Metals Tech

Researchers say they’ve built and tested a ‘structural battery’ that packs a device or EV’s chassis with energy, saving a ton of weight. It could unlock smartphones as thin as credit cards, laptops at half the weight and a 70% boost to EV range. EVs rely heavily – pun intended – on large lithium-ion batteries […]

Researchers at the Department of Instrumentation and Applied Physics (IAP), Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and collaborators have designed a new supercapacitor that can be charged by light shining on it. Such supercapacitors can be used in various devices, including streetlights and self-powered electronic devices such as sensors. Capacitors are electrostatic devices that store energy […]

Researchers at Tohoku University have successfully increased the capacity, lifetime durability, and cost-effectiveness of a capacitor in their pursuit of a more power-efficient future. The research is published in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. A capacitor is a device used as part of a circuit that can store and release energy, just like […]

Sweden’s Enerpoly has flung open the doors to its zinc-ion battery megafactory in the north of Stockholm – making it the first manufacturing facility to use this battery technology at a large scale in the world. Dubbed the Enerpoly Production Innovation Center, the 70,000-sq-ft (6,500-sq-m) factory is designed to achieve a capacity throughput of 100 […]

More charging power, higher range, lower environmental impact: In the COOLBat joint research project, researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology IWU have teamed up with partners to develop next-generation battery enclosures for electric vehicles. The objective is to make the enclosures, a central component in any electric vehicle, lighter and […]

Fuel cells offer a promising solution for clean energy with advantages over traditional electric power systems, including extended driving range and higher energy density. Despite these benefits, the high costs and durability concerns associated with fuel cell stacks have limited their commercialization. The durability of membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs), a key component of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), […]

Photovoltaics are set to meet over 40% of Switzerland’s electricity needs by 2050. But solar power isn’t always available when it’s needed: there’s too much of it in summer and too little in winter, when the sun shines less often and heat pumps are running at full tilt. According to the Swiss federal government’s Energy […]

Chemical recycling offers a sustainable alternative to traditional plastic recycling by breaking down plastics into high-quality products. Researchers have optimized this process with a new mathematical formula. Each year, hundreds of millions of tons of plastic waste are produced globally. In response, scientists are diligently developing innovative methods to recycle a significant portion of this […]

Researchers at Swansea University, in collaboration with Wuhan University of Technology, Shenzhen University, have developed a pioneering technique for producing large-scale graphene current collectors. This breakthrough promises to significantly enhance the safety and performance of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), addressing a critical challenge in energy storage technology. Published in Nature Chemical Engineering, the study details the first successful protocol […]

Imagine being able to create incredibly tiny structures with the same ease and sustainability as printing on paper. This is the frontier of microfabrication—the process of making microscopic structures that are crucial for the operation of everything from computer chips to medical devices. Traditionally, microfabrication has been an intensive process that involves environmentally toxic chemicals that are difficult to […]