When the sun rises, a complex dance begins in perovskite solar cells – a type of solar cell that can supplement or replace existing silicon solar cells in the future: Electrons are supplied with energy by light and move. Where electrons move, they leave holes. At the same time, ions move around in the perovskite material. An understanding of this complex dance – i.e. how exactly these particles move – can help to increase the efficiency of solar cells. Gert-Jan…

Analytical model from Rice University helps researchers fine-tune battery performance. A simpler and more efficient way to predict performance will lead to better batteries, according to Rice University engineers. That their method is 100,000 times faster than current modeling techniques is a nice bonus. The analytical model developed by materials scientist Ming Tang and graduate student Fan Wang of Rice University’s Brown School of Engineering doesn’t require complex numerical simulation to guide the selection and design of battery components and…

Understanding how solar cell operation changes as it moves from the lab into the real world is essential for optimizing their design prior to mass production. KAUST researchers show how perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells function in a sunny and hot environment. Silicon dominates commercial solar-cell production. It is abundant and efficient as a converter of light to electricity. But recently, perovskites have emerged as a material with potential for lower cost fabrication using solution-based processes. Their properties can be tuned…

Scientists from the max Planck institute for Intelligent Systems, University of Stuttgart and IMS CHIPS develope ultrasound projector on base of a CMOS chip Scientists of the Micro, Nano and Molecular Systems Lab at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems and the Institute of Physical Chemistry at the University of Stuttgart have developed a digital chip that can be used to project movies with ultrasound. The researchers report on this in an article in the magazine “Nature Communications”. The…

MPIE scientists publish their recent findings in Advanced Functional Materials Since the discovery of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) 30 years ago, already tons of these are produced each year and find application in different fields, for example in batteries, filter systems, or bicycle frames. Usually, the synthesis of carbon nanotubes takes place at temperatures above 700 °C using pure metal catalysts. But, how to make the synthesis more sustainable and open the way for new application possibilities? Prof. Joohyun Lim and…

Like a comic book come to life, researchers at Stanford University have developed a kind of X-ray vision – only without the X-rays. Working with hardware similar to what enables autonomous cars to “see” the world around them, the researchers enhanced their system with a highly efficient algorithm that can reconstruct three-dimensional hidden scenes based on the movement of individual particles of light, or photons. In tests, detailed in a paper published Sept. 9 in Nature Communications, their system successfully…

A new revolution in the production of electronic circuits is on the way: Empa researchers are working on electronics that come out of printers. This makes it possible to produce the circuits on all sorts of substrates, such as paper or plastic film – but there are still some hurdles to overcome. Imagine being able to easily print electronics on any surface. Today, this is no longer a utopia: “Printed Electronics” is an emerging techno logy that makes it possible…

Texas A&M researchers have designed a new energy storage device that can store a charge up to 900 times greater than state-of-the-art supercapacitors. In a new study, researchers at Texas A&M University have described their novel plant-based energy storage device that could charge even electric cars within a few minutes in the near future. Furthermore, they said their devices are flexible, lightweight and cost-effective. “Integrating biomaterials into energy storage devices has been tricky because it is difficult to control their…

Cooperation within the TopDyn research center paves the way for the investigation of two-dimensional phases and phase transitions In a collaboration between experimental physicists and theoretical physicists in the framework of the Dynamics and Topology (TopDyn) excellence project, a system of many small magnetic whirls could be engineered to form a regularly ordered state. Such a transition from a disordered to an ordered phase is analogous to the well-known crystallization, which, however, occurs here in two dimensions. For the research…

The results show how a particle’s surface and interior influence each other, an important thing to know when developing more robust batteries. The particles that make up lithium-ion battery electrodes are microscopic but mighty: They determine how much charge the battery can store, how fast it charges and discharges and how it holds up over time – all crucial for high performance in an electric vehicle or electronic device. Cracks and chemical reactions on a particle’s surface can degrade performance,…

Researchers identify the principles necessary for designing the core material of large-area solution processable solar cells. Future application as plastic-based photovoltaic paint technology. Researchers in Korea have successfully developed a high-efficiency large-area organic solution processable solar cell by controlling the speed at which the solution of raw materials for solar cells became solidified after being coated. The team led by Dr. Hae Jung Son from the Photo-electronic Hybrids Research Center of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) announced…

Structural coloration is promised to be the display technology of the future as there is no fading – it does not use dyes – and enables low-power displays without strong external light source. However, the disadvantage of this technique is that once a device is made, it is impossible to change its properties so the reproducible colors remain fixed. Recently, a POSTECH research team has successfully obtained vivid colors by using semiconductor chips – not dyes – made by mimicking…

The ultrashort pulse (USP) laser has been known to shine whenever highly sensitive material needs to be machined quickly yet gently. The Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT has investigated one such application that certainly looks to have a bright future: The Aachen-based researchers developed a quick, reliable and nondestructive method of ablating lithium-ion batteries’ anode material with an ultrashort pulsed laser beam. This ablation technique exposes electrical contact points called tabs. A more flexible way of producing diverse electrodes…

Jena research group receives two million euros to develop intelligent, recyclable plastic materials Sustainable plastics that have the ability for self-healing, have intelligent properties and can be recycled if required will be the subject of future research at Friedrich Schiller University Jena (Germany). A project in this field, coordinated by the chemist and materials scientist Prof. Ulrich S. Schubert, is being granted two million euros in funding from the Carl Zeiss Foundation. Repairing scratches with a hair dryer “Imagine scratched…

Scientists from the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech), Institute of Solid State Chemistry and Mechanochemistry (ISSC SB RAS), Pirogov Medical University and Yerevan State University have predicted new hard and superhard ternary compounds in the tungsten-molybdenum-boron system using computational methods. Their research was published in the journal Chemistry of Materials. According to Alexander Kvashnin, a senior research scientist at Skoltech and a co-author of the paper, the study is a natural follow-on to lengthy research into binary systems….

The approach has potential applications in improving optical communications and making currency harder to counterfeit. By shining white light on a glass slide stippled with millions of tiny titanium dioxide pillars, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and their collaborators have reproduced with astonishing fidelity the luminous hues and subtle shadings of “Girl With a Pearl Earring,” Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer’s masterpiece. The approach has potential applications in improving optical communications and making currency harder to…