{"id":170296,"date":"2023-08-23T17:29:34","date_gmt":"2023-08-23T22:29:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2023\/08\/an-incredible-new-crystal-can-transform-light-into-mechanical-work"},"modified":"2023-08-23T17:29:34","modified_gmt":"2023-08-23T22:29:34","slug":"an-incredible-new-crystal-can-transform-light-into-mechanical-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2023\/08\/an-incredible-new-crystal-can-transform-light-into-mechanical-work","title":{"rendered":"An Incredible New Crystal Can Transform Light Into Mechanical Work"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/an-incredible-new-crystal-can-transform-light-into-mechanical-work.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Almost all forms of modern consumer technology are powered by electrochemical energy, otherwise known as batteries. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.popularmechanics.com\/g38442262\/lithium-ion-battery-illustration-gallery\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">Lithium-ion<\/a> batteries, for example, transform chemical reactions into direct current energy while also producing a few side effects (mainly heat). But what if there was another way to power gadgets\u2014say, lasers?<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s the idea behind new research from the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering and CU-Boulder. In a new study published this month <a href=\"https:\/\/go.redirectingat.com\/?id=74968X1525083&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Farticles%2Fs41563-023-01610-4\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">in the journal <em>Nature Materials<\/em><\/a><em><\/em>, the team\u2014led by chemical and electrical engineering professor Ryan Hayward\u2014explored ways to leverage tiny <a href=\"https:\/\/www.popularmechanics.com\/science\/environment\/a19686216\/mythical-viking-sunstone-icelandic-crystal\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">crystals<\/a> and directly transform light into mechanical work. At scale, such a breakthrough could remove the need for bulky batteries and all of the thermal management that comes with it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Almost all forms of modern consumer technology are powered by electrochemical energy, otherwise known as batteries. Lithium-ion batteries, for example, transform chemical reactions into direct current energy while also producing a few side effects (mainly heat). But what if there was another way to power gadgets\u2014say, lasers? That\u2019s the idea behind new research from the [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":579,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,19,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-170296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biological","category-chemistry","category-engineering"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170296","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\/579"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170296\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}