New insights into energy loss open doors for one up-and-coming solar tech

Science Daily  November 18, 2022 Understanding the factors affecting energy loss in organic photovoltaics (OPVs) is imperative to achieve further improvements in their efficiency and to establish design rules for the development of new materials. By studying several planar and bulk heterojunction solar cells, an international team of researchers (USA – Princeton University, Saudi Arabia) has demonstrated that the non-radiative energy loss component quadratically increases with increasing Gaussian CT-state disorder. They showed that by defining the total energy loss in terms of the peak of the CT-state distribution the effect of disorder on OPV performance can be unambiguously identified, offering […]

Light accelerates conductivity in nature’s ‘electric grid’

Nanowerk  September 7, 2022 Almost all living things breathe oxygen to get rid of excess electrons when converting nutrients into energy. Without access to oxygen, however, soil bacteria living deep under oceans or buried underground respire by “breathing minerals,” through tiny protein nanowires. Researchers at Yale University found that exposing bacteria-produced nanowires to light yielded up to a 100-fold increase in electrical conductivity showing stable and robust photocurrent that persists for hours. They showed that living biofilms of Geobacter sulfurreducens used nanowires of cytochrome OmcS as intrinsic photoconductors. Photocurrents respond rapidly (<100 ms) to the excitation and persist reversibly for hours. […]

Harvesting energy – drop by drop

Nanowerk  August 25, 2022 In this review article researchers in China summarized the recent developments in droplets-driven nanogenerators for effective energy scavenging. They included an extensive discussion about the device structures from the material selection and output performance aspects. They gave a brief discussion on the applications of droplet-based nanogenerators and outline the future possibilities via the current improvement in designs and fabrication strategies that have been introduced by the field. According to the authors water droplet harvesting as a sustainable energy resource has become a forward-looking step to meet the future demand for green energy. The emerging potential of […]

Floating ‘artificial leaves’ ride the wave of clean fuel production

Nanowerk  August 17, 2022 Floating ‘artificial leaves’ that generate clean fuels from sunlight and water could eventually operate on a large scale at sea. Current techniques for depositing photoelectrochemical (PEC) artificial leaves limit their scalability, whereas fragile and heavy bulk materials can affect their transport and deployment. Researchers in the UK fabricated lightweight artificial leaves using lead halide perovskite photocathodes deposited onto indium tin oxide-coated polyethylene terephthalate achieving an activity of 4,266 µmol H2 g−1 h−1 using a platinum catalyst, whereas photocathodes with a molecular Co catalyst for CO2 reduction attained a high CO:H2 selectivity of 7.2 under lower (0.1 sun) irradiation. The corresponding lightweight […]

Researchers invent self-charging, ultra-thin device that generates electricity from air moisture

Science Daily  August 17, 2022 The current moisture-driven energy generation (MEG) materials and devices only establish moisture-driven energy interaction during water sorption in specific configurations, and conversion is eventually ceased by saturated water uptake. Researchers in Singapore have developed an asymmetric hygroscopic structure (AHS) that simultaneously achieves energy harvesting and storage from moisture absorption. The AHS was constructed by the asymmetric deposition of a hygroscopic ionic hydrogel over a layer of functionalized carbon. Water absorbed from the air creates wet-dry asymmetry across the AHS and hence an in-plane electric field. The asymmetry could be perpetually maintained even after saturated water […]

Scientists Achieved Self-Sustaining Nuclear Fusion… But Now They Can’t Replicate It

Science Alert  August 16, 2022 For more than half a century, researchers around the world have been engaged in attempts to achieve fusion ignition as a proof of principle of various fusion concepts. Following the Lawson criterion, an ignited plasma is one where the fusion heating power is high enough to overcome all the physical processes that cool the fusion plasma, creating a positive thermodynamic feedback loop with rapidly increasing temperature. In inertially confined fusion, ignition is a state where the fusion plasma can begin “burn propagation” into surrounding cold fuel, enabling the possibility of high energy gain. While “scientific […]

‘Nano-chocolates’ that store hydrogen

Science Daily  December 27, 2021 Storing hydrogen is costly. Researchers in Germany proposed storing hydrogen in palladium nanoparticles. To ensure that the tiny particles are sufficiently sturdy, they are stabilized by a core made of the rare precious metal iridium and attached to a graphene support. They are attached at intervals of two and a half nanometres resulting in a regular, periodic structure. When the palladium particles come into contact with hydrogen, hydrogen sticks to the nanoparticles’ surfaces, with hardly any of it penetrating inside. A small amount of heat is added to release hydrogen from the surface of the […]

Has the stilling of surface wind speed ended in China?

Phys.org  June 28, 2021 Since the 1960s, the global land surface wind speed (SWS) has significantly weakened, a phenomenon known as global terrestrial stilling. The stilling reversed around 2010 and global SWS is strengthening. It has seriously affected the ecological environment and social economy, especially restricting the sustainable development of the wind energy industry. Researchers in China analyzed the transition and regional differences in the long-term trends of the SWS in China based on observational SWS data from 1971 to 2019. The results showed that annual mean SWS in China underwent a reversal from a continuous weakening trend to a […]

World’s First Ocean Hybrid Platform Converts Tidal Waves Into Energy

IEEE Spectrum  October 28, 2020 The key players in this field were universities and startups until the recent entrance of bigger players. Now multinationals have interest in the sector. The floating platform built by a German company uses a combination of wave, wind, and solar energy to harness renewable energy on the open seas. To cope with the maritime environment, the company developed a product family consisting of electric machines, power electronics, and storage solutions. Their wind, wave, and photovoltaic platform is scalable in capacity and can be designed to generate 80 kilowatts to power small houses by the coast […]

This humidity digester breathes in atmospheric water and exhales energy

Science Daily  November 20, 2019 Researchers in Singapore have developed a humidity digester composed of a moisture hydrogel based zinc and cobalt, cathode, photoanode, and a solar cell. Just like batteries, it generates power from atmospheric humidity instead of an electrolyte. The photoanodes, acting as a photo-electrocatalyst, oxidize the absorbed water in the presence of light to split water and produce energy. The hydrogel constantly replenishes the system with water that is pulled out from the air to sustain the energy generation process. The assembly generates electricity while dehumidifying the room. The second-generation cobalt hydrogel absorbs moisture faster than any […]