Category Chemistry/Nanotechnology

This scanning electron microscope image shows bee pollen studied for potential use as electrodes for lithium-ion batteries. Color was added to the original black-and-white image. Credit: Purdue University image/ Jialiang Tang

Pollen could represent a boon for battery makers: Recent research has suggested their potential use as anodes in Li-ion batteries. “Our findings have demonstrated that renewable pollens could produce carbon architectures for anode applications in energy storage devices,” said A/Prof Vilas Pol. The anodes in most of today’s lithium-ion batteries are made of graphite. Lithium ions are contained in electrolyte, and these ions are stored in the anode during recharging.

The researchers tested bee pollen- and cattail pollen-derived carbons as anodes...

Researchers have calculated the dust chemistry of the solar nebula (thin dusty ring around young sun) Image credit: NASA/FUSE/Lynette Cook

Using sophisticated computer simulations, team has discovered new insights into the chemical composition of the dust grains that formed in the solar system 4.5 billion years ago. Researchers from Swinburne Uni of Technology, Melbourne and the Uni of Lyon, France, calculated a 2D map of the dust chemistry in the solar nebula, the thin dusty disk that surrounded the young sun and out of which the planet formed.

It is expected that refractories (high temperature materials) should be located close to the young sun, while volatile materials (such as ices and sulphur compounds) should form far from the sun where temperatures are cooler...

The researchers from the Faculty of Physics of the Moscow State University have grown organic crystals that allow creating flexible electronic devices. Credit: Dmitry Yu. Paraschuk et al.

Scientists from Faculty of Physics Moscow State University have grown organic semiconductor crystals which can reduce the cost of the process of creating light, flexible and transparent light-emitting electronic devices of the new generation. It has high light-emitting efficiency that promise a bright future for wet-processed organic optoelectronics. They also made a double breakthrough using much simpler and cheaper technologies that previously were considered impractical.

The organic optoelectronics is a rapidly growing area including organic light-emitting transistors (OLET) and organic lasers pumped b...

The new nanoscale manufacturing process draws zinc to the surface of a liquid, where it forms sheets just a few atoms thick. Credit: Xudong Wang

After 6 yrs of painstaking effort, Uni of Wisconsin-Madison materials scientists believe the tiny sheets of the semiconductor zinc oxide they’re growing could have huge implications for the future of a host of electronic and biomedical devices. Xudong Wang et al have developed a technique for creating nearly 2D sheets of compounds that do not naturally form such thin materials. Nanomaterials have unique electronic and chemical properties compared to identically composed materials at larger, conventional scales. Until now, they were limited to working with naturally occurring 2-D nanosheets eg graphene...