One of the more common issues with solar cell efficiency is their inability to move with the sun as it crosses the sky. While large scale solar panels can be fitted with bulky motorized trackers, those with rooftop solar panels do not have that luxury. In an effort to solve this issues, researchers are drawing some inspiration from art in their mission toward higher solar efficiency.

Scientists are applying some of the shapes and designs from the ancient art of kirigami—the Japanese art of paper cutting—to develop a solar cell that can capture up to 36 percent more energy due to the design’s ability to grab more sun.

“The design takes what a large tracking solar panel does and condenses it into something that is essentially flat,” said Aaron Lamoureux, a doctoral student in materials science and engineering and first author on the paper.

In the United States alone, there are currently over 20,000 MW of operational solar capacity. Nearly 640,000 U.S. homes have opted to rely on solar power. However, if the home panels were able to follow the sun’s movement on a daily basis, we could see a dramatic increase in efficiency and usage.

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Scientists working in the field of synthetic photosynthesis have recently developed an artificial “leaf” the can produce natural gas from carbon dioxide. This marks a major step toward producing renewable fuels.

Through a combination of semiconducting nanowires and bacteria, the researchers were able to design an artificial plant that can make natural gases using only sunlight—making the likelihood of a cleaner future more tangible.

From Organic to Synthetic

The roots of this development stem for the natural process of photosynthesis. Instead of the natural byproduct of organic photosynthesis (sugar), these scientists have produced methane.

“We’re good at generating electrons from light efficiently, but chemical synthesis always limited our systems in the past,” said Peidong Yang, head researcher in the study. “One purpose of this experiment was to show we could integrate bacterial catalysts with semiconductor technology. This lets us understand and optimize a truly synthetic photosynthesis system.”

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Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles have the potential to revolutionize the transportation system. From aiding the fight against climate change through clean emissions to reducing dependency on fossil fuels, hydrogen could potential help power the future and change mobility. Automakers believe that by 2020, there will be tens of thousands of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles on the road. In order to do this, we’re looking towards scientists to make innovation developments leading toward cheaper and more efficient technologies.

Creating a Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicle

Shawn Litster, ECS member and associate professor at Carnegie Mellon University, is doing just that. Lister, along with ECS student member William Epting, is focusing his attention on energy technologies that utilize electrochemical devices to further research in the development of the near-perfect fuel cell vehicle.

(Check out a past meeting abstract by the two on fuel cell electrode analysis.)

“We’re looking for ways to minimize the impact of transportation on society and the environment,” said Litster.

Litster and his team have discovered that one of the reasons for the high cost of development for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles is the nanoscale polymer films. While these films offer a host of positive qualities, they require expensive platinum to operate properly.

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Once again, Apple is doing its best to give electronics a huge boost into the future with the release of the new iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus. The technological top dog has upgraded everything from the phone’s processors to its camera—and Apple has finally brought the much anticipated 3D touch capability to life.

While most consumers focus their attention to the phone’s new entertainment abilities and usage innovation, we like to focus on some different aspects here at ECS. While Apple’s Timothy Cook may not have mentioned electrochemistry or solid state science in announcing the new iPhone, these sciences are what allow for higher processing speeds, improved displays, touch recognition, longer battery life, and much more.

Get a full understanding of the science behind the smartphone.

Highlights of the iPhone 6S:

• Improved 12 megapixel camera
• Qualocomm chip to double LTE speeds from 150 mbps to 300 mbps
• Improved TouchID fingerprint sensor
• New 64-bit chip for 70 percent faster CPU
• 3D touch capability through sensor technology

Get more info on the iPhone 6S.

PS: Listen to technology and engineering expert Lili Deligianni’s podcast on innovation in electronics!

Batteries are a critical part of our everyday lives. From phones to laptops to cars to grid energy storage—batteries are essential to many devices. Lithium ion batteries have taken the lead in battery technology, with lithium iron phosphate batteries (LFP) performing particularly well. While it was known that LFP batteries could charge quickly and withstand many factors, the reasons for this were unknown until know.

A team of researchers from the Paul Scherrer Institute and Toyota Central R&D Labs has discovered why LFP batteries can be recharged so rapidly. The team is comprised of ECS member Tsuyoshi Sasaki, past members Michael Hess and Petr Novak, and Journal of The Electrochemical Society (JES) published author Claire Villevieille.

