Ningde Amperex Technology Ltd. (ATL, China) is announcing a funding opportunity for researchers actively engaged in rechargeable lithium battery technologies. They are offering $100,000-$500,000 to selected projects addressing current problems associated with lithium metal anodes and proposing viable solutions for the commercialization of long-life, high-performance lithium metal secondary batteries for high energy density applications. The steep demand for improved rechargeable batteries for use in consumer electronics and electric vehicles is driving the search for new battery electrode materials that will…
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If these walls could talk… actually, they can. A new project that goes by the acronym GENESI (Green sEnsor Networks for Structural monItoring) is working to give infrastructure the ability to tell us how it feels. GENESI researchers are creating various sensor that fit inside buildings, tunnels, and bridges. This novel generation of green wireless sensor networks’ main aim is to allow structures to communicate their status. The sensor device itself combines a low power node platform with a multi-source…
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Notes from the Section Chairman Pittsburgh is gradually evolving to be a hub of education, science and research. The Electrochemical Society bears great relevance to a number of upcoming challenges including energy generation and storage, corrosion, biochemical systems etc., and a number of local universities and companies are perform cutting edge research. With that in mind, section could act as a forum for fruitful interaction and collaboration. We are reaching out to local members interested in participating and rejuvenating the…
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Casey Emilius, ECS’s Meetings Coordinator, spotted an article in Inhabitat on an amazing feat in student ingenuity out of Nigeria. College student Segun Oyeyiola has transformed a Volkswagen Beetle into a wind- and solar- powered car with just $6,000. By using mostly scrap parts donated by friends and family, Oyeyiola was able to keep costs down and skyrocket the renewable efficiency of the car. The car is fortified by a strong suspension system to hold the weight of the solar…
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Electric cars and personal electronics may get the battery boost they need with this new development in lithium-ion batteries. Researchers from the University of California, Riverside have created silicon nanofibers that are 100 times thinner than human hair, which will provide the potential to boost the amount of energy that can be delivered per unit weight of the batteries. The research has been detailed in the paper “Towards Scalable Binderless Electrodes: Carbon Coated Silicon Nanofiber Paper via Mg Reduction of…
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The infamous wonder material is becoming even more wonderful with this new development from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Scientist from UIUC have developed a novel process to transform flat graphene from 2D to 3D with a simple and commercially available single-step process. The process uses thermally activated shape-memory polymer substrates to texture the graphene and “crumple” it to give it an increased surface space. With the easy of this process and the increased surface space of the…
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In honor of Alessandro Volta’s 270th birthday, Google is celebrating the man best known for inventing the first battery with today’s Google Doodle. While Volta was a trained physicist, many consider him to be the first great electrochemist. By inventing the first battery, which he called the electric “pile”, he established the starting point of electrochemical science and technology with the first notable electrochemical storage device. The turning point for Volta’s development of the battery came in 1780, when his…
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