The inclusion of IGZO thin film transistors was necessary to provide power efficiency to increase battery life.
such as the fine structures of cell components or modern catalysts and batteries. Until now, such fine details could only be rendered visible with the aid of electron microscopes
Thus far, for instance, materials such as chalk, cement, solar cells and fossils have been studied in collaboration with various research institutions n
such as optical coatings and photovoltaic and magnetic storage devices, require planar geometry, "said Sunita Srivastava, a Stony Brook University postdoctoral researcher and the lead author on the paper.
#Charging portable electronics in 10 minutes Researchers at the University of California Riverside Bourns College of Engineering have developed a three-dimensional silicon-decorated cone-shaped carbon nanotube cluster architecture for lithium ion battery anodes that could enable charging of portable
Lithium ion batteries are the rechargeable battery of choice for portable electronic devices and electric vehicles. But they present problems.
Batteries in electric vehicles are responsible for a significant portion of the vehicle mass. And the size of batteries in portable electronics limits the trend of downsizing.
Silicon is a type of anode material that is receiving a lot of attention because its total charge capacity is 10 times higher than commercial graphite based lithium ion battery anodes.
Consider a packaged battery full-cell. Replacing the commonly used graphite anode with silicon anodes will potentially result in a 63 percent increase of total cell capacity and a battery that is 40 percent lighter and smaller.
In a paper Silicon Decorated Cone Shaped Carbon nanotube Clusters for Lithium ion battery Anode recently published in the journal Small UC Riverside researchers developed a novel structure of three-dimensional silicon decorated cone-shaped
carbon nanotube clusters architecture via chemical vapor deposition and inductively coupled plasma treatment. Lithium ion batteries based on this novel architecture demonstrate a high reversible capacity and excellent cycling stability.
The architecture demonstrates excellent electrochemical stability and irreversibility even at high charge and discharge rates nearly 16 times faster than conventionally used graphite based anodes.
The researchers believe the ultrafast rate of charge and discharge can be attributed to two reasons said Wei Wang lead author of the paper.
One the seamless connection between graphene covered copper foil and carbon nanotubes enhances the active material-current collector contact integrity
Two the cone-shaped architecture offers small interpenetrating channels for faster electrolyte access into the electrode
#Technology using microwave heating may impact electronics manufacture Engineers at Oregon State university have shown successfully that a continuous flow reactor can produce high-quality nanoparticles by using microwave-assisted heating essentially the same forces
It could change everything from the production of cell phones and televisions to counterfeit-proof money, improved solar energy systems or quick identification of troops in combat.
"This might be the big step that takes continuous flow reactors to large-scale manufacturing, "said Greg Herman, an associate professor and chemical engineer in the OSU College of Engineering."
and in the past that was done best only in small reactors. The new research has proven that microwave heating can be done in larger systems at high speeds.
"Combining continuous flow with microwave heating could give us the best of both worlds large, fast reactors with perfectly controlled particle size."
Other materials can be synthesized using this reactor for different applications, including copper zinc tin sulfide and copper indium diselenide for solar cells.
New Oregon jobs and businesses are already evolving from this work. OSU researchers have applied for a patent on aspects of this technology,
#New class of nanoparticle brings cheaper lighter solar cells outdoors Think those flat glassy solar panels on your neighbour's roof are the pinnacle of solar technology?
This new form of solid stable light-sensitive nanoparticles called colloidal quantum dots could lead to cheaper and more flexible solar cells as well as better gas sensors infrared lasers infrared light emitting diodes and more.
-and p-type layers simultaneously not only boosts the efficiency of light absorption it opens up a world of new optoelectronic devices that capitalize on the best properties of both light and electricity.
Iodide is almost a perfect ligand for these quantum solar cells with both high efficiency and air stabilityo one has shown that before.
But improved performance is just a start for this new quantum dot-based solar cell architecture. The powerful little dots could be mixed into inks
The field of colloidal quantum dot photovoltaics requires continued improvement in absolute performance or power conversion efficiency said Sargent.