(PS: Check out their past paper, “Surface/Interface Study on Full xLi₂MnO₃·(1 − x)LiMO₂ (M = Ni, Mn, Co)/Graphite Cells.”)

This from Paul Scherrer Institute:

The reason: the step-like concentration gradient gives way to a gentle, ramp-like progression of the lithium concentration. This is because, at higher voltages, the lithium ions involved in the charging process are distributed across the volume of the electrode particles for brief moments as opposed to being herded together in a thin layer boundary. As a result, the lithium can be set in motion more easily during charging, without the need for more energy to be added to negotiate the layer boundary.

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Photos and text by Shu-Sheng Liu.

Here is our image obtained by STEM. It was published recently in the Journal of The Electrochemical Society, 162 (2015) F750-F754. It was also presented in Glasgow conference.

It is a stable high-index Ni-YSZ interface of a conventional solid oxide fuel cell.

Our study is the first attempt to analyze the real interface in conventional SOFC.

Researchers have developed completely new nanowires by combining synthetic DNA and protein.

Through combining these two promising synthetic biological materials to form nanowires, the door to promising applications requiring biomaterials has been opened.

While both synthetic DNA and synthetic protein structures show great potential in the areas of direct delivery of cancer drugs and virus treatment customization, the hybridization of materials provides even more advantages.

“If your material is made up of several different kinds of components, it can have more functionality. For example, protein is very versatile; it can be used for many things, such as protein–protein interactions or as an enzyme to speed up a reaction. And DNA is easily programmed into nanostructures of a variety of sizes and shapes,” said first author of the study, Yun (Kurt) Mou.

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The fifth international ECS Electrochemical Energy Summit (E2S) will take place October 12-14, 2015 during the 228th ECS Meeting. This year’s program will be focused around solar critical issues and renewable energy. One of the invited talks is from the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP).

JCAP is pioneering revolutionary methods of synthesizing transportation fuels simply by combining three of Earth’s most abundant resources: carbon dioxide, water, and sunlight.

The goal is to generate liquid hydrocarbon or alcohol fuel products whose heating value equals or exceeds that of methanol, using selective and efficient chemical pathways.

Achieving a Technological Breakthrough

Any technological breakthrough of this sort requires multiple simultaneous advances in mechanisms, materials, and components—from novel catalysts and protection coatings to concepts for self-sustaining integrated systems—and JCAP, under its five-year renewal project, will continue to act as a hub for accelerated discovery and integration of these developments.

The project’s first two years will focus on an accelerated campaign of discovery and development, while years three to five will see a ramped-up emphasis on the integration of JCAP’s materials, catalytic mechanisms, and testbeds with advances made by JCAP, in close consultation and collaboration with the broader scientific community and industry.

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A team from Rice University, led by assistant professor and ECS member Isabell Thomann, has demonstrate a highly efficient way to harness energy from the sun though the splitting of water molecules.

Through the configuration of light-activated gold nanoparticles, the team was able to successfully harvest and transfer energy to what the scientists refer to as “hot electrons.”

“Hot electrons have the potential to drive very useful chemical reactions, but they decay very rapidly, and people have struggled to harness their energy,” said Thomann. “For example, most of the energy losses in today’s best photovoltaic solar panels are the result of hot electrons that cool within a few trillionths of a second and release their energy as wasted heat.”

If the hot electrons could be capture before they have the opportunity to cool, society could be seeing a significant increase to energy conversion efficiencies.

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Researchers have developed a new family of luminescent materials with the ability detect chemical and biological compounds, and even respond accordingly to a wide variety of extreme mechanical and thermal conditions.

The material is essentially a metallic polymer gel comprised of earth elements.

This from MIT News:

The material, a light-emitting lanthanide metallogel, can be chemically tuned to emit light in response to chemical, mechanical, or thermal stimuli — potentially providing a visible output to indicate the presence of a particular substance or condition.

Read the full article here.

The bio-inspired polymers are predicted to help engineers derive design principles applicable to other kinds of materials.

By combining a rare-earth element with polyethylene glycol, the material gains qualities that allow it to produce tunable, multicolored light emissions. These emissions have the ability to detect subtle changes in the environment and reflect them accordingly.

By applying this material to structures, researchers believe that engineers may be able to catch structural weakness and eminent failure before it happens.

[Image: MIT]

PS: Want to learn more about luminescent materials? Check out our new focus issue, Novel Applications of Luminescent Optical Materials. All of the papers are free!