Category Chemistry/Nanotechnology

A slice of (white) lithium garnet electrolyte coated with a (black) lithium compound acting as the battery’s minus pole in the laboratory of the ETH researchers. Credit: ETH Zurich / Fabio Bergamin

A new lithium-ion battery made entirely of solid material has been developed by scientists. It has neither liquids nor gels. The battery is non-flammable, even at very high temperatures, giving it a safety advantage over conventional batteries. Mobile phones, laptops, e-bikes and electric cars are all powered by such batteries.

Conventional lithium-ion batteries are not without their dangers: mobile phone batteries have exploded several times in the past, resulting in injuries, and only 6 months ago an entire row of houses burned down in the old town of Steckborn on Lake Constance...

Scientists have proposed a graphene-based sensor that can ‘sniff out’ a single molecule of explosives. Credit: Graphene-based sensor

A graphene-based spaser can detect even small amounts of various substances, including explosives, toxic chemicals, and other organic compounds based on a single molecule. Scientists have long been fascinated by the potential applications of a quasiparticle called the plasmon, a quantum of plasma oscillations. In the case of a solid body, plasmons are the oscillations of free electrons.

Of special interest are the effects from the surface interactions of electromagnetic waves with plasmons – usually in the context of metals or semimetals, as they have a higher free electron density...

Artistic rendition of a metallic carbon nanotube being pulled into solution, in analogy to the work described by the Adronov group.

Imagine an electronic newspaper that you could roll up and spill your coffee on, even as it updated itself before your eyes. It’s an example of the technological revolution that has been waiting to happen. Researchers at McMaster University have developed a new way to purify carbon nanotubes – smaller, flexible semiconductors expected to replace silicon within computer chips and a wide array of electronics. “Once we have a reliable source of pure nanotubes that are not very expensive, a lot can happen very quickly,” says Prof Adronov.

A major problem standing in the way of the new technology, however, has been untangling metallic and semiconducting carbon nano...

This nanostructured device, about half the size of a postage stamp, uses sunlight to quickly disinfect water. It consists of thin flakes of molybdenum disulfide arranged like walls on a glass surface and topped with a thin layer of copper. Light falling on the walls triggers formation of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and other “reactive oxygen species” that kill bacteria. Credit: C. Liu et al., Nature Nanotechnology

In many parts of the world, the only way to make germy water safe is by boiling, which consumes precious fuel, or by putting it out in the sun in a plastic bottle so ultraviolet rays will kill the microbes. But because UV rays carry only 4% of the sun’s total energy, the UV method takes 6 to 48 hours, limiting the amount of water people can disinfect this way.

Now researchers at the...