A Consortium led by the Chemical and Allied Industries:
Creating Innovation Alliances for Business Growth

Submission deadline for presentations is June 5, 2015!

The Electrochemical Society is a partner on a grant awarded to the Ohio University Center for Electrochemical Research (CEER) from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to facilitate the development of an Advanced Technology Roadmap focused on Electrochemical Pathways for Sustainable Manufacturing (EPSuM) with industrial company leadership. The goal of the roadmap is to establish an industry consortium to support, sustain, and enhance U.S. manufacturing capacity in the nation’s chemical industry and allied sectors through innovative electrochemical processes. Under the NIST Advanced Manufacturing Technology Consortia (AMTech) Program, the award will specifically support a roadmapping activity that could lead to funding to implement identified solutions.

We are working with Professor Gerri Botte, Center Director and Lisa Rooney, Industry Liaison at CEER to encourage participation in the roadmap process. Attached is a Call for Presenters for an Innovation Workshop in July. Due to the timelines for developing the roadmap, there is a short window to submit your application. Therefore, we have prepared a streamlined application that you can find here.

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Join the ECS Montreal Student Chapter for the 5th ECS Montreal Student Symposium.

This is an annual meeting for electrochemistry and materials science students in Montreal, Canada.

Abstract submission is now open until May 27, 2015. Submissions may be emailed here.

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Proton OnSite, the world leader in commercializing proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysis, will be awarded the 2015 Industrial Electrochemistry & Electrochemical Engineering Division New Electrochemical Technology (NET) Award at the 227th ECS Meeting in Chicago.

The NET award was established in 1998 to recognize significant advances in industrial electrochemistry. The year’s award will be presented to Proton OnSite for the development of their C Series Hydrogen Generator. This new system has high strategic importance in that it continues to validate the technological advantage of PEM-based electrolysis at a scale similar to alkaline liquid based systems, without the disadvantages of the caustic electrolyte and high-pressure oxygen generation.

The new system has promising potential for the next generation of fueling stations for fuel cell bus demonstrations and for the refueling of small fleets of cars or forklift trucks.

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The newly developed black silicon has the potential to simplify the manufacturing of solar cells due to the ability of the material to more efficiently collect light.
Image: Barron Group

One of the roadblocks in developing a new, clean energy infrastructure lies in our ability to manufacture solar cells with ease and efficiency. Now, researchers from Rice University may have developed a way to simplify this process.

In Andrew Barron’s Rice University lab, he and postdoctoral student Yen-Tien Lu are developing black silicon by employing electrodes as catalysts.

The typical solar cell is made from silicon. By swapping that regular silicon for black silicon, solar cells gain a highly textured surface of nanoscale spikes that allows for a more efficient collection of light.

This from Rice University:

Barron said the metal layer used as a top electrode is usually applied last in solar cell manufacturing. The new method known as contact-assisted chemical etching applies the set of thin gold lines that serve as the electrode earlier in the process, which also eliminates the need to remove used catalyst particles.

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The high-performance 3D microbattery is suitable for large-scale on-chip integration.
Image: Engineering at Illinois

Engineers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s College of Engineering have developed a high-performance 3D microbattery applicable for large-scale on-chip integration with microelectronic devices.

“This 3D microbattery has exceptional performance and scalability, and we think it will be of importance for many applications,” said Paul Braun, professor of materials science and engineering at Illinois.

“Micro-scale devices typically utilize power supplied off-chip because of difficulties in miniaturizing energy storage technologies. A miniaturized high-energy and high-power on-chip battery would be highly desirable for applications including autonomous microscale actuators, distributed wireless sensors and transmitters, monitors, and portable and implantable medical devices.”

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New research shows that we’re one step closer to being able to replicate the human brain outside of the body, which could lead to life-altering research into common conditions such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

Project leader and ECS published author Sharath Sriram and his group have successfully engineered an electronic long-term memory cell, which mimics the way the human brain processes information.

“This is the closest we have come to creating a brain-like system with memory that learns and stores analog information and is quick at retrieving this stored information,” Sharath said.

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Here at ECS, we strive to encourage research, discussion, critical assessment, and dissemination of scientific knowledge. What better way to do that in the digital age than with social networks?

Twitter has been one channel that scientists have adopted in the pursuit of disseminating information and advancing the science though education. Accordingly, we’ve compiled a short list of some of the best scientists to follow on Twitter.

Donald Sadoway, @dsadoway
Professor of Material Chemistry at MIT
ECS member Donald Sadoway is a battery expert and renewable energy guru. Check him out on Twitter to learn about the latest developments in battery technology and current issues in energy and climate.

#Energy#Storage still far too costly and without it, intermittent #renewables are paralyzed. Time for innovation.

— Donald R. Sadoway (@dsadoway) May 11, 2015

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We recently sat down with the University of Iowa’s Johna Leddy, an established researcher in electrochemical power sources and a highly respected mentor to the students of the Leddy Lab. Listen as we talk about the energy infrastructure, Dr. Leddy’s career in academia, how to make the world a better place, and more!

Listen below and download this episode and others for free through the iTunes Store, SoundCloud, or our RSS Feed.

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Nanoporous gold features high effective surface area, tunable pore size, and high electrical conductivity and compatibility with traditional fabrication techniques.
Image: Ryan Chen/LLNL

Researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the University of California, Davis have recently published a paper showing that covering an implantable neural electrode with nanoporus gold could potentially eliminate the risk of scar tissue forming over the electrode’s surface.

Two former ECS member, Erkin Seker and Juergen Biener, were among the researchers involved with this development.

This from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory:

The team demonstrated that the nanostructure of nanoporous gold achieves close physical coupling of neurons by maintaining a high neuron-to-astrocyte surface coverage ratio. Close physical coupling between neurons and the electrode plays a crucial role in recording fidelity of neural electrical activity.

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Researchers were able to deform the molybdenum disulfide without breaking it.
Image: Nano Letters

Many labs have had their eye on molybdenum disulfide recently due to its promising semiconducting properties. Rice University has also turned its attention toward this 2D material and its interesting sandwich structure. During their studies, the researchers have concluded that under certain conditions, molybdenum disulfide can transform from the consistency of peanut brittle to that of taffy.

According to their research, the scientists state that when exposed to sulfur-infused gas at the right temperature and pressure, molybdenum disulfide takes on the qualities of plastic. This development has the potential to have a high impact in the world of materials science.

The structure of the molybdenum disulfide is similar to a sandwich, with layers of sulfur above and below the molybdenum atoms. When the two sheets join at different angles “defective” arrangements—or dislocations—are formed.

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