Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have furthered understanding of a barrier that can prevent doughnut-shaped fusion facilities known as tokamaks from operating at high efficiency by causing vital heat to be lost from them. Led by PPPL physicist Roscoe White, the research team used computers to simulate a type of … [Read more...] about While birds chirp, plasma shouldn't: New insight could advance fusion energy
Scientists boost stability and efficiency of next-gen solar tech
Researchers from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) have created next-generation solar modules with high efficiency and good stability. Made using a type of material called perovskites, these solar modules can maintain a high performance for over 2000 hours. Their findings, reported 20th July 2020 in leading journal, Nature Energy, have … [Read more...] about Scientists boost stability and efficiency of next-gen solar tech
Battery breakthrough gives boost to electric flight and long-range electric cars
In the pursuit of a rechargeable battery that can power electric vehicles (EVs) for hundreds of miles on a single charge, scientists have endeavored to replace the graphite anodes currently used in EV batteries with lithium metal anodes. But while lithium metal extends an EV's driving range by 30-50%, it also shortens the battery's useful life due to lithium dendrites, tiny … [Read more...] about Battery breakthrough gives boost to electric flight and long-range electric cars
Researchers create a roadmap to better multivalent batteries
Lithium-ion batteries are recognized for their high energy density in everything from mobile phones to laptop computers and electric vehicles, but as the need for grid-scale energy storage and other applications becomes more pressing, researchers have sought less expensive and more readily available alternatives to lithium. Batteries using more abundant multivalent metals could … [Read more...] about Researchers create a roadmap to better multivalent batteries
The secret to renewable solar fuels is an off-and-on again relationship
They say it's better to have had something special and lost it than to have never had it at all. Who would have thought that sentiment holds true for metal oxide catalysts? According to scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and Caltech, copper that was once bound with oxygen is better at converting carbon dioxide into renewable fuels than copper … [Read more...] about The secret to renewable solar fuels is an off-and-on again relationship