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The proliferation of wearable devices—from smart watches to AR glasses—necessitates ever-smaller on-board energy solutions that can deliver bursts of power while remaining unobtrusive.


Scientists leverage additive-free 3D printing process to construct exceptionally customizable and high-performing graphene-based micro-supercapacitors tailored for on-chip energy storage.

Zinc-air batteries are an inexpensive, powerful battery alternative that can be used on the small scale to power electronics or on the large scale for electric vehicles or energy storage. These batteries work when oxygen from the air oxidizes zinc, but the difficulty in oxygen activation which degrades battery performance has prevented their wide commercial adoption.

Information presented in a paper published in Carbon Future (“Fullerene-metalloporphyrin co-crystal as efficient ORR electrocatalyst precursor for Zn-air batteries”) shows how the addition of fullerene-derived carbon materials as catalysts can improve performance, stability, and cost of zinc-air batteries.

This graphic illustrates a zinc-air battery can using a fullerene-metalloporphyrin co-crystal as an oxygen reduction reaction catalyst. (Image: Carbon Future, Tsinghua University Press)