Labs and manufacturers across the globe are pushing forward in an effort to develop a completely clean hydrogen-powered car. Whether it’s through the plotting of more fueling stations or new vehicle prototypes, many manufactures are hoping to bring this concept into reality soon.
However, there is still one very important aspect missing – the science and technology to produce the best and most efficient hydrogen fuel cell.
In ACS Central Science, two teams have independently reported developments in this field that may be able to get us one step closer to a practical hydrogen-powered car.
ICYMI: Listen to our podcast with Subhash C. Singhal, a world-leader in fuel cell research.
The catalysts currently used to produce the proper chemical reaction for hydrogen and oxygen to create energy is currently too expensive or just demands too much energy to be efficient. For this reason, these two teams – led by Yi Cui at Sanford University, and combining the scientific prowess of James Gerken and Shannon Stahl at the University of Wisconsin, Madison – are seeking a new material that could cause the same reaction at a lower price point and higher efficiency.
Printing technologies in an atmospheric environment offer the potential for low-cost and materials-efficient alternatives for manufacturing electronics and energy devices such as luminescent displays, thin-film transistors, sensors, thin-film photovoltaics, fuel cells, capacitors, and batteries. Significant progress has been made in the area of printable functional organic and inorganic materials including conductors, semiconductors, and dielectric and luminescent materials.
These new printable functional materials have and will continue to enable exciting advances in printed electronics and energy devices. Some examples are printed amorphous oxide semiconductors, organic conductors and semiconductors, inorganic semiconductor nanomaterials, silicon, chalcogenide semiconductors, ceramics, metals, intercalation compounds, and carbon-based materials.
A special focus issue of the ECS Journal of Solid State Science and Technology was created about the publication of state-of-the-art efforts that address a variety of approaches to printable functional materials and device. This focus issue, consisting of a total of 15 papers, includes both invited and contributed papers reflecting recent achievements in printable functional materials and devices.
The topics of these papers span several key ECS technical areas, including batteries, sensors, fuel cells, carbon nanostructures and devices, electronic and photonic devices, and display materials, devices, and processing. The overall collection of this focus issue covers an impressive scope from fundamental science and engineering of printing process, ink chemistry and ink conversion processes, printed devices, and characterizations to the future outlook for printable functional materials and devices.
The video below demonstrates Printed Metal Oxide Thin-Film Transistors by J. Gorecki, K. Eyerly, C.-H. Choi, and C.-H. Chang, School of Chemical, Biological and Environmental Engineering, Oregon State University.
Researchers believe that as work continues in relation to this study, battery technology will accelerate forward. Image: Stony Brook University
A collaborative group of six researchers from Stony Brook University and Brookhaven National Laboratory are using pioneering x-ray techniques to build a better and more efficient battery.
The researchers—four of whom are active ECS members, including Esther Takeuchi, Kenneth Takeuchi, Amy Marschilok, and Kevin Kirshenbaum—have recently published their internal mapping of atomic transformations of the highly conductive silver matrix formation within lithium-based batteries in the journal Science.
(PS: You can find more of these scientists’ cutting-edge research by attending the 228th ECS Meeting in Phoenix, where they will be giving presentations. Also, Esther Takeuchi will be giving a talk at this years Electrochemical Energy Summit.)
This from Stony Brook University:
In a promising lithium-based battery, the formation of a silver matrix transforms a material otherwise plagued by low conductivity. To optimize these multi-metallic batteries—and enhance the flow of electricity—scientists need a way to see where, when, and how these silver, nanoscale “bridges” emerge. In the research paper, the Stony Brook and Brookhaven Lab team successfully mapped this changing atomic architecture and revealed its link to the battery’s rate of discharge. The study shows that a slow discharge rate early in the battery’s life creates a more uniform and expansive conductive network, suggesting new design approaches and optimization techniques.
The United States has focused the majority of its solar energy efforts on solar and wind power for the grid. For the first time ever, wave power is being utilized in the U.S. to power homes off the coast of Hawaii.
Waves are being turned into electricity through the Azura prototype, which captures the complex motion of waves to more efficiently capture wave movement for better electricity generation.
The device, which was deployed last month, will be monitored for one year to measure effectiveness and efficiency. If all goes as well as researchers predict, a larger version will hit the seas in 2017.
This emerging technology may lead to a theory to guide future engineers. Image: Futurity/Christian Benke
Researchers from Cornell University are focusing their efforts on developing superconductors that can carry large energy currents, thereby expanding the possible benefits that can be produced by high-temperature superconductors.
In order to coax the superconductors to carry these large currents, researchers have previously bombarded materials with high-energy ion beams. This approach increased the current density carried, but still left the question of what is actually happening in this reaction.
Thanks to the technology of the scanning tunneling microscope (STM), the researchers can now understand what is happening at the atomic level. (German physicist, Gerd Binnig, won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1986 for the invention of the scanning tunneling microscope He gave the ECS Lecture at the 203rd ECS Meeting in Paris, France.)
“Scientific discovery is a marathon, not a sprint. Sometimes you’re running faster or slower, but you always have to keep going.” Esther Takeuchi
Esther Takeuchi was the key contributor to the battery system that powers life-saving cardiac defibrillators.
She currently holds more than 150 U.S. patents, more than any other American woman, which earned her a spot in the Inventors Hall of Fame. Her innovative work in battery research also landed her the National Medal of Technology and Innovation in 2008.
In recent years, the semiconductor industry has struggled to keep up with the pace of the legendary Moore’s Law. With the current 14-nanometer generation of chips, researchers have begun to question if it will remain possible to double transistor density every two and a half years. However, IBM is now pushing away the doubt with the development of their new chip.
The new ultra-dense chip hosts seven-nanometer transistors, which yields about four times the capacity of our current computer chip. Like many other researchers in the field, IBM decided to move away for the traditional and expensive pure silicon toward a silicon-germanium hybrid material to produce the new chip.
The success of the high-capacity chip relies on the utilization of this new material. The use of silicon-germanium has made it possible for faster transistor switching and lower power requirements. And did we mention how impossibly small these transistors are?
Tailored laser pulse controls the formation of a molecular bond between two atoms. Image: Christiane Koch
Until now, the idea of controlling reactions with the light from lasers was only theoretical. However, new research shows that a laser pulse has the ability to control the formation of a molecular bond between two atoms.
Due to this new development, researchers can now control the path of the chemical process with extreme precision.
This from APS Physics:
For the first time, researchers demonstrate the coherent control of the reaction by which two atoms form a molecule. The achievement—coupled with other photocatalyst tools—could potentially lead to a chemical assembly line, in which lasers slice and weld molecular pieces into a desired end product.
Back in March, I wrote a post gushing about the utility of ORCID identifiers. For those of you who haven’t seen it you can find it here, and for those of you who have seen it, but have yet to sign up, it’s probably time to think about it!
Because everyone likes lists, here’s ECS’s top 5 reasons to register for your ORCID ID today:
1. Differentiate yourself. Think about how many “J. Smith”s there are in the world. ORCID lets you stand out from the crowd and ensures that your research is appropriately attributed.
2. Names change, affiliations change, e-mail accounts change. There is little about an individual’s research profile that is static – people find new jobs, change names, or just switch from Outlook to Gmail. No matter what the change is, your professional contacts will be able to find your current information—even if they’re reaching out to you about a paper you wrote four jobs ago or in grad school.
The Charles W. Tobias Young Investigator Award is presented to a young scientist or engineer who shows outstanding scientific and/or engineering work in fundamental or applied electrochemistry, or solid state science and technology. Read the nomination rules.
The previous recipient of this award was Adam Weber in 2014, who exhibited outstanding leadership in research surrounding fuel cells and flow batteries.
The award honors the memory of Charles W. Tobias, former ECS President and pioneer in the field of electrochemical engineering. His example, counsel, and advice impacted many young people, encouraging them to pursue science and advance future innovations.
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Labs and manufacturers across the globe are pushing forward in an effort to develop a completely clean hydrogen-powered car. Whether it’s through the plotting of more fueling stations or new vehicle prototypes, many manufactures are hoping to bring this concept into reality soon.
