Next-generation batteries using lithium-rich materials could be more sustainable and cost-effective, according to a team of researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory. The pivotal discovery, which aims to improve the understanding of advanced materials for transportation and grid storage, was published in the article, “Harbinger of hysteresis in lithium-rich oxides: Anionic activity or defect chemistry of cation migration,” on June 24 in the Journal of Power Sources. “Lithium-rich oxides offer the possibility of more sustainable and cost-effective options over…

As a result of modern Advanced Driver Assistance Systems, the use of radar technology has become indispensable for the automotive sector. With the installation of a large and growing number of sensors together with the limited availability of suitably exposed space for them on the vehicle body, there is almost no space left for the installation of sensors. The Fraunhofer Institute FEP and its two partners are jointly developing a solution for the integration of radar sensors into the front…

A new 3D-printing method will make it easier to manufacture and control the shape of soft robots, artificial muscles and wearable devices. Researchers at UC San Diego show that by controlling the printing temperature of liquid crystal elastomer, or LCE, they can control the material’s degree of stiffness and ability to contract–also known as degree of actuation. What’s more, they are able to change the stiffness of different areas in the same material by exposing it to heat. As a…

Researchers led by The University of Tokyo employed a new computer model to simulate the networks of force-carrying particles that give amorphous solids their strength even though they lack long range order. This work may lead to new advances in high-strength glass, which can be used for cooking, industrial, and smartphone applications. Amorphous solids such as glass–despite being brittle and having constituent particles that do not form ordered lattices–can possess surprising strength and rigidity. This is even more unexpected because…

The more important renewable energy sources become, the more urgent is the need to store the electricity produced in this way. Green energy could then also be used when the sun is not shining on the solar panels or no airflow is driving the wind turbines. To achieve this, suitable energy storage devices are indispensable. Researchers at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (Germany) have recently developed promising new polymer electrolytes for redox flow batteries, which are flexible, efficient, and environmentally…

New Record for 1 cm² Solar Cell In the field of organic photovoltaics, researchers are working hard to further increase the solar cell efficiency. New materials obtained from synthetic organic chemistry have enabled significant efficiency increases in recent years. Maintaining the efficiencies achieved in the laboratory on tiny solar cells is often a challenge when the cell area becomes larger. Now Fraunhofer ISE together with the Freiburg Materials Research Center FMF of the University of Freiburg has achieved a record…

Individual Pt atoms participate in catalytic reaction to faciitate the electrode process by up to 10 times. Single-atom Pt catalysts are stable at 700 degrees Celsius and expected to stimulate the commercialization of next-gen reversible fuel cells. Unlike secondary batteries that need to be recharged, fuel cells are a type of eco-friendly power generation systems that produce electricity directly from electrochemical reactions using hydrogen as fuel and oxygen as oxidant. There are various types of fuel cells, differing in operating…

One of the holy-grail questions in condensed matter physics is how superconductivity — the property of many electrons to go into a quantum soup state that can carry electricity without losses — emerges at relatively high temperatures in certain materials, and how these temperatures could be boosted even further. Now a research team at the University of Oxford and the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter in Hamburg is reporting in Physical Review Letters that a…

Styrian technological innovation – made in Graz TU Graz, ams and Silicon Austria Labs has developed a compact and energy-efficient sensor for mobile devices, which informs users in real time about the fine dust content in the air and warns them in case of elevated values. It is slightly smaller than two one-cent coins stacked on top of each other, is particularly energy-efficient due to its size, requires no maintenance and can be integrated in mobile devices. It is the…

Electrochemical reactions, which will play an important role in the future of energy supply, can now be explained in detail, thanks to measurements carried out by TU Wien and DESY. Electrochemistry is playing an increasingly important role: Whether it is fuel cells, electrolysis or chemical energy storage, chemical reactions controlled by electric current are used. The decisive factor in all these applications is that the reactions are as fast and efficient as possible. An important step forward has now been…

Researchers have developed the world’s first photodetector that can see all shades of light, in a prototype device that radically shrinks one of the most fundamental elements of modern technology. Photodetectors work by converting information carried by light into an electrical signal and are used in a wide range of technologies, from gaming consoles to fibre optic communication, medical imaging and motion detectors. Currently photodetectors are unable to sense more than one colour in the one device. This means they…

The search for new, more efficient materials to harvest solar energy is a major research focus around the world. Until now, silicon has been the material of choice for solar cells – but scientists are trying to develop far more efficient and cost-effective alternatives. One promising material is pentacene, an organic molecule which converts solar energy extremely well when combined with certain other molecules. Pentacene stands out because of its ultrafast ‘singlet fission’ – a process which scientists hope to…

An international team of researchers have found a way to refine and reliably produce an unpredictable and hard-to-control material that could impact environmental conservation, energy and consumer electronics. The material, Molybdenum Disulfide (MoS2), holds tremendous potential for numerous applications in energy storage, water treatment, gas, chemical and light sensing. But high costs and fabrications challenges have held back wider use. “There are many different ways to fabricate this material, but no one has yet been able to make it in…

Study: Pointed tips on aluminum ‘octopods’ increase catalytic reactivity. Points matter when designing nanoparticles that drive important chemical reactions using the power of light. Researchers at Rice University’s Laboratory for Nanophotonics (LANP) have long known that a nanoparticle’s shape affects how it interacts with light, and their latest study shows how shape affects a particle’s ability to use light to catalyze important chemical reactions. In a comparative study, LANP graduate students Lin Yuan and Minhan Lou and their colleagues studied…

3D printing has driven innovations in fields ranging from art to aerospace to medicine. However, the high-energy ultraviolet (UV) light used in most 3D printers to cure liquid resins into solid objects limits the technique’s applications. Visible-light curing, which would be more appropriate for some uses, such as tissue engineering and soft robotics, is slow. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Central Science have developed photopolymer resins that boost the speed of visible-light curing. With the help of computer-aided design, 3D-printed…

Automatic approach could enable precision fabrication of optical components and multimaterial structures. Researchers have developed an automated 3D printing method that can produce multicolor 3D microstructures using different materials. The new method could be used to make a variety of optical components including optical sensors and light-driven actuators as well as multimaterial structures for applications such as soft robotics and medical applications. “Combining multiple kinds of materials can be used to create a function that cannot be realized with a…