New breed of solar cells: Quantum dot photovoltaics set new record for efficiency in such devices More information:
Air-stable n-type colloidal quantum dot solids DOI: 10.1038/nmat400 a
#Shatterproof screens that save smartphones University of Akron polymer scientists have developed a transparent electrode that could change the face of smartphones, literally,
Taox-capped Pt nanoparticles as efficient catalysts for polymer electrolyte fuel cells More information: Covert thermal barcodes based on phase change nanoparticles Scientific Reports 4 Article number:
#Electrical cables that store energy? New nanotech may provide power storage in electric cables clothes Imagine being able to carry all the juice you needed to power your MP3 PLAYER, smartphone and electric car in the fabric of your jacket?
Sounds like science fiction, but it may become a reality thanks to breakthrough technology developed at a University of Central Florida research lab. So far electrical cables are used only to transmit electricity.
However, nanotechnology scientist and professor Jayan Thomas and his Ph d. student Zenan Yu have developed a way to both transmit and store electricity in a single lightweight copper wire.
Their work is the focus of the cover story of the June 30 issue of the material science journal Advanced Materials and science magazine,
special fibers could also be developed with nanostructures to conduct and store energy. More immediate applications could be seen in the design
and conduct energy on the same wire, heavy, space-consuming batteries could become a thing of the past.
It is possible to further miniaturize the electronic devices or the space that has been used previously for batteries could be used for other purposes.
In the case of launch vehicles that could potentially lighten the load, making launches less costly,
the inner copper wire retains its ability to channel electricity, the layers around the wire independently store powerful energy.
In other words, Thomas and his team created a supercapacitor on the outside of the copper wire. Supercapcitors store powerful energy,
like that needed to start a vehicle or heavy-construction equipment. Although more work needs to be done,
if flexible solar cells and these fibers were used in tandem to make a jacket, it could be used independently to power electronic gadgets and other devices."
Semiconductors like silicon and gallium arsenide are excellent light absorberss is clear from their widespread use in solar panels.
The key was used that they a form of Tio2 known as leaky Tio2ecause it leaks electricity.
#New breed of solar cells: Quantum dot photovoltaics set new record for efficiency in such devices Solar-cell technology has advanced rapidly as hundreds of groups around the world pursue more than two dozen approaches using different materials technologies
and approaches to improve efficiency and reduce costs. Now a team at MIT has set a new record for the most efficient quantum dot cells a type of solar cell that is seen as especially promising because of its inherently low cost versatility and light weight.
While the overall efficiency of this cell is still low compared to other types about 9 percent of the energy of sunlight is converted to electricity the rate of improvement of this technology is one of the most rapid seen for a solar technology.
The development is described in a paper published in the journal Nature Materials by MIT professors Moungi Bawendi and Vladimir Buloviä#and graduate students Chia-Hao Chuang and Patrick Brown.
These minuscule particles are very effective at turning light into electricity and vice versa. Since the first progress toward the use of quantum dots to make solar cells Bawendi says The community in the last few years has started to understand better how these cells operate and
what the limitations are. The new work represents a significant leap in overcoming those limitations increasing the current flow in the cells
and thus boosting their overall efficiency in converting sunlight into electricity. Many approaches to creating low-cost large-area flexible and lightweight solar cells suffer from serious limitations such as short operating lifetimes
when exposed to air or the need for high temperatures and vacuum chambers during production. By contrast the new process does not require an inert atmosphere
The solar cell produced by the team has now been added to the National Renewable energy Laboratories'listing of record-high efficiencies for each kind of solar-cell technology.
The overall efficiency of the cell is still lower than for most other types of solar cells.
And the new technology has important advantages notably a manufacturing process that is far less energy-intensive than other types.
But his team's research since then has demonstrated clearly quantum dots'potential in solar cells he adds.
