Category: 05 Energy

Battery technology may not seem like a very glamorous sector of science but is critical to developments in a hundred areas from mobile phones to cars and buses. Here is some interesting new research.

‘Revolutionary’ Advanced Battery Leaps Theoretical Maximum Boundary
TINA CASEY – Clean Technica/The Raw Story

Just when you thought you knew everything about the theoretical maximum capacity of batteries, along comes the Oak Ridge National Laboratory to throw you for a loop. A team of researchers at ORNL has developed a pathway for ‘unprecedented energy density” in a battery that has already demonstrated a 26 percent increase over its theoretical maximum.

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However, according to ORNL the discovery could stretch single use battery life by ‘years or even decades.” That has significant implications for medical devices, remote sensors and keyless systems, and other applications where recharging is not an ideal solution.

Unethical, energy policies are. Repressed, possibilities are.

Ultracapacitors Made of Carbon Nanotubes and Graphene are High-Functioning, yet Cheap

Using two one-atom-thick materials, scientists have created a high-functioning yet cheap ultracapacitor. The creation of the ultracapacitor was made possible after mixing graphene flakes with single-walled carbon nanotubes. This groundbreaking device is actually an energy storage device well capable of creating surges by rapidly releasing the power.

The ultracapacitors can play a significant role in boosting devices like electric vehicles, handled electronics, audio systems and more. What all is needed to be done for this is to combine the power of the energy-density of batteries and the high power-density of capacitors, an American Institute of Physics news release reported.

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Continue reading “Yoda: Super-Capacitors to Store and Release Energy”

A new way of capturing and storing energy from sunlight. Photoswitches are not ready for prime time yet, but the principle has been demonstrated.

Scientists Discover How to Generate Solar Power in the Dark

Meet ‘photoswitches,' a breakthrough set of materials that act as their own batteries, absorbing energy and releasing it on demand.

The next big thing in solar energy could be microscopic.

Scientists at MIT and Harvard University have devised a way to store solar energy in molecules that can then be tapped to heat homes, water or used for cooking.

The best part: The molecules can store the heat forever and be endlessly re-used while emitting absolutely no greenhouse gases.  Scientists remain a way’s off in building this perpetual heat machine but they have succeeded in the laboratory at demonstrating the viability of the phenomenon called photoswitching.

“Some molecules, known as photoswitches, can assume either of two different shapes, as if they had a hinge in the middle,” MIT researchers said in statement about the paper published in the journal Nature Chemistry. “Exposing them to sunlight causes them to absorb energy and jump from one configuration to the other, which is then stable for long periods of time.”

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Sepp Hasslberger @ Phi Beta Iota