Category Chemistry/Nanotechnology

Structure of ?-CuSCN and cross-sectional SEM micrograph of a complete solar cell. Credit: M. Ibrahim Dar/EPFL

Operational stability of perovskite solar cells has been achieved by cuprous thiocyanate protected by a thin layer of reduced graphene oxide. Devices lost less than 5% performance when subjected to a crucial accelerated aging test during which they were exposed for more than 1,000 hours to full sunlight at 60°C. Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) can offer high light-conversion efficiency with low manufacturing costs. But to be commercially viable, perovskite films must also be durable and not degrade under solar light over time...

Literal flexibility may bring the power of a new transistor developed at UW–Madison to digital devices that bend and move. PHOTO COURTESY OF JUNG-HUN SEO, UNIVERSITY AT BUFFALO, STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK

A team of UW-M engineers has created the most functional flexible transistor in the world – and with it, a fast, simple and inexpensive fabrication process that’s easily scalable to the commercial level. It’s an advance that could open the door to an increasingly interconnected world, enabling manufacturers to add “smart,” wireless capabilities to any number of large or small products or objects – like wearable sensors and computers for people and animals – that curve, bend, stretch and move.

Transistors are ubiquitous building blocks of modern electronics...

Many active galactic nuclei are surrounded by large, dark, donut-shaped clouds of gas and dust, as seen in this artist’s rendering. A popular theory known as the ‘unified theory’ suggests that differences in the brightness of active galactic nuclei, as seen from here on Earth, are due to the placement of this donut of obscuring dust relative to our angle of observation. However, new research suggests that two of the most common types of active galactic nuclei do, in fact, exhibit fundamental physical differences in the way they consume matter and spit out energy. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

New research suggests that the central black holes in Type I and Type II active galaxies consume matter at different rates, upending popular theory...

Partial breaking of the Coulombic ordering of ionic liquids confined in carbon nanopores. Nature Materials, 2017; DOI: 10.1038/nmat4974

Scientists have taken a big step towards creating the next generation of batteries, as well as more effective water treatment and better alternative energy after defying one of nature’s most fundamental rules on an atomic scale. The international team has found a way to avoid the established principle that particles of the same charge repel each other – and opposite charges attract.

Charged atoms or molecules (ions) normally take on what is called Coulombic ordering where they sequence themselves in positive and negative succession along a straight line...