Arthur Nozik a research professor in chemistry at the University of Colorado who was involved not in this research says This result represents a significant advance for the applications of quantum dot films and the technology of low-temperature solution-processed quantum dot photovoltaic cells.#
#There is still a long way to go before quantum dot solar cells are commercially viable but this latest development is a nice step toward this ultimate goal.
Improved performance and stability in quantumâ dot solar cells through band alignmentâ engineering. Chia-Hao M. Chuang et al.
in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Michigan, have developed a 3-D artificial enzyme cascade that mimics an important biochemical pathway that could prove important for future biomedical and energy applications.
taking advantage of the binding properties of the chemical building blocks of DNA, twist and self-assemble DNA into evermore imaginative 2-and 3-dimensional structures for medical, electronic and energy applications.
used in our bodies for the digestion of food into sugars and energy during human metabolism, for example."
since they supply most of the energy of a cell, "said Walter."Work with these enzymes could lead to future applications in green energy production such as fuel cells using biomaterials for fuel."
"In the pathway, G6pdh uses the glucose sugar substrate and a cofactor called NAD to strip hydrogen atoms from glucose and transfer to the next enzyme, MDH,
This intriguing prospect is one of the reasons for the current interest in building the capacity to store electrical energy directly into a wide range of products,
such as a laptop whose casing serves as its battery, or an electric car powered by energy stored in its chassis,
or a home where the dry wall and siding store the electricity that runs the lights and appliances.
It also makes the small dull grey wafers that graduate student Andrew Westover and Assistant professor of Mechanical engineering Cary Pint have made in Vanderbilt's Nanomaterials
and Energy Devices Laboratory far more important than their nondescript appearance suggests.""These devices demonstrate for the first time as far as we can tell that it is possible to create materials that can store
and discharge significant amounts of electricity while they are subject to realistic static loads and dynamic forces,
"When you can integrate energy into the components used to build systems, it opens the door to a whole new world of technological possibilities.
The new device that Pint and Westover has developed is a supercapacitor that stores electricity by assembling electrically charged ions on the surface of a porous material,
instead of storing it in chemical reactions the way batteries do. As a result supercaps can charge
and operate for millions of cycles, instead of thousands of cycles like batteries. In a paper appearing online May 19 in the journal Nano Letters, Pint and Westover report that their new structural supercapacitor operates flawlessly in storing
and releasing electrical charge while subject to stresses or pressures up to 44 psi and vibrational accelerations over 80 g (significantly greater than those acting on turbine blades in a jet engine).
"In an unpackaged, structurally integrated state our supercapacitor can store more energy and operate at higher voltages than a packaged, off-the-shelf commercial supercapacitor, even under intense dynamic and static forces,
One area where supercapacitors lag behind batteries is in electrical energy storage capability: Supercaps must be larger and heavier to store the same amount of energy as lithium-ion batteries.
However, the difference is not as important when considering multifunctional energy storage systems.""Battery performance metrics change when you're putting energy storage into heavy materials that are needed already for structural integrity,
"said Pint.""Supercapacitors store ten times less energy than current lithium-ion batteries, but they can last a thousand times longer.
That means they are suited better for structural applications. It doesn't make sense to develop materials to build a home, car chassis,
or aerospace vehicle if you have to replace them every few years because they go dead."
Sandwiched between the two electrodes is a polymer film that acts as a reservoir of charged ions, similar to the role of electrolyte paste in a battery.
"Combining nanoporous material with the polymer electrolyte bonds the layers together tighter than superglue.""The use of silicon in structural supercapacitors is suited best for consumer electronics and solar cells,
but Pint and Westover are confident that the rules that govern the load-bearing character of their design will carry over to other materials, such as carbon nanotubes and lightweight porous metals like aluminum.
The intensity of interest in"multifunctional"devices of this sort is reflected by the fact that the U s. Department of energy's Advanced Research Project Agency for Energy is investing $8. 7 million in research projects that focus specifically on incorporating energy storage into structural materials.
