Japan's Tipping Point: Renewable Energy from Wind, Water, Biomass, and More...
by Mark Pendergrast This is my third and final post about the state of Japan's renewable energy efforts and other measures that are vital to prevent further climate change and to wean the country from fossil fuel and nuclear power. In my first post, I covered the public-health impacts of climate…
Japan Nuclear Disaster Update # 39: Nuclear Explosion at Reactor 3?
The radiation at the Fukushima plants has gone up, rather than down, since June. This may be because contaminated water has become more concentrated due to evaporation. The release of radiation from the plant into the air continues, although a covering over Reactor 1 is almost completed. The…
Comments of the Week #132: from dark comets to alien searches
"Ships that could circumnavigate the galaxy in a few years, and count every cell in your body from light-years off, but he wasn't able to go back one miserable day and alter one tiny, stupid, idiotic, shameful decision..." -Iain Banks And while we can't travel back in time at all to change the…