Can the stuff that protects your teeth find happiness storing electrical energy? Researchers are brushing up on their chemistry to produce a fluoride battery – almost the total opposite of a lithium battery. Three years ago, The Journal of Fluorine Chemistry quibbled, “Only a handful of publications exist on the topic of fluoride ion batteries (FIBs). These are electrochemical cells in which a negative anion—fluoride—enables charge transport. In this review, we will report, for the first time, an extensive theoretical screening of FIBs as well as an analysis of the safety and toxicity of electrochemical couples of such batteries.” It continued with an exploration of high-temperature (150° C, or 302° F) and room-temperature examples of fluoride cells and ended with comparisons of seven different cathode and nine different anode materials “to further illustrate the potential and issues of such battery systems.” Now, Honda, researchers from the California Institute of Technology (CalTech), NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a scientist now at …
Angela Belcher Continues Making Batteries with Viruses
Three years ago, in one of our earliest entries, this blog reported on the blending of biology and chemistry in a bionic battery created by Massachusetts Institute of Technology researcher Angela Belcher. She was honored with a press briefing with President Obama, MIT President Susan Hockfield and her prototype battery, and used the occasion to encourage federal funding for such ventures. In a later visit to her laboratory, the President accepted a business card with the periodic table, saying he would consult it periodically. She has turned her bionic battery research to improving the chances for lithium-air batteries to reach that magic 500-mile figure ( or at least 550 kilometers or 341 miles), and has explained her approach and progress in a Nature Communications paper and in the video below. Since Dr. Belcher has been using a biological approach in her research for the last decade, it was natural for her to use genetically-modified, non-toxic viruses to grow” spiky surfaces” …
Plasmonics – Not a New Rock Group
A good deal of what we see in life is counter-intuitive – things like pushing forward on the control stick when the airplane stalls and is headed downhill already. Plasmonic metamaterials as designed by University of Pennsylvania scientists have counter-intuitive properties, such as breaking light that strikes them into surface plasmon polaritons with shorter wavelengths than the original incident light. This quantum-like reaction occurs when, “Light hitting a metamaterial is transformed into electromagnetic waves of a different variety—surface plasmon polaritons, which are shorter in wavelength than the incident light. This transformation leads to unusual and counterintuitive properties that might be harnessed for practical use. Moreover, new approaches that simplify the fabrication process of metamaterials are under development. This work also includes making new structures specifically designed to enable measurements of the materials’ novel properties. Furthermore, nanotechnology applications of these nanostructures are currently being researched, including microscopy beyond the diffraction limit.” Scattering,rather than gathering light rays, seems counter-intuitive, but the scattering …
The Layered Look in Batteries
Gurpreet Singh, assistant professor of mechanical and nuclear engineering, and his research team at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas, are working out less expensive, more efficient ways to create nanomaterials and lithium-ion batteries. “We are exploring new methods for quick and cost-effective synthesis of two-dimensional materials for rechargeable battery applications,” Singh said. “We are interested in this research because understanding lithium interaction with single-, double- and multiple-layer-thick materials will eventually allow us to design battery electrodes for practical applications. This includes batteries that show improved capacity, efficiency and longer life.” Researchers grew graphene films on copper and nickel foils in less than 30 minutes by quickly heating them in a furnace in the presence of argon, hydrogen and methane gases – significantly at atmospheric pressure. Not needing to use a vacuum to create these films saves energy, time and cost, according to Singh. Researchers used the films to create the negative electrode of a lithium-ion cell and test the …
Princeton Solar Cell is “Black Hole for Light”
A great deal of the light that falls on solar cell panels does little to generate electricity, with a high percentage bouncing off pointlessly. Princeton researchers have confronted this issue with a layered assembly, otherwise known as a subwavelength plasmonic cavity. Developed by Princeton University researcher Stephen Chou and a team of scientists, the cavity dampens reflections and traps light. According to Princeton’s announcement, “The new technique allowed Chou’s team to create a solar cell that only reflects about 4 percent of light and absorbs as much as 96 percent. It demonstrates 52 percent higher efficiency in converting [direct] light to electrical energy than a conventional solar cell.” Overall, the team was able to increase solar cell efficiency a total of 175 percent with their nanostructured sandwich by capturing not only direct sunlight, but angled rays and diffuse light that occurs on cloudy days. MIT researchers recently reported attempts to gather varying wavelengths of light to effect the same type of …
Giving Power Walking a Whole New Meaning
Georgia Institute of Technology researchers have developed a self-charging power cell that uses a piezoelectric membrane to convert mechanical energy to chemical energy, then stores that energy until it can be released as en electrical current. Combining the power generator with the energy storage device, this hybrid is claimed to be more efficient than systems with separate generators and batteries. When the piezoelectric membrane is flexed, it moves lithium ions in the power cell from one side of the cell to the other. Membranes in shoe heels and soles could produce power when a person walked, powering small electronic devices such as calculators or cell phones. Zhong Lin Wang, a Regents professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering Georgia Tech, explains the distinguishing feature of his team’s innovation. “People are accustomed to considering electrical generation and storage as two separate operations done in two separate units. We have put them together in a single hybrid unit to create a …