Nanowires of exciting materials can be made via ‘electroless deposition’ – a technique that requires no complex templates or external energy input.
Category: Energy
Going green: Making a vital chemical from nothing but water and sunlight
Hydrogen peroxide can be produced from water using green electrical energy, offering an environmentally friendly route to a vital material.
Wearable technology powered by your own body heat
Thermoelectric materials can convert heat into electricity, which gives us the possibility of charging smart devices as we wear them. The latest research is working to make these lightweight and flexible so make it cheaper and easier to power wearable electronic devices.
Polymers efficiently extract water from air in arid conditions
A new and sustainable polymer gel unlocks water capture efficiencies never seen before!
Sunlight to heat: New solid materials store and release solar energy by rotating bonds
A new class of light-absorbing solids isomerizes to store light energy as heat.
A Peek Inside a Fast-Charging Battery
Researchers can now watch what happens to particles inside a battery in real time.
Electron spin selectivity effects can be harvested in asymmetric catalysis
A deeper understanding of spintronics enables the generation of new technologies using chiral molecules.
A Cheap Fix for Diffuse Methane
Converting methane to carbon dioxide could be a key strategy in tackling climate change.
Cheap Molecule Could Lower the Cost of Batteries
A electroactive anthraquinone has been inexpensively designed with a reasonable but not record breaking stability in redox flow batteries.
Greener materials for the next generation of solid fuels
Greener materials and processes for fuels and explosives! Scientist demonstrate how to tune a class of porous materials that ignite spontaneously when mixed with acid.
What captures carbon?
What technology is currently in use to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere? What technologies lie ahead to help us catch up to our emissions?
EFFICIENT CHEMISTRY BEHIND THE OLED SCREENS
OLEDs are earth-friendly, energy-efficient, all while being ultra-thin, flexible, and lightweight. They are the future of ultra-efficient lighting. Researchers are now coming up with new techniques to fabricate such sustainable and efficient OLEDs.
Want more fertile crops this harvest? Add animal bones to your cauldron
Sustaining the world’s population requires finding creative new ways to boost food production
Reactions in Droplets: New Ways of Producing Hydrogen Gas
Developing new ways to produce clean alternative energy sources is of paramount importance. Let’s find out how researchers are using reactions within droplets to produce hydrogen gas, a clean energy source.
Downstream Effects of Adding Hydrochar Nutrients to Soil
Thermochemical degradation of plant matter can create a great plant fertilizer called hydrochar. But what effect does this hydrochar have on the soil ecosystem?
Metal-Air Scavengers Powering Tiny Robots
The smaller the robot, the harder it is to carry a fuel source around. That’s where these metal-air scavengers come in. Powered by oxidizing a metal surface, they could be a useful power source for the tiny robots of the future.
Edible microorganism: the food of the future?
A group from the University of Tübingen obtained single-cell proteins with circular resources and renewable energy.
What’s blacker than black?
There’s a new record holder for the world’s blackest material. Learn about how randomly oriented carbon nanotubes can be used to create a coating darker than anything else ever made!
Draw your own circuits with liquid metal
Electrical circuits can be drawn, erased, and redrawn with ease on this new material that uses liquid metal particles suspended in a polymer network. Check out how it’s made and its potential uses in flexible electronics!
Using Aerogel to Harness the Greenhouse Effect for Good
Switching to solar energy is one of the ways we can fight against climate change. Let’s learn how something as harmful as the greenhouse effect can be used to create better solar devices!
A new photovoltaic panel that produces clean water
A research team in Saudi Arabia developed solar panels that clean the sea water whilst producing electricity.
Enabling Solar Panel Windows
Solar panel windows could revolutionize urban architecture by turning buildings into energy producing structures. Read about how scientists are trying to enable solar windows by exploring new chemistry.
Breaking the all-perovskite tandem solar cell efficiency ceiling
Boosting the performance of new solar panel technologies is a goal researchers around the world seek to enable clean energy. Read how a team of 25 researchers achieve this with new materials!