Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Category: sustainability – Page 15

Facing the storm: Researchers model a new line of coastal defense with horizontal levees

As ocean levels rise, coastal communities face an ever-increasing risk of severe flooding. The existing infrastructure protecting many of these communities was not built to withstand the combined threat of rising seas and severe storms seen in this century.

While reinforcing existing flood barriers poses a costly challenge for at-risk communities, it also provides the opportunity to introduce innovative solutions that can provide both flood prevention and environmental benefits.

A group of researchers at UC Santa Cruz and the U.S. Geological Survey has evaluated one such flood mitigation solution, which can reinforce while creating environmentally beneficial coastal habitats. In a study published on May 9 in Scientific Reports, the team evaluated the effectiveness of “horizontal levees”—traditional levees retrofitted with a sloping, wetland border—as a means of strengthening shorelines against the threat of rising sea levels.

Advancements in (Ca, Ba)ZrS₃ solar cells using innovative spinel hole transport layers

Solar power has long been a beacon of hope in our pursuit of clean energy. However, the road to sustainable, high-efficiency photovoltaics has been riddled with roadblocks such as toxicity and instability in widely used lead halide perovskites. Could we engineer a solar cell that delivers not just high performance, but also durability, stability and environmental safety?

That question led us to (Ca, Ba)ZrS3, a chalcogenide perovskite with immense promise. Unlike its lead-based counterparts, this material boasts strong thermal and chemical stability. More importantly, its bandgap can be finely tuned down to 1.26 eV with less than 2% calcium doping, placing it squarely within the Shockley-Queisser limit for optimal photovoltaic conversion.

For the first time, my research team at the Autonomous University of Querétaro explored an innovative idea of pairing (Ca, Ba)ZrS3 with next-generation inorganic spinel hole transport layers (HTLs). We integrated NiCo2O4, ZnCo2O4, CuCo2O4, and SrFe2O4 into solar cells and simulated their performance using SCAPS-1D.

Moving pictures: Researchers use movies to diagnose EV battery failure

Charging electric-vehicle batteries in Ithaca’s frigid winter can be tough, and freezing temperatures also decrease the driving range. Hot weather can be just as challenging, leading to decomposition of battery materials and, possibly, catastrophic failure.

For (EVs) to be widely accepted, safe and fast-charging lithium-ion batteries need to be able to operate in extreme temperatures. But to achieve this, scientists need to understand how materials used in EVs change during temperature-related chemical reactions, a so-far elusive goal.

Now, Cornell chemists led by Yao Yang, Ph.D. ‘21, assistant professor of chemistry and chemical biology in the College of Arts and Sciences, have developed a way to diagnose the mechanisms behind battery failure in extreme climates using electron microscopy. Their first-of-its-kind operando (“operating”) electrochemical transmission electron microscopy (TEM) enables them to watch chemistry in action and collect real-time movies showing what happens to energy materials during temperature changes.

Quantum eyes on energy loss: Diamond quantum imaging can enable next-gen power electronics

Improving energy conversion efficiency in power electronics is vital for a sustainable society, with wide-bandgap semiconductors like GaN and SiC power devices offering advantages due to their high-frequency capabilities. However, energy losses in passive components at high frequencies hinder efficiency and miniaturization. This underscores the need for advanced soft magnetic materials with lower energy losses.

In a study published in Communications Materials, a research team led by Professor Mutsuko Hatano from the School of Engineering, Institute of Science, Tokyo, Japan, has developed a novel method for analyzing such losses by simultaneously imaging the amplitude and phase of alternating current (AC) stray fields, which are key to understanding hysteresis losses.

Using a diamond quantum sensor with nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers and developing two protocols—qubit frequency tracking (Qurack) for kHz and quantum heterodyne (Qdyne) imaging for MHz frequencies—they realized wide-range AC magnetic field imaging. This study was carried out in collaboration with Harvard University and Hitachi, Ltd.

TEMPO molecule enhances stability and performance of perovskite solar cells

Perovskite solar cells are among the most promising candidates for the next generation of photovoltaics: lightweight, flexible, and potentially very low-cost. However, their tendency to degrade under sunlight and heat has so far limited widespread adoption. Now, a new study published in Joule presents an innovative and scalable strategy to overcome this key limitation.

A research team led by the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), in collaboration with the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Western Switzerland (HES⁠-⁠SO) and the Politecnico di Milano, has developed a bulk passivation technique that involves adding the molecule TEMPO (2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl) to the perovskite film and applying a brief infrared heating pulse lasting just half a second.

This approach enables the repair of near-invisible crystalline defects inside the material, boosting solar cell efficiency beyond 20% and maintaining that performance for several months under operating conditions. Using positron annihilation spectroscopy—a method involving antimatter particles that probe atomic-scale defects—the researchers confirmed a significant reduction in vacancy-type defects.

An accidentally discovered class of nanostructured materials can passively harvest water from air

A serendipitous observation in a Chemical Engineering lab at Penn Engineering has led to a surprising discovery: a new class of nanostructured materials that can pull water from the air, collect it in pores and release it onto surfaces without the need for any external energy.

The research, published in Science Advances, describes a material that could open the door to new ways to collect water from the air in arid regions and devices that cool electronics or buildings using the power of evaporation.

The interdisciplinary team includes Daeyeon Lee, Russell Pearce and Elizabeth Crimian Heuer Professor in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (CBE); Amish Patel, Professor in CBE; Baekmin Kim, a postdoctoral scholar in Lee’s lab and first author; and Stefan Guldin, Professor in Complex Soft Matter at the Technical University of Munich.

Power out of thin air: A simple, scalable flutter-driven wind energy harvester

When we think about renewable energy, images of sprawling solar farms or towering coastal wind turbines usually come to mind. Yet, there is a quieter, more compact option: a slender strip of material fluttering in the breeze, capable of converting ambient airflow into usable electrical energy.

In our research group, we have been exploring how flexible structures—thin polymer sheets—can convert the energy of ambient flow into electricity using piezoelectric materials. These materials generate an electrical signal when mechanically deformed. Think of them as energy translators—converting flutter and vibration into voltage.

Our work focuses on a simple idea: attach a flexible plate with a piezoelectric sheet to the downstream side of a cylinder and expose it to wind. As wind flows past the cylinder, it causes the attached plate to flutter—much like a flag.

Water-based flow battery could break solar storage barrier for homeowners

Engineers have developed a water-based battery that could help Australian households store rooftop solar energy more safely, cheaply and efficiently than ever before.

Their next-generation “flow battery” opens the door to compact, high-performance battery systems for homes and is expected to be much cheaper than current $10,000 lithium-ion systems.

Flow batteries have been around for decades but have traditionally been used in large-scale energy storage due to their large size and slow charge speeds.

New thin-film material achieves both high efficiency and durability in tandem solar cells

A novel thin-film material capable of simultaneously enhancing the efficiency and durability of tandem solar cells has been developed.

Led by Professor BongSoo Kim from the Department of Chemistry at UNIST, in collaboration with Professors Jin Young Kim and Dong Suk Kim from the Graduate School of Carbon Neutrality at UNIST, the team developed a multi-functional hole-selective layer (mHSL) designed to significantly improve the performance of perovskite/organic tandem solar cells (POTSCs). Their study is published in Advanced Energy Materials.

Tandem solar cells are advanced photovoltaic devices that stack two different types of cells to absorb a broader spectrum of sunlight, thereby increasing overall energy conversion efficiency. Among these, combinations of perovskite and organic materials are particularly promising for producing thin, flexible solar panels suitable for wearable devices and building-integrated photovoltaics, positioning them as next-generation energy sources.