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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
The inside of future nuclear fusion energy reactors will be among the harshest environments ever produced on Earth. What’s strong enough to protect the inside of a fusion reactor from plasma-produced heat fluxes akin to space shuttles reentering Earth’s atmosphere? Zeke Unterberg and his team at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory are currently working with the leading candidate: tungsten, which has the highest melting point and lowest vapor pressure of all metals on the periodic table, as…
HelioControl Project Completed Among solar thermal power plants, solar tower systems are considered to have the greatest potential in terms of efficiency and cost reduction. In particular, costs can be saved on mirrors (heliostats), which account for between 30 and 40 percent of the investment. Frequent calibration or control of the heliostat aim points is one approach. In the HelioControl project, the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE developed a calibration and control system based on digital image processing…
Sandwich is the food concocted by the 18th-ceuntry nobles to play card games uninterrupted. Meat or vegetables were layered then tucked between bread to be eaten quickly while engaged in the game. This efficient food also delivered ample calories and nutrition. POSTECH research team has discovered that layering like the sandwich is an excellent way to obtain hydrogen energy, an alternative energy source for fossil fuels. The research team led by Professor In Su Lee, SunWoo Jang, a student in…
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