There have also been recent press reports of several major efforts to develop multifunctional materials or structural batteries for use in electric vehicles and for military applications.
In 2010 they successfully obtained funding for the project called SPEDOC (Surface Plasmon Early Detection of Circulating Heat shock proteins and Tumor Cells) under the 7th Framework Program (FP7) of the European commission.
because it can absorb up to 90%of the energy it receives. However, over time, the effects of light
"The durability of our materials at temperatures exceeding 360°C could also be of interest to thermal power plants,
This method has the advantage of being rapid, with impressive energy efficiency and an improved quality in the results.
#Silly Putty material inspires better batteries Using a material found in Silly Putty and surgical tubing, a group of researchers at the University of California,
Riverside Bourns College of Engineering have developed a new way to make lithium-ion batteries that will last three times longer between charges compared to the current industry standard.
The team created silicon dioxide (Sio2) nanotube anodes for lithium-ion batteries and found they had over three times as much energy storage capacity as the carbon-based anodes currently being used.
which are always trying to squeeze longer discharges out of batteries.""We are taking the same material used in kids'toys
and medical devices and even fast food and using it to create next generation battery materials, "said Zachary Favors,
The paper,"Stable Cycling of Sio2 Nanotubes as High-performance Anodes for Lithium-Ion Batteries,"was published online in the journal Nature Scientific Reports.
Silicon dioxide has previously been used as an anode material in lithium ion batteries, but the ability to synthesize the material into highly uniform exotic nanostructures with high energy density
There key finding was that the silicon dioxide nanotubes are extremely stable in batteries, which is important
Synthetic natural gas from excess electricity More information: In situ Imaging of Silicalite-1 Surface Growth Reveals the Mechanism of Crystallization Science 2014
#Flexible supercapacitor raises bar for volumetric energy density Scientists have taken a large step toward making a fiber-like energy storage device that can be woven into clothing
The device is a supercapacitor cousin to the battery. This one packs an interconnected network of graphene and carbon nanotubes so tightly that it stores energy comparable to some thin-film lithium batteriesn area where batteries have held traditionally a large advantage.
The product's developers engineers and scientists at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore Tsinghua University in China and Case Western Reserve University in the United states believe the storage capacity by volume
(called volumetric energy density) is reported the highest for carbon-based microscale supercapacitors to date: 6. 3 microwatt hours per cubic millimeter.
The device also maintains the advantage of charging and releasing energy much faster than a battery.
and serve as energy-carrying wires in medical implants. Yuan Chen a professor of chemical engineering at NTU led the new study working with Dingshan Yu Kunli Goh Hong Wang Li Wei and Wenchao Jiang at NTU;
Conversely batteries have high energy density and low power density which means they can last a long time
but don't deliver a large amount of energy quickly. Microelectronics to electric vehicles can benefit from energy storage devices that offer high power and high energy density.
That's why researchers are working to develop a device that offers both. To continue to miniaturize electronics industry needs tiny energy storage devices with large volumetric energy densities.
By mass supercapacitors might have comparable energy storage or energy density to batteries. But because they require large amounts of accessible surface area to store energy they have lagged always badly in energy density by volume.
To improve the energy density by volume the researchers designed a hybrid fiber. A solution containing acid-oxidized single-wall nanotubes graphene oxide and ethylenediamine
which promotes synthesis and dopes graphene with nitrogen is pumped through a flexible narrow reinforced tube called a capillary column and heated in an oven for six hours.
Sheets of graphene one to a few atoms thick and aligned single-walled carbon nanotubes self-assemble into an interconnected prorous network that run the length of the fiber.
and remain so as they're pumped out resulting in the high volumetric energy density. The process using multiple capillary columns will enable the engineers to make fibers continuously
When they integrate multiple pairs of fibers between two electrodes the ability to store electricity called capacitance increased linearly according to the number of fibers used.
