Metals Tech

What if construction materials could be put together and taken apart as easily as LEGO bricks? Such reconfigurable masonry would be disassembled at the end of a building’s lifetime and reassembled into a new structure, in a sustainable cycle that could supply generations of buildings using the same physical building blocks. That’s the idea behind […]

A nuclear battery powered by radioactive decay rather than chemical reactions could last for decades. The most efficient design yet may bring this concept closer to reality. Researchers have wanted to use radioactive atoms to build exceptionally long-lasting and damage-resistant batteries since the 1900s. While some prototypes have been assembled and even used in space […]

A technology that can directly charge a battery from a smartphone screen has emerged. A research team affiliated with UNIST has unveiled a method of supplying energy directly from glass of buildings, cars, and mobile devices through transparent solar cells. The study is published in PNAS. Professor Kwanyong Seo and his research team in the […]

Renewable energy sources like wind and solar are critical to sustaining our planet, but they come with a big challenge: They don’t always generate power when it’s needed. To make the most of them, we need efficient and affordable ways to store the energy they produce, so we have power even when the wind isn’t […]

Kameale Terry saw it coming before almost anyone else did. She realized the expanding network of electric vehicle charging stations across the U.S. would need a workforce to maintain it. The realization came as she found herself back in South Central Los Angeles — where she grew up — taking care of her mom, who […]

A research team has developed a technology that enhances the performance of binders—often the ‘unsung heroes’ in the field of secondary batteries—while using environmentally friendly materials. Their study is published in Advanced Functional Materials. The researchers were led by Dr. Hyeon-Gyun Im and Dr. Dong Jun Kang from the Insulation Materials Research Center of Korea […]

With global demand for lithium-ion batteries fast depleting reserves of raw materials, experts are seeking safe, affordable and reliable alternatives for rechargeable batteries. Aqueous zinc-ion batteries (AZIBs) could be the answer to producing low-cost alternatives from abundant feedstocks, and Flinders University scientists are paving the way for the production of simple and practical polymer AZIBs using organic […]

As the world transitions away from fossil fuels, the demand for rare earth elements (REEs) is only going to increase. These elements are vital to the production of technologies that will make the transition to green energy possible. While REEs are not technically rare, large deposits are found in only a few locations around the […]

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 […]