Category Chemistry/Nanotechnology

A new design for solid-state hydrogen storage could significantly reduce charging times. Researchers from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and Queensland University of Technology (QUT) have developed a new method to improve solid-state hydrogen fuel cell charging times.

Hydrogen is gaining significant attention as an efficient way to store ‘green energy’ from renewables such as wind and solar. Compressed gas is the most common form of hydrogen storage, however it can also be stored in a liquid or solid state.

Dr Saidul Islam, from the University of Technology Sydney, said solid hydrogen storage, and in particular metal hydride, is attracting interest because it is safer,...

Computers that think more like human brains are inching closer to mainstream adoption. What types of materials can serve as the best building blocks to unlock the potential of this new style of computing? For most traditional computing devices, silicon remains the gold standard. However, there is a movement to use more flexible, efficient and environmentally friendly materials for these brain-like devices.

In a new paper, researchers from The University of Texas at Austin developed synaptic transistors for brain-like computers using the thin, flexible material graphene. These transistors are similar to synapses in the brain, that connect neurons to each other.

“Computers that think like brains can do so much more than today’s devices,” said J...

Researchers have designed smart, colour-controllable whitelight devices from quantum dots – tiny semiconductors just a few billionths of a metre in size – which are more efficient and have better colour saturation than standard LEDs, and can dynamically reproduce daylight conditions in a single light.

The researchers, from the University of Cambridge, designed the next-generation smart lighting system using a combination of nanotechnology, colour science, advanced computational methods, electronics and a unique fabrication process.

The team found that by using more than the three primary lighting colours used in typical LEDs, they were able to reproduce daylight more accu...

Findings could pave the way for a cost-efficient, high-performing calcium-ion battery. Concerns regarding scarcity, high prices, and safety regarding the long-term use of lithium-ion batteries has prompted a team of researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to propose a greener, more efficient, and less expensive energy storage alternative.

In research published recently in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), corresponding author Nikhil Koratkar, the John A. Clark and Edward T. Crossan Professor of Engineering at Rensselaer, and his team, assert that calcium ions could be used as an alternative to lithium-ions in batteries because of its abundance and low cost.

“The vast majority of rechargeable battery products are based on lithium-ion technology, wh...