Did the Mg based batteries will replace in the near future the old lead-acid  and nickel-cadmium systems ? Development of Mg based batteries has been hindered by the chemical activity of Mg itself and the difficulty of intercalating this element to the cathode material host.  Scientist at Bar-Ilan University in Israel have recently developed a rechargeable Mg battery and show promise for applications by overcoming the initial difficulties; The system comprise electrolyte solution based on Mg organohaloaluminate salts, and MgxMo3S4 cathodes, into which Mg ions can be intercalated   reversibly, and with relatively fast kinetics. The authors concludes that with good engineering it will be possible to obtain large, rechargeable Mg based batteries with practical energy density considerably larger than 60 W h kg^-1.
More about that story at Nature ScienceUpdate brief news by David Adam

Although spin and dip techniques are the most intensively investigated and used in a commercial base for the manufacturing of  sol-gel coatings , Spray deposition remains a wide spread coating techniques which offer a large variety of technical potential. Unfortunately spray technique has been little investigated for sol-gel coating and little is know on how this technique could be used on making optical quality thin films. The authors provides useful information on how to achieve this objective by using non volatile additives to reduce the film roughness down to a few nm with excellent thickness uniformity across the substrate.  

The ability to pattern porous thin films is important for a number of applications, including sensor arrays, optics, and microfluidic devices. The authors describe a photopatternig technique using a photoacid generator compartimentalized within a silica-surfactant mesophase which control local siloxane condensation. Selective etching of unexposed regions is used to create gray scale pattering of refractive index, pore size, surface area and wetting behaviour. An unprecedent pore size control is achieved by this way down to 0.2 A°. Using this technique one can imagine creating membranes separating Oxygen from Nitrogen.
More about that story : Ligth used to control size nanopores , from Sandia National Laboratory News release