Category Chemistry/Nanotechnology

Researchers at MIT say they have created a new material that will pave the way to faster charging batteries.

Increasing demand for improved electrochemical energy storage devices—that is, batteries—stems from a broad spectrum of technology. That includes electric vehicles, municipal power backup systems that require uninterrupted power during temporary outages, and various other applications in the agricultural, biomedical and defense sectors.

More efficient batteries will contribute to increasing demands for a greener, sustainable future.

But state-of-the-art battery technology suffer from a few drawbacks. One is the length of time required to recharge batteries...

Researchers have developed a new thermoelectric generator (TEG) that can continuously generate electricity using heat from the sun and a radiative element that releases heat into the air. Because it works during the day or night and in cloudy conditions, the new self-powered TEG could provide a reliable power source for small electronic devices such as outdoor sensors.

“Traditional power sources like batteries are limited in capacity and require regular replacement or rechargin...

Researchers report record-high magnetoresistance that appears in graphene under ambient conditions. In a paper published in Nature this week (13 Apr 2023), researchers from The University of Manchester report record-high magnetoresistance that appears in graphene under ambient conditions.

Materials that strongly change their resistivity under magnetic fields are highly sought for various applications and, for example, every car and every computer contain many tiny magnetic sensors. Such materials are rare, and most metals and semiconductors change their electrical resistivity only by a tiny fraction of a percent at room temperature and in practically viable magnetic fields (typically, by less than a millionth of 1 %)...

An international group of researchers has created a mixed magnon state in an organic hybrid perovskite material by utilizing the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya-Interaction (DMI). The resulting material has potential for processing and storing quantum computing information. The work also expands the number of potential materials that can be used to create hybrid magnonic systems.

In magnetic materials, quasi-particles called magnons direct the electron spin within the material. There are two types of magnons — optical and acoustic — which refer to the direction of their spin.

“Both optical and acoustic magnons propagate spin waves in antiferromagnets,” says Dali Sun, associate professor of physics and member of the Organic and Car...