Category Chemistry/Nanotechnology

New sodium-sulfur battery may offer safer, cheaper alternative to lithium

New sodium-sulfur battery may offer a more sustainable, low-cost and safer alternative to lithium batteries
Flammability test of the conventional organic electrolyte comprising 1 M NaClO4 in the mixture of ethylene carbonate (EC) and propylene carbonate (PC) with 5 wt% fluoroethylene carbonate (FEC) and our NaDCA electrolyte. Scale bars, 3 cm. Credit: Nature (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09867-2

Due to our ever-increasing reliance on electronics, researchers are always on the lookout for battery materials with more desirable qualities. Common battery materials, like lithium, can be prone to disadvantages like overheating and material sourcing issues, leading to safety risks and higher costs.

Now, researchers from China have revealed a new battery design that may offer a better alternative to lithium...

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On-demand hydrogen fuel production goes dark-mode

On-demand hydrogen fuel production goes dark-mode
Surface morphologies (a1,b1), representing surface potential images in the absence (a2,b2) and presence (a3,b3) of light; ∆CPD profiles before and after irradiation (a4,b4) for g-C3N4, and the mixture of g-C3N4/W12, respectively. c) EPR spectra of g-C3N4 in a mixed solution of water and methanol. d) EPR spectra of g-C3N4/W12 in a mixed solution of water and methanol. e) Mechanism of dark photocatalytic hydrogen evolution over g-C3N4/W12. Credit: Advanced Materials (2025). DOI: 10.1002/adma.202519875

Hydrogen, the lightest element on the periodic table, is a master of escaping almost any container it’s stored in...

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Anode-free battery can double electric vehicle driving range

Could an electric vehicle travel from Seoul to Busan and back on a single charge? Could drivers stop worrying about battery performance even in winter? A Korean research team has taken a major step toward answering these questions by developing an anode-free lithium metal battery that can deliver nearly double driving range using the sa±me battery volume.

Breakthrough in battery energy density
A joint research team led by Professor Soojin Park and Dr. Dong-Yeob Han of the Department of Chemistry at POSTECH, together with Professor Nam-Soon Choi and Dr. Saehun Kim of KAIST, and Professor Tae Kyung Lee and researcher Junsu Son of Gyeongsang National University, has successfully achieved a volumetric energy density of 1,270 Wh/L in an anode-free lithium metal battery...

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Turning plastic waste into valuable chemicals with single-atom catalysts

The rapid accumulation of plastic waste is currently posing significant risks for both human health and the environment on Earth. A possible solution to this problem would be to recycle plastic waste, breaking it into smaller molecules that can be used to produce valuable chemicals.

Researchers at Nanjing Forestry University and Tsinghua University recently introduced a new approach to convert polystyrene (PS), a plastic widely used to pack some foods and other products, into toluene, a hydrocarbon that is of value in industrial and manufacturing settings. Their proposed strategy, outlined in a paper published in Nature Nanotechnology, entails heating polystyrene waste in hydrogen and breaking it down into smaller vapor molecules, a process known as hydro-pyrolysis.

Life-cycle a...

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