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Category: energy – Page 2

3D-printed battery electrolyte could let devices store power in almost any shape

Researchers at The University of Texas at El Paso have developed a way to 3D-print an essential battery component in nearly any shape. Their innovation could free engineers from the constraints of standard rechargeable battery sizes and allow energy storage to be built directly into the devices the batteries power.

The work, detailed in a study published in Communications Engineering, centers on gel polymer electrolytes, the material inside a battery that carries the ions (the particles that carry the electrical charge) between the electrodes—the two terminals where chemical reactions occur and electricity enters or leaves the battery.

From liquid limits to printable gel Conventional electrolytes are liquids that must be sealed inside rigid casings, a design that limits battery shapes and raises safety concerns about leaks. The UTEP team instead created a printable gel by combining a light-curable resin with a lithium-based liquid electrolyte, then hardening it layer by layer using a technique called vat photopolymerization.

Discovery helps explain why solid-state batteries often fail

Exactly how those dendrites form is still up for debate. While the interface between the battery’s electrolyte and electrodes has been the focus of most research, another culprit is the boundary where two grains of electrolyte in a solid material meet. Researchers know these boundaries can seed dendrites within electrolytes, although the effects have been difficult to study.

Now researchers at MIT and the Technical University of Munich have uncovered why such boundaries can lead to dendrites: Hidden electrical imbalances across the boundaries affect how the electrolyte conducts electrical charges, which influences how the ions and electrons move through the material during battery operation. In a paper published today in Nature Nanotechnology, the researchers characterized the electrical and chemical behavior of the boundaries and showed that adjusting how the electrolyte is processed enhances the movement of ions while reducing electron leakage. This adjustment can increase critical current density by more than 300 percent, which could enable solid-state batteries that charge faster and last longer.

Quantum vacuum could help break molecular bonds with less energy, simulations suggest

A team of researchers led by Felipe Herrera, a professor at the University of Santiago and a researcher at the Millennium Institute for Research in Optics (MIRO), has identified a quantum phenomenon that enables chemical bonds to be broken using significantly less energy than is normally required.

The findings, published in Physical Review Letters under the title “Enhancing Infrared-Laser Dissociation of Molecules with the Electromagnetic Vacuum,” demonstrate that by using infrared light, the natural fluctuations present in the electromagnetic vacuum can promote molecular dissociation when molecules are confined within specially designed nanometer-scale structures known as nanocavities.

Although we often think of a vacuum as completely empty space, quantum physics shows that it is filled with tiny energy fluctuations. The researchers discovered that these fluctuations can be amplified inside a nanocavity, altering molecular vibrations and making it easier for an infrared laser to break chemical bonds.

Electrical imbalances at grain boundaries help explain solid-state battery failure

Next-generation batteries that use new electrolyte materials could achieve far higher energy density than today’s lithium-ion batteries, without many of the safety concerns. But advanced batteries, such as those that use solid or almost-solid electrolytes, have been plagued by the formation of tiny spikes of lithium metal called dendrites that cause the batteries to lose efficiency and fail.

Exactly how those dendrites form is still up for debate. While the interface between the battery’s electrolyte and electrodes has been the focus of most research, another culprit is the boundary where two grains of electrolyte in a solid material meet. Researchers know these boundaries can seed dendrites within electrolytes, although the effects have been difficult to study.

Now researchers at MIT and the Technical University of Munich have uncovered why such boundaries can lead to dendrites: Hidden electrical imbalances across the boundaries affect how the electrolyte conducts electrical charges, which influences how the ions and electrons move through the material during battery operation.

Team uses 3D printing to develop zinc-ion hybrid battery with seven times more energy

Storing solar and wind energy to meet the increasing power needs of the electrical grid calls for devices that can deliver power quickly, recharge quickly and last for decades at low cost. A new study led by UCLA has uncovered a technology that could meet all these criteria: a zinc-ion hybrid battery with a 3D-printed electrode that stores more than seven times the charge of similar hybrids.

Energy storage based on zinc instead of lithium would be cheaper and more sustainable because zinc is 100 times more abundant, easier to mine and easier to recycle.

“The future of energy storage won’t be defined by a single technology,” said co-corresponding author Maher El-Kady, an assistant researcher in UCLA College’s chemistry and biochemistry department. “At some point, we will need to look for something to complement the current options for grid-scale energy storage. What we’ve done in this study essentially gives us zinc-ion hybrid devices that can store nearly one order of magnitude higher capacity.”

A COF-graphene hybrid opens new horizons for lithium-sulfur batteries

Lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries combine the abundance and affordability of sulfur with an energy storage capability far beyond that of current lithium-ion technologies. Practical deployment, however, has been slowed by a longstanding challenge known as polysulfide shuttling, whereby dissolved sulfur intermediates migrate within the battery, leading to active-material loss and premature performance decay.

Now, researchers from Tohoku University and collaborating institutions have tackled this problem by developing a molecularly designed covalent organic framework (COF)-graphene interlayer. This lightweight interface mitigates polysulfide shuttling by combining chemical trapping, rapid charge transport and sulfur-conversion promotion.

The work was published in the journal Small.

Some People Can ‘Absorb’ a Richer Version of Reality, Scientists Say. Are You One of Them?

“A lot of [the research subjects] are engineers, scientists—like very rational people,” Lifshitz says. “And it just shows me that the imagination is so powerful, that there’s so much we don’t even know yet about, if you invest energy into your imagination, it can actually come to life.”

He believes that through experiences like nature exposure, psychedelic therapy, or practices like creating a Tulpa, people can train themselves to be more absorptive. And that, from his perspective, would create a better world.

“I’m personally really interested in the idea that you can actually train yourself to have life feel more magical,” Lifshitz says. “You can make life enchanted through the power of your mind.”

Wet coffee grounds turned into high-grade solid fuel in just 90 seconds

A research team at the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM) has developed a technology that converts wet spent coffee grounds directly into high-quality biochar in just 90 seconds, with no drying or oil removal required. The breakthrough offers a fast, energy-efficient path to turning high-moisture organic waste into valuable fuel and carbon materials. The study, led by Dr. Taejun Park in collaboration with GodTech Co., Ltd., was published in the Chemical Engineering Journal, one of the world’s leading journals in chemical engineering.

Addressing a growing waste challenge Every year, global coffee consumption generates more than 10 million tons of spent coffee grounds, most of which end up in landfills or are incinerated, releasing greenhouse gases and polluting the environment.

Spent coffee grounds hold real energy potential, but their high moisture content has long been a barrier. Converting them into fuel or carbon products typically requires energy-intensive predrying, making large-scale resource recovery economically impractical.

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