{"id":117072,"date":"2020-12-13T06:22:52","date_gmt":"2020-12-13T14:22:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2020\/12\/new-material-can-store-energy-from-the-sun-for-months-or-even-years"},"modified":"2020-12-13T06:22:52","modified_gmt":"2020-12-13T14:22:52","slug":"new-material-can-store-energy-from-the-sun-for-months-or-even-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2020\/12\/new-material-can-store-energy-from-the-sun-for-months-or-even-years","title":{"rendered":"New Material Can Store Energy From The Sun For Months or Even Years"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/new-material-can-store-energy-from-the-sun-for-months-or-even-years.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>If we\u2019re going to get better at powering the planet with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencealert.com\/renewables-exceeded-coal-for-first-time-in-us-history-with-no-noticeable-difference\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">renewable energy<\/a>, we need to get better at finding ways of efficiently storing that energy until it\u2019s needed \u2013 and scientists have identified a particular material that could give us exactly that.<\/p>\n<p>The material is known as a <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Metal%E2%80%93organic_framework\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">metal-organic framework<\/a> (MOF), in which carbon-based molecules form structures by linking metal ions. Crucially, MOFs are porous, so they can form composite materials with other small molecules.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s what the team did here, adding molecules of the light-absorbing compound <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Azobenzene\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">azobenzene<\/a>. The finished composite material was able to store energy from ultraviolet light for at least four months at room temperature before releasing it again \u2013 a big improvement over the days or weeks that most light-responsive materials can manage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If we\u2019re going to get better at powering the planet with renewable energy, we need to get better at finding ways of efficiently storing that energy until it\u2019s needed \u2013 and scientists have identified a particular material that could give us exactly that. The material is known as a metal-organic framework (MOF), in which carbon-based [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":609,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1497,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy","category-sustainability"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/609"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117072\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}