Using a polyvinyl alcohol/phosphoric acid gel as an electrolyte a solid-state micro-supercapacitor made from a pair of fibers offered a volumetric density of 6. 3 microwatt hours per cubic millimeter
which is comparable to that of a 4-volt-500-microampere-hour thin film lithium battery. The fiber supercapacitor demonstrated ultrahigh energy density value
while maintaining the high power density and cycle stability. We have tested the fiber device for 10000 charge/discharge cycles
while conventional rechargeable batteries have a lifetime of less than 1000 cycles. The team also tested the device for flexible energy storage.
Woven into uniforms the battery-like supercapacitors could power displays or transistors used for communication.
In addition The team is interested also in testing these fibers for multifunctional applications including batteries solar cells biofuel cells
You could print a MASSIVE heat exchanger to reclaim heat from waste water power plants your house...You like fresh air
the Fukushima nuclear power plant. Since then multiple earthquakes have struck this region including a M7. 3 quake in December of last year
As the scorching-hot air moves through the exchanger the chilled tubing absorbs the energy cooling the air to minus 238 degrees Fahrenheit in a fraction of a second.
If it were in a power station it would probably be a 200-ton heat exchanger he says.
A tile got hit on launch allowing reentry heat to go through one of the wings like a plasma torch!
They get more energy out of the liquid hydrogen than you can get just burning it.
and the liquid hydrogen to run a closed cycle helium turbine. The turbine powers a compressor takes the cooled air
and compresses it to rocket chamber pressure. It takes 20 kwh/kg to liquefy hydrogen.
so using much of the energy that went into making it a liquid is very effective.
The intent is to save energy by controlling the temperature of an individual person rather than an entire building a goal that anyone who's ever turned on a personal space heater in a frigid office building in July can get behind.
So researchers sent down pulses of radio energy of this particular frequency. By analysing this radar data the team were able to map the topography of the underlying bedrock.
The light enters the water it hands off part of its energy to the medium and inside it exists as light
and a lot more energy is given away than during refraction. The result of that process? As the photons exited the cloud they were clumped together.
#Device Could Harvest Wasted Energy From Wi-fi, Satellite Signals A wireless device developed by researchers at Duke university that converts microwaves into electricity could eventually harvest Wi-fi or satellite signals for power according to its creators.
It could also one day be built into cell phones to let them charge while not in use they say.
Its energy harvesting capabilities come courtesy of a metamaterial a synthetic material engineered with characteristics not found in nature like the ability to bend light the wrong way
In this case the microwave-harvesting metamaterial that acts kind of like a solar panel converting microwaves into up to 7. 3 volts of electricity enough to charge small electronics.
and make lost energy usable. â##It s possible to use this design for a lot of different frequencies
and types of energy including vibration and sound energy harvestingâ#according to Duke graduate student Alexander Katko one of the inventors. â##Until now a lot of work with metamaterials has been theoretical.
The device is described in the journal Applied Physics Letters c
#Planet Without A Star Found â##We have seen never before an object free-floating in space that that looks like this.
The habitable zone includes orbits where planets receive the same amount of stellar energy from a star as the Earth receives from the sun. Earth-size planets include those that are between one and two times the size of Earth.
State-run news agency Ria Novosti has said that it will carry dust monitors and plasma sensors to sense high-energy cosmic rays as well.
Kacyra's company built a scanner that could work outside off battery power and didn't require special protective shielding for eyes.
The blade tips of today's tallest conventional wind turbine installed at a test center in Denmark this year stretch to 720 feet.
The fully autonomous lighter-than-air BAT (short for buoyant airborne turbine) will climb as high as 2000 feet where winds blow stronger and steadier.
A The body or shroud of Altaeros's Buoyant Airborne Turbine (BAT) is kept aloft by 1000 cubic meters of helium.
B The first commercial BAT will house a 30-kilowatt turbine which could power roughly a dozen homes.
