Greater than the sum of its parts

20-Sep-2018 - When it comes to designing and optimizing mechanical systems, scientists understand the physical laws surrounding them well enough to create computer models that can predict their properties and behavior. However, scientists who are working to design better electrochemical systems, such as ...

X-rays uncover a hidden property that leads to failure in a lithium-ion battery material

Experiments at SLAC and Berkeley Lab uproot long-held assumptions and will inform future battery design

19-Sep-2018 - Over the past three decades, lithium-ion batteries, rechargeable batteries that move lithium ions back and forth to charge and discharge, have enabled smaller devices that juice up faster and last longer. Now, X-ray experiments at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory ...

Researchers are Developing Fast-Charging Solid-State Batteries

It’s All in the Mix

21-Aug-2018 - There are currently great hopes for solid-state batteries. They contain no liquid parts that could leak or catch fire. For this reason, they do not require cooling and are considered to be much safer, more reliable, and longer lasting than traditional lithium-ion batteries. Jülich scientists have ...

Old mining techniques make a new way to recycle lithium batteries

06-Aug-2018 - Lei Pan's team of chemical engineering students had worked long and hard on their research project, and they were happy just to be showing their results at the People, Prosperity and the Planet (P3) competition last April in Washington, DC. What they didn't expect was to be mobbed by enthusiastic ...

A smart safe rechargeable zinc ion battery based on sol-gel transition electrolytes

23-Jul-2018 - The thermal runaway issue has been a long-standing obstacle impeding the development of high energy density and high power delivery batteries. These batteries would generate a lot of heat in ultrafast charge/discharge process or hazardous conditions, such as overcharging and short-circuit. To ...

Salt is key ingredient for cheaper and more efficient batteries

11-Jul-2018 - A new design of rechargeable battery, created using salt, could lead the way for greener energy. Researchers at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC) have joined forces with a specialist group at the Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics (SINAP), Chinese Academy of Sciences on designs ...

New world record for direct solar water-splitting efficiency

06-Jul-2018 - Hydrogen will play a central role as a storage medium in sustainable energy systems. An international team of researchers has now succeeded in raising the efficiency of producing hydrogen from direct solar water-splitting to a record 19 per cent. They did so by combining a tandem solar cell of ...

New carbon could signal step-change for the world's most popular batteries

27-Jun-2018 - Scientists have created a new type of carbon that could make the batteries in our phones, tablet computers and laptops safer, more powerful, quicker to charge and longer lasting. An international team of researchers, led by Lancaster University and Jilin University in China, have announced the ...

New material for splitting water

20-Jun-2018 - Solar energy is clean and abundant. But when the sun isn't shining, you must store the energy in batteries or through a process called photocatalysis -- in which solar energy is used to make fuels. In photocatalytic water splitting, sunlight separates water into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen ...

Nickel ferrite promotes capacity and cycle stability of lithium-sulfur battery

15-Jun-2018 - Lithium-sulfur (Li-S) battery can be put into practice, if 20% of theoretical energy densities (2600 Wh/kg or 2800 Wh/L) can be achieved. Investigators have the ambition to reach the energy density of 500 Wh/kg in the near future. Xue-Ping Gao and co-workers, from Nankai University, tell us "Till ...