Weird Superconductor Leads Double Life
Understanding strontium titanate’s odd behavior will aid efforts to develop materials that conduct electricity with 100 percent efficiency at higher temperatures. Until about 50 years…
Energy
Nanostructure Increases Solar-to-Hydrogen Conversion Efficiency by a Factor of Eleven
Polymeric carbon nitrides exhibit a catalytic effect in sunlight that can be used for the production of hydrogen from solar energy. However, the efficiency of…
The Diverse Causes Behind Frequency Fluctuations in Power Grids
Our power grid works at a frequency of 50 hertz – usually generated by turbines, for example in hydro- or coal power plants, which rotate…
New Device Stores Energy in Chemical Form Through Continuous Electrolysis
Interest in renewable energy continues to burgeon. Many renewables, though, can be frustratingly intermittent – when the sun stops shining, or the wind stops blowing,…
Langevin 4D Model Improves How We Predict Low-Energy Fission
For all of us working with electricity, radioactive waste containment, or hospitals, controlling radioactive processes and predicting their behaviors are key to making our world…
Hybrid-Solid Electrolysis Cell System – A New Strategy for Efficient Hydrogen Production
A joint research team, affiliated with UNIST has introduced the Hybrid-Solid Electrolysis Cell (Hybrid-SOEC) system with highest reported electrochemical performance in hydrogen production. The proposed…
NREL Develops Switchable Photovoltaic Windows
The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has developed thermochromic windows capable of converting sunlight into electricity at a high efficiency. The…
MIT-Developed Technique Turns Emissions Into Fuel
Scientists at MIT have developed a new system that could potentially be used for converting power plant emissions of carbon dioxide into useful fuels for…
A New Technique to Map Energy and Momentum of Electrons
For the first time, physicists have developed a technique that can peer deep beneath the surface of a material to identify the energies and momenta…
MIT Engineers Develop a New Way to Store Thermal Energy
Researchers from MIT have created a material that provides optically-controlled long-term storage and release of thermal energy. In large parts of the developing world, people…
Iron-Air Batteries Promise Higher Energy Density Than Lithium-Ion Batteries
Iron-air batteries promise a considerably higher energy density than present-day lithium-ion batteries. In addition, their main constituent – iron – is an abundant and therefore…
Scientists Create Synthetic Circuits That Can Harvest Light Energy
Researchers use novel structures made with DNA scaffolds to create solar-powered materials that closely mimic naturally occurring photosynthetic structures. The researchers showed that their synthetic…
No More Blackouts? New Framework Guarantees the Stability of Microgrids
By installing capacitors, MIT engineers reveal a new method for guaranteeing the stability of any microgrid that runs on direct current. Today, more than 1.3…
Energy-Efficient Construction is Key to Lowering Urban Emissions
A newly published study reveals that cities can lower urban emissions most effectively by using energy-efficient construction. What are the best ways for U.S. cities…
Scientists Demonstrate Efficient, Light-Powered Production of Fuel via Artificial Photosynthesis
In a new study, Berkeley Lab scientists harnessed the power of photosynthesis to convert carbon dioxide into fuels and alcohols at efficiencies far greater than…
New Aluminum Batteries Increase the Range of UUVs Tenfold
New batteries that “drink” seawater could power long-range underwater vehicles, giving UUVs a tenfold increase in range over traditional lithium-ion batteries used for the same…
MIT Engineers Develop Programmable Nanophotonic Processor
A team of engineers propose a new architecture for a fully optical neural network that, in principle, could offer an enhancement in computational speed and…
MIT Engineers Look Toward All-Solid Lithium Batteries
For the first time, team of engineers from MIT has probed the mechanical properties of a sulfide-based solid electrolyte material to determine its mechanical performance…