Tests show high-temperature superconducting magnets are ready for fusion

MIT News  March 4, 2024 The SPARC Toroidal Field Model Coil (TFMC) Program was a three-year effort between 2018 and 2021 that developed novel rare earth barium copper oxide (REBCO) superconductor technologies and then successfully utilized these technologies to design, build, and test a first-in-class, high-field (∼20 T), representative-scale (∼3 m) superconducting toroidal field (TF) coil. The program was executed jointly by the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC) and Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) as a technology enabler of the superconducting high-field pathway to fusion energy, and as a risk retirement program for the no insulation (NI) TF magnet […]

Breakthrough synthesis method improves solar cell stability

Science Daily  October 26, 2023 2D multilayered halide perovskites have emerged as a platform for understanding organic–inorganic interactions, tuning quantum confinement effects and realizing efficient and durable optoelectronic devices. However, reproducibly synthesizing 2D perovskite crystals with a perovskite-layer thickness using existing crystal growth methods is challenging. An international team of researchers (Rice University, Houston, Northwestern University, University of Pennsylvania, France) demonstrated a kinetically controlled space confinement for the growth of phase-pure Ruddlesden–Popper and Dion–Jacobson 2D perovskites. Phase-pure growth was achieved by progressively increasing the temperature for a fixed time or the crystallization time at a fixed temperature, which allowed for […]

Scientists design novel nonlinear circuit to harvest clean power using graphene

Phys.org  August 18, 2023 An international team of researchers (USA – University of Arkansas, UC Berkeley, Spain) theoretically considered a graphene ripple as a Brownian particle coupled to an energy storage circuit. When circuit and particle are at the same temperature, the second law forbids harvesting energy from the thermal motion of the Brownian particle, even if the circuit contains a rectifying diode. However, when the circuit contains a junction followed by two diodes wired in opposition, the approach to equilibrium may become ultraslow. Detailed balance is temporarily broken as current flows between the two diodes and charges storage capacitors. […]

MIT engineers create an energy-storing supercapacitor from ancient materials

MIT News  July 31, 2023 A team of researchers in the US (MIT, Harvard University) investigated using cement, water, and carbon black as chemical precursors for energy storage. Texture analysis revealed that the hydration reactions of cement in the presence of carbon generates a fractal-like electron-conducting carbon network that permeates the load-bearing cement-based matrix. The energy storage capacity of this space-filling carbon black network of the high specific surface area accessible to charge storage was shown to be an intensive quantity, whereas the high-rate capability of the carbon-cement electrodes exhibited self-similarity due to the hydration porosity available for charge transport. […]

Team creates simple superconducting device that could dramatically cut energy use in computing

Phys.org  July 28, 2023 Accomplishing unequal supercurrents in the forward and backward directions in superconductors would enable unprecedented functionalities. This nonreciprocity of critical supercurrents is called the superconducting (SC) diode effect. An international team of researchers (USA – MIT, US Army DEVCOM, High School (Alabama, Washington). Switzerland, Spain) demonstrated the strong SC diode effect in conventional SC thin films, such as niobium and vanadium, employing external small magnetic fields. Interfacing the SC layer with a ferromagnetic semiconductor EuS, they further accomplished the nonvolatile SC diode effect reaching an efficiency of 65%. By careful control experiments and theoretical modeling, they demonstrated […]

Hydrogen battery: Storing hydrogen in coal may help power clean energy economy

Science Daily  May 26, 2023 Researchers at the State University of Pennsylvania found that coal may represent a potential way to store hydrogen gas. They analyzed eight types of coals from coalfields across the United States to better understand their sorption and diffusion potential, or how much hydrogen they can hold. All eight coals showed considerable sorption properties, with low-volatile bituminous coal from eastern Virginia and anthracite coal from eastern Pennsylvania performing the best in tests. Depleted coalbed methane reservoirs’ seams contain unconventional natural gas like methane and have become an important source of fossil fuel energy over the last […]

More power from waste heat

Nanowerk  April 29, 2023 An international team of researchers (Germany, USA – Northwestern University) studied an alloy of niobium, iron and antimony that converts waste heat into electricity at temperatures ranging from about 70 to more than 700 degrees Celsius with an efficiency of eight percent. To further increase the efficiency of the thermoelectric made of niobium, iron and antimony, the researchers focused on its microstructure. As grain boundaries reduce both the thermal and electrical conductivity of the material, for the highest possible efficiency, the thermal conductivity should be as low as possible so that the heat in the material […]

Seawater split to produce ‘green’ hydrogen

Science Daily  February 1, 2023 The use of vast amounts of high-purity water for hydrogen production may aggravate the shortage of freshwater resources. Seawater is abundant but must be desalinated before use in typical proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysers. An international team of researchers (China, Australia, USA – Kent State University) has demonstrated direct electrolysis of real seawater that has not been alkalised nor acidified, achieving long-term stability exceeding 100 h at 500 mA cm−2 and similar performance to a typical PEM electrolyser operating in high-purity water. This was done by introducing a Lewis acid layer (for example, Cr2O3) on transition metal oxide catalysts […]

Energy crisis: The five challenges for 2023

Phys.org  December 22, 2022 Nature commissioned an international team of researchers (Italy, Germany) to outline some possible energy scenarios for 2023. How will the map of global energy change? Will sky-high energy prices boost renewables? How will the industrial landscape shift? What will the lasting economic impacts be? How will the energy crisis affect climate action? are the five crucial questions that researchers around the world will be asked to focus on in 2023. It will be up to them to find adequate answers to support government action in the coming months to deal with the emergency…read more.

Nuclear Fusion Can Unleash Even More Power Than We Realized, Scientists Say

Science Alert  May 26, 2022 The research led by physicists from the Swiss Plasma Center has determined that the maximum hydrogen fuel density is about twice the Greenwald Limit – an estimate derived from experiments more than 30 years ago. The exact value depends on the power. But as a rough estimate, the increase is on the order of a factor of two in ITER. Although scientists had long suspected the Greenwald Limit could be improved upon, it has been a foundational rule of fusion research for more than 30 years, a guiding principle of the ITER design. The key […]