A larger version will fly a 200-kilowatt turbine. The BAT can also carry radio and cellular antennae
One contains copper conductors that transmit power collected as high as 2000 feet down to a battery or the grid.
There is more than enough energy in high-altitude winds to power all of civilization says Ken Caldeira a Stanford university climate scientist who co-authored a 2012 study that ballparked the potential at 1800 terawatts--more than four times the estimate near the surface.
Altaeros Energies the company behind that BAT is poised to prove that it's already done so.
communities around the world too remote to access an electrical grid. Often they must rely on diesel generators--one of the least-efficient power sources
--because renewable energy systems are not economically feasible. In the Arctic for example there isn't enough sunlight to justify solar power for months at a time
and so the Alaska Energy Authority awarded Altaeros a $740000 grant to demonstrate its technology. The company plans to start flying its first commercial-scale BAT a 30-kilowatt system that could reduce diesel consumption by 11000 gallons annually near Fairbanks next year.
Altaeros is also in talks with potential customers in Brazil and India where listless ground winds scuttle conventional turbines.
Whereas Makani and others aim to develop utility-scale turbines capable of powering hundreds to thousands of homes Altaeros plans to sell modest units that fill an immediate niche.
Eventually Altaeros also hopes to produce a utility-scale turbine--one tailored for offshore power.
A megawatt-class BAT anchored 10 miles off the coast would need significantly smaller foundations than traditional offshore wind systems
It solves a lot of the headaches that offshore developers have today in putting these big turbines out there says Glass the company's CEO and CTO.
For now Altaeros is concentrating fully on the turbine in Somerville the one whose fin has finally finished inflating before me.
As the Airborne wind turbine makes giant vertical loops air spins four rotors which drive generators. A tether sends the power to a ground station.
From the sci-tech perspective important energy and conservation agreements were announced. Now the hard work of putting them into action begins for the pledgers and signers as well as those watchdogging that process.
-or no-carbon economic development projects such as expanding their energy generation capacity with renewables like sun and wind instead of fossil fuels.
#An All-Liquid Battery For Storing Solar And Wind energy You could call it a rainy-day fund.
A team of MIT researchers has built an all-liquid battery prototype that's designed to store excess energy from solar and wind power plants.
or the wind isn't blowing future versions of this battery could release energy captured during more productive times into nations'power grids.
Cheaper more efficient energy storage would be a big boost for alternative energy technologies. It would help solar panels
and wind turbines provide grids with steady electricity instead of surges during sunny or windy times so it's always there in case of high demand.
It also might make sun-and wind-produced electricity cheaper; by storing extra energy that isn't being used less electricity is wasted in the long run.
There are already solid batteries sold now to store energy from solar panels. They're mostly used in single homes however.
As solar facilities get larger solid batteries get more expensive and less efficient compared to how much energy the whole facility makes.
The MIT team thinks an all-liquid battery filled with searingly hot molten metals might be a good alternative.
Liquid batteries may be easier (and thus cheaper) to manufacture in larger sizes and they're expected to last longer than solid ones.
The team previously made a prototype all-liquid battery filled with magnesium and an element called antimony.
With this latest version the team has made a battery with lithium and antimony mixed with lead.
It has compared some advantages to its predecessor. Mixing the antimony with lead makes the materials cheaper.
Plus the battery can be kept at lower temperatures. It works at 450 degrees Celsius versus 700 degrees Celsius.
The team even conducted a durability test charging and discharging the liquid battery for 1800 hours.
From that data it predicts that the battery would lose 15 percent of its capacity after 10 years of daily use.
Engineers have known long about how important storage is to solar and wind energy given their unreliable natures.
For example evenings can be a high-demand time for electricity but they're not particularly sunny.
Additionally there can be an overproduction of solar energy during daylight hours meaning valuable electricity goes to waste frequently.
Research groups are working on a number of storage schemes to fix these issues from flywheels to liquid nitrogen and oxygen.
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