Prototypes within Two Years. Significantly higher storage capacity, safer operation and durability: this is what industry and research expect from future solid-state batteries compared to conventional lithium-ion batteries. A consortium involving the University of Duisburg-Essen is aiming to realize prototypes up to pilot scale. The decisive anode material was developed at the University’s Institute for Energy and Materials Processes. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research is funding the project* for two years with 1.7 million euros. The structure of…
Sensors that monitor infrastructure, such as bridges or buildings, or are used in medical devices, such as prostheses for the deaf, require a constant supply of power. The energy for this usually comes from batteries, which are replaced as soon as they are empty. This creates a huge waste problem. An EU study forecasts that in 2025, 78 million batteries will end up in the rubbish every day. A new type of mechanical sensor, developed by researchers led by Marc…
Super-resolution (SR) fluorescence microscopy, through the use of fluorescent probes and specific excitation and emission procedures, surpasses the diffraction limit of resolution (200~300 nm) that was once a barrier. Most SR techniques are heavily reliant on image calculations and processing to retrieve SR information. However, factors such as fluorophores photophysics, sample’s chemical environment, and optical setup situations can cause noise and distortions in raw images, potentially impacting the final SR images’ quality. This makes it crucial for SR microscopy developers…
Recently, a research team led by Prof. LI Xianfeng from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) developed a 70 kW-level high power density vanadium flow battery stack. Compared with the current 30kW-level stack, this stack has a volume power density of 130kW/m3, and the cost is reduced by 40%. Vanadium flow batteries are one of the preferred technologies for large-scale energy storage. At present, the initial investment of vanadium flow batteries is relatively high. Stack is the…
A system designed at MIT could allow sensors to operate in remote settings, without batteries. MIT researchers have developed a battery-free, self-powered sensor that can harvest energy from its environment. Because it requires no battery that must be recharged or replaced, and because it requires no special wiring, such a sensor could be embedded in a hard-to-reach place, like inside the inner workings of a ship’s engine. There, it could automatically gather data on the machine’s power consumption and operations…
Dependence on coal and gas could be overcome in Africa first – study examines requirements for a post-fossil-fuels scenario. A joint study by the University of Tübingen, the Senckenberg Society for Nature Research, the University of Osnabrück and the University of Rwanda has found that 80 percent of the energy required in Africa could come from renewable sources by 2040 – if the capacity of existing power plants were fully utilized and all the plants currently on the drawing-board were…
The Lehigh University Plasma Control Group, supported by a new $1.6 million DOE grant, continues work on advancing plasma dynamics simulation capabilities and algorithms to control superheated gasses that hold promise for limitless, clean energy. As researchers around the world work to develop viable alternatives to fossil fuels, the prospect of nuclear fusion—harnessing the same energy-generating reactions that power the sun—has grown increasingly attractive to private equity firms. In 2022, the U.S. Department of Energy launched a partnership with investors in the…
Innovative, customized, and sustainable – these are the keywords for the numerous research projects of the Fraunhofer IPMS. At one of the leading conferences and trade fairs for photonics – SPIE Photonics West in San Francisco from January 27 to February 1, 2024 – the institute will present developments and advances in areas such as micro-optics, MEMS-based light modulators and biophotonics. The Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems IPMS is one of the leading research institutes for the development and production…
Thuwal, Saudi Arabia, Month Day, Year – Scientists at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) have unveiled a roadmap for bringing perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells to market, paving the way for a future powered by abundant, inexpensive clean energy in Saudi Arabia and the world. The authors of the article, published in esteemed journal Science, include Prof. Stefaan De Wolf and his research team at the KAUST Solar Center. The team is working on improving solar efficiency to…
BMBF Funds “FB2-SiSuFest” to Evaluate Novel Storage Material. Novel storage material for solid-state batteries is the focus of the project “FB2-SiSuFest – Evaluation of silicon anodes in sulfide solid-state batteries”. As a promising anode material, silicon nitride-based particles could enable a high storage capacity with stable and safe operation. The research alliance of renowned partners has received funding from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) amounting to 1.7 million euros as part of the “Clusters Go Industry” funding…
Free charge carriers in perovskite solar cells likely have a special form of protection from recombination, researchers at Forschungszentrum Jülich have discovered by means of innovative photoluminescence measurements. Highly efficient and relatively inexpensive to produce – perovskite solar cells have been the subject of repeated surprises in recent years. Scientists at Forschungszentrum Jülich have now discovered another special feature of the cells using a new photoluminescence measurement technique. They found that the loss of charge carriers in this type of…
Nanowire contacts push the boundaries for high-performance electronics. Space comes at a premium on electronic chips: Powerful electronics need more and more connections, crammed into smaller and smaller spaces. Established technologies are reaching the limits of what is physically possible. Now, researchers at Fraunhofer IZM-ASSID have teamed up with other partners to level up a connection technology patented by NanoWired GmbH that uses wires at a nanometer scale. The team demonstrated how the novel technology could be used in the…
Coal is an abundant resource in the United States that has, unfortunately, contributed to climate change through its use as a fossil fuel. As the country transitions to other means of energy production, it will be important to consider and reevaluate coal’s economic role. A joint research effort from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the National Energy Technology Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company has shown how coal can play a vital role in next-generation…
Lightweight and inexpensive, miniaturized mass filters are a key step toward portable mass spectrometers that could identify unknown chemicals in remote settings. Mass spectrometers, devices that identify chemical substances, are widely used in applications like crime scene analysis, toxicology testing, and geological surveying. But these machines are bulky, expensive, and easy to damage, which limits where they can be effectively deployed. Using additive manufacturing, MIT researchers produced a mass filter, which is the core component of a mass spectrometer, that…
An increasing number of electric cars are being sold, consequently raising the quantity of produced electric motors. At the end of their useful life, these electric motors are shredded and then recycled. The individual components and assemblies cannot be reused. So far, there has been a lack of sustainable value retention strategies for remanufacturing and recycling electric motors as part of a modern circular economy. In the REASSERT project, researchers at the Fraunhofer IPA are working alongside industry partners to…
A research group has developed a high-speed, high-sensitivity terahertz-wave detector operating at room temperature, paving the way for advancements in the development of next generation 6G/7G technology. Details of their breakthrough were published in the journal Nanophotonics on November 9, 2023. The enhancement of current communications speeds will rely on terahertz (THz) waves. THz waves are electromagnetic waves within the THz range, which falls between the microwave and infrared portions of the electromagnetic spectrum, typically spanning frequencies from 300 gigahertz to 3…
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