Physorg March 6, 2018 Researchers in Spain propose a compact self-powered transistor that incorporates the energy source and a transistor into the same slim unit. They used ferroelectric oxide to create the heterojunction needed for solar functionality. It harnesses the switchable polarisation of the ferroelectric layer to achieve off and on states –1s and 0s– in the flow of electrons harvested by the organic semiconductor. Coined the “solaristor”, this game-changing concept combines the best of solar cells and the best of transistors into a single device the size of a biological cell… read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Category Archives: Energy
Sunlight funnel collects light from all directions
Physorg March 1, 2018 Researchers in Germany modeled the new light-harvesting funnels on nature’s design. The devices consist of many randomly oriented “donor” pigments that can absorb light from nearly all incident angles and funnel it onto a smaller number of “acceptor” molecules that are all oriented in a single direction to direct the light onto a photoconversion device. This concept can reduce the intrinsic losses of previous solar concentrators to below 10%. In tests the solar concentrator absorbed approximately 99% of the incident light, with minimal losses due to reabsorption and reflection. The device also has a light redirection […]
Contact lenses with built-in biofuel cells as power supply
Nanowerk March 6, 2018 Enzymatic biofuel cells (EBFCs) are bioelectronic devices that utilize enzymes as the electrocatalysts to catalyze the oxidation of fuel and/or the reduction of oxygen or peroxide for energy conversion to electricity. Researchers in Ireland placed the electrodes between two commercially available contact lenses to avoid direct contact with the eye and tested them in a solution of artificial tears as well as one containing phosphate buffer solution. Hydrophilic silicon-hydrogel contact lenses contain microchannels that enable the transport of solutions and oxygen to the EBFC. This flexible EBFC holds potential as an autonomous power supply for wearable […]
Charging ahead to higher energy batteries
TechXplore February 26, 2018 The low rate capabilities and low energy densities of the all-solid-state batteries are partly due to a lack of suitable solid-solid heterogeneous interface formation technologies. Researchers in Japan grew garnet-type oxide solid electrolyte crystals in molten LiOH on a substrate that bonded the electrode into a solid state as they grew. They were able to control the thickness and connection area within the cubic layer, which acts as a ceramic separator. Each crystal is connected to neighboring ones. The new technique of stacking solid electrolyte layer could be an ideal ceramic separator with a dense thin-interface […]
MIT Engineers Have Built a Device That Pulls Electricity Out of Thin Air
Science Alert February 27, 2018 Researchers at MIT designed materials that maximize the thermal effusivity by impregnating copper and nickel foams with conformal, chemical-vapor-deposited graphene and octadecane as a phase change material. These materials are ideal for ambient energy harvesting in the form of thermal resonators to generate persistent electrical power from thermal fluctuations over large ranges of frequencies. The harvestable power is proportional to the thermal effusivity of the dominant thermal mass. With 18-degree Fahrenheit temperature difference between night and day, a small sample of material produced 350 millivolts of potential and 1.3 milliwatts of power, which is enough […]
Innovative diode design uses ultrafast quantum tunneling to harvest infrared energy from the environment
Phys org February 5, 2018 Researchers in Saudi Arabia have designed a device, rectenna, that can tap into the infrared radiation in the environment and waste heat from industrial processes and transform quadrillionth-of-a-second wave signals into useful electricity. Tunneling devices, such as metal-insulator-metal (MIM) diodes, rectify infrared waves into current by moving electrons through a small barrier. They used a ‘bowtie-shaped’ nano-antenna that sandwiches the thin insulator film between two slightly overlapped metallic arms to generate the intense fields needed for tunneling… read more.
Clemson researchers blaze new ground in wireless energy generation
EurekAlert February 5, 2018 Researchers at Clemson University have invented a wireless triboelectric nanogenerator (W-TENG) based on their earlier invention U-TENG. W-TENG is made of a multipart fiber, made of graphene and poly-lactic acid, and Teflon. The device generates a max voltage of 3000 volts – enough to power 25 standard electrical outlets. Because the voltage is so high, the W-TENG generates an electric field around itself that can be sensed wirelessly. Its electrical energy can be stored wirelessly in capacitors and batteries. According to the researchers the device has applications in outer space, the middle of the ocean or […]
Surprising discovery could lead to better batteries
Science Daily January 12, 2018 When a lithium-ion battery supplies electricity, lithium ions flow into empty sites in the atomic lattice. It was assumed that the concentration of lithium would continuously increase in the lattice. By imaging reactions inside the electrodes in real time, an international team of researchers (USA – Brookhaven National Laboratory, University of Michigan, MIT, UC Berkeley, UK, China) has shown that, when the battery’s electrodes are made from nano-sized particles, the lithium concentration within local regions of nanoparticles go up, and then down. This discovery is a major step toward improving the battery life of consumer […]
Scientists develop ultrafast battery with quarter-million cycle life
Phys.org January 8, 2018 Rechargeable aluminum-ion batteries are promising in high-power density but still face critical challenges of limited lifetime, rate capability, and cathodic capacity. Researchers in China have designed a “trihigh tricontinuous” (3H3C) graphene film cathode. It retains high specific capacity of around 120 mAh g−1 at ultrahigh current density of 400 A g−1 (charged in 1.1 s) with 91.7% retention after 250,000 cycles. The battery works well within a wide temperature range of −40 to 120°C with remarkable flexibility bearing 10,000 times of folding, promising for all-climate wearable energy devices. This design opens an avenue for future super-batteries… […]
Researchers design dendrite-free lithium battery
Phys.org January 8, 2018 In lithium batteries the anode requires a rigid electrolyte to block dendrite growth, but it is difficult for a rigid electrolyte to maintain sufficient contact with the solid cathode, which creates a highly resistive cathode/electrolyte interface. To address this problem, the researchers in China designed an asymmetrical solid electrolyte, in which the side facing the anode is a rigid ceramic material that presses against the lithium anode to discourage dendrite growth, the side facing the cathode is made of a soft polymer, which allows for a strong interfacial connection with the cathode. In tests, the new […]