Category Chemistry/Nanotechnology

This visualisation shows layers of graphene used for membranes. Credit: University of Manchester

In a battery system, electrodes containing porous graphene scaffolding offer a substantial improvement in both the retention and transport of energy, a new study reveals. Usually, techniques to improve the density of stored charge conflict with those that aim to improve the speed at which ions can move through a material. Nanostructured materials have shown extraordinary promise for electrochemical energy storage, but these materials are usually limited to laboratory cells with ultrathin electrodes and very low mass loadings.

Hongtao Sun et al. overcome this obstacle by incorporating holey graphene into a niobium pentoxide electrode. The nanopores facilitate rapid ion transport...

A carbon nanobelt, represented as a ball-and stick model and space-filing model. Carbon atoms are colored in orange and gray and hydrogen atoms are colored in white.
Credit: ITbM, Nagoya University

Synthesis of a carbon nanobelt with potential applications in nanotechnology. Chemists have tried to synthesize carbon nanobelts for more than 60 years, but none have succeeded until now. A Nagoya University team reported the first organic synthesis of a carbon nanobelt in Science. Carbon nanobelts are expected to serve as a useful template for building carbon nanotubes and open a new field of nanocarbon science.

The new nanobelt, measuring 0...

Screenshot of video (https://youtu.be/GCT0KwFw-pM) showing 3D printing of stretchable electronic sensory devices that could give robots the ability to feel their environment and is a major step forward in printing electronics on real human skin. Credit: Shuang-Zhuang Guo and Michael McAlpine, University of Minnesota

Uni of Minnesota engineering researchers have developed a revolutionary process for 3D printing stretchable electronic sensory devices that could give robots the ability to feel their environment. The discovery is also a major step forward in printing electronics on real human skin. “This stretchable electronic fabric we developed has many practical uses,” said A/Prof. Michael McAlpine...

PSI researcher Claire Villevieille, head of the Battery Materials Group, at the instrument for X-ray diffraction. Credit: Paul Scherrer Institute/Markus Fischer

PSI, Switzerland and Université Grenoble Alpes (France) researchers have developed a method that could enable a breakthrough for the lithium-sulphur battery. In theory, these batteries can deliver considerably more energy than today’s conventional lithium-ion batteries, but current prototypes show a distinct loss of capacity after just a few charging cycles. So they are not yet fit for widespread use, for instance in electric vehicles. With their new method, the researchers were able to gain crucial insights into how the rapid capacity loss occurs...