Category Chemistry/Nanotechnology

Scientists at ETH Zurich have built a plant that can produce carbon-neutral liquid fuels from sunlight and air. The next goal will be to take this technology to industrial scale and achieve competitiveness. In a paper published in the journal Nature, researchers from Zurich and Potsdam describe how this novel solar reactor functions and outline a policy framework that would provide incentives to expand the production of “solar kerosene.”

Carbon-neutral fuels are crucial for making aviation and maritime transport sustainable...

A team of materials scientists and chemists has determined the proper stack pressure that lithium metal batteries, or LMBs, need to be subjected to during battery operation in order to produce optimal performance.

The team, which includes researchers from the University of California San Diego, Michigan State University, Idaho National Laboratory and the General Motors Research and Development Center, presents their findings in the...

Self-healing phenomenon could reduce defects that rendered quasicrystals impractical. A class of materials that once looked as if it might revolutionize everything from solar cells to frying pans — but fell out of favor in the early 2000s — could be poised for commercial resurrection, findings from a University of Michigan-led research team suggest.

Published in Nature Communications, the study demonstrates a way to make much larger quasicrystals than were possible before, without the defects that plagued past manufacturers and led quasicrystals to be dismissed as an intellectual curiosity.

“One reason why ...

The key is the ‘bifunctionality index’
A team has developed a catalyst that can be used to both generate fuel and provide power. A single device that both generates fuel and oxidant from water and, when a switch is flipped, converts the fuel and oxygen into electricity and water, has a host of benefits for terrestrial, space and military applications...