Toggle light / dark theme

New liquid can simplify hydrogen transportation and storage

Researchers at EPFL and Kyoto University have created a stable hydrogen-rich liquid formed by mixing two simple chemicals. This breakthrough could make hydrogen storage easier, safer, and more efficient at room temperature.

Hydrogen can be the clean fuel of the future, but getting it from the lab to everyday life isn’t simple. Most hydrogen-rich materials are solids at , or they only become liquids under like high pressure or freezing temperatures.

Even materials such as , a solid, hydrogen-rich compound that can store a lot of hydrogen, are difