To compete globally in key energy sectors through the 21st century and beyond, the U.S. must accelerate the discovery and development of novel materials. The I05 symposium at the 236th ECS Meeting, “Accelerated Discovery and Development of Energy Materials,” is a unique opportunity for researchers and stakeholders from electrochemistry and materials research to meet, network, and initiate new collaborations in highly impactful research and development. The electrochemical research community focuses on important energy applications such as generation, storage, distribution, and utilization. The materials research community focuses on computational and experimental methodologies for accelerated materials discovery and development, and advancing multiple sectors. While rapid scientific advances are occurring independently in both fields, bringing world leaders from the two fields together is an extraordinary opportunity to achieve materials breakthroughs with the potential to revolutionize the U.S. energy sectors. (more…)

Shirley Meng

Inspired by her father, motivated by curiosity, and driven by her passion for connecting people, Shirley Meng, a professor of nanoengineering at the University of California, San Diego, discovered her love for science.

Although, she had originally thought her interests would lead her to pursue another path, a career in law.

However, because of the instability of the law system in China, where Meng is originally from, her father encouraged Meng to pursue other opportunities. That’s when she began considering a career in the sciences. (more…)

A researcher at Georgia Tech holds a perovskite-based solar cell. Credit: Rob Felt, Georgia Tech

Perovskite-based solar cells are all around great. They offer energy efficiencies similar to those of traditional silicon-based cells, are lightweight, simple and cheap to produce, and offer physical flexibility that could unlock a wide new range of installation methods and places, according to Georgia Teach Research Horizons.

The only problem: figuring out how to produce perovskite-based energy devices that last longer than a couple of months.

Researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology, University of California San Diego, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology may be closer to solving that problem. (more…)

Photo: UCL Interactive Architecture Lab

Few of us are lucky enough to have a green thumb. The perfect balance of sunlight, climate, and water requires a special, intuitive touch. A little too much water, a little too little, and turns into gunk or withers. A little too much sun, a little too little, and wastes away and shrivels. And, so it goes.

Well, gardening just got a little easier. According to Inhabitat, students at University College London’s Interactive Architecture Lab have designed a nomadic, self-driving, and self-cultivating garden named Hortum machina, B. Like an autonomous car, the mobile garden responds to the environment, in this case, moving towards or away from sunlight, shade, and unhealthy levels of air pollution, as needed. (more…)

New energy system prototype from Chalmers University that can store the sun’s energy for up to 18 years. Image by: Chalmers University of Technology

According to Science Alert, scientists have recently figured out a way to store solar power for up to 18 years.

It’s made possible with a specialised fluid, called a solar thermal fuel, that’s catching the attention of numerous investors, according to the research team at the Chalmers University of Technology working on the project. (more…)

Most take the world around them for granted, never expecting anything extraordinary out of what’s always proven to be, well, extra ordinary. According to Futurism, that’s what many felt about a methylene blue dye used to dye fabric in textile mills. Its remnants even considered a nuisance and a hazard, often making its way from the mill and into the environment, where it’s no easy task to clean up.

So researchers from the University at Buffalo began experimenting with the industrial dye, in an attempt to reuse the wasted material, turning the methylene blue wastewater into an environmentally safe material – in batteries.

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The 2018 ECS Annual Business Meeting and Luncheon* will be held on Tuesday, May 15 at the 233rd ECS Meeting in Seattle, WA from 1200 – 1400h.

Featured Speaker

We are pleased to have David Danielson with a talk titled, “Electrochemistry & the Electrification of Everything in the Era of Low Cost Renewable Energy.” Danielson is the managing director of Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a new $1B+ climate-tech investment fund backed by Bill Gates and 20 other highly successful business leaders from around the world. Learn more about David Danielson and how our sciences are at the forefront of the energy revolution.

Learn and Lunch: 2017 Successes

Join past and present ECS leadership for a look at our organization and the strides made over the last year. The 2017 year was successful in many ways and the annual business meeting will give you a glimpse in program areas such as publications, meetings and, of course, membership.

Sign up when you register for the meeting. If you are already registered, you can add it by logging in to My Account > My Events > select 233rd ECS Meeting > click Add Tracks/Sessions.

By: Bob Marcotte, University of Rochester 

In order to power entire communities with clean energy, such as solar and wind power, a reliable backup storage system is needed to provide energy when the sun isn’t shining and the wind doesn’t blow.

One possibility is to use any excess solar- and wind-based energy to charge solutions of chemicals that can subsequently be stored for use when sunshine and wind are scarce. At that time, the chemical solutions of opposite charge can be pumped across solid electrodes, thus creating an electron exchange that provides power to the electrical grid.

The key to this technology, called a redox flow battery, is finding chemicals that can not only “carry” sufficient charge, but also be stored without degrading for long periods, thereby maximizing power generation and minimizing the costs of replenishing the system.

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