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batteries

12/06/2018 / By Edsel Cook

“Solar flow battery” soaks up sunlight and stores it as energy for on-demand use

A joint effort between American and Saudi Arabian researchers produced a gadget that combines the functions of a battery and a solar cell. They reported that their “solar flow battery” can absorb sunlight, convert it into chemical energy, and hold the energy until there is need for it. The Science Daily article explained that the […]

09/18/2018 / By Isabelle Z.

Researchers have developed a hybrid energy storage device that is safe, environmentally friendly, and can charge in seconds

Being connected is a big part of modern life. Whether you like it or not, missing an important work email or a phone call from your children’s school can have serious consequences. A dead phone battery is enough to invoke severe anxiety in lots of people, and scientists have been working on solutions to meet […]

08/27/2018 / By Zoey Sky

A pinch of salt dramatically improves the performance of batteries

It turns out that salt is more than just a versatile condiment: Researchers found that salt can also be used to significantly boost the performance of batteries. The research teams from the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, Queen Mary University of London, and the University of Cambridge discovered that once salt is added to a supermolecular sponge […]

06/03/2018 / By Vicki Batts

Engineers have figured out a way to reduce plastic landfill, and you won’t believe how they’re doing it

Humans have generated an enormous amount of plastic waste over the last few decades – there is no question about that. It’s estimated that between 1950 and 2015, a staggering 8.3 billion tons of plastic was produced. And, as one might expect, a sad majority of it has ended up in landfills. The question of what […]

04/21/2018 / By Edsel Cook

Hydrogen-bromide flow batteries could soon power the renewable energy industry (but release a dangerous, toxic gas)

An energy storage concept from the Radical ’60s could solve the biggest problem of the wind energy sector. In an article published in ScienceDaily, Kansas researchers have developed a viable hydrogen-bromine flow battery that could store excess electricity during the night. Anyone who has been in the Midwest is bound to run across a wind farm sooner […]

04/19/2018 / By Edsel Cook

Praise for the proton: Latest battery breakthrough may free us from lithium ion

We may finally be on the verge of a true alternative to costly lithium-ion batteries that rely on rare earth metals. Australian researchers recently debuted the first working example of a carbon-based rechargeable proton battery, according to an article on ScienceDaily. According to the RMIT University (RMIT) research team, their proton battery works in tandem […]

04/01/2018 / By David Williams

Layered oxides may be the key to extending the life of the environmentally-friendly zinc-ion battery

The future of battery storage technology hangs in the balance. The standard lithium-ion battery technology that is widely used today, as it turns out, may not be the best solution for large-scale applications due to a number of reasons. Now a team of researchers has developed a way to create a viable alternative, in the […]

03/29/2018 / By David Williams

Researchers develop method of boosting “ultracapacitors” for extra fast charging times on all electronic devices

As the search for better energy storage solutions continues, a group of researchers from the U.K. has revealed that they may have come upon a major breakthrough that could lead to seconds-long charging times for smartphones or minutes-long charge times for future electric cars. The secret, according to the researchers, lies in boosting the performance […]

03/22/2018 / By David Williams

Old chemistry may be the secret to new batteries for storing renewable energy

Lithium ion batteries may be the current global standard when it comes to battery storage technology, but numerous alternatives are also present. Sodium-ion batteries in particular are quite promising, and now a team of researchers have just discovered a way to make them much more efficient. Compared with lithium ion batteries, sodium-ion batteries still have […]

02/22/2018 / By David Williams

MXene: A new miracle material with applications in energy storage, biology, electronics, medicine and more

MXene is a relatively new miracle material that has captured the curiosity of scientists from all over the world. Broadly speaking, it’s so new that you probably haven’t even heard of it yet. But it’s likely to become the basis for many different kinds of innovations in the near future in relation to gadgets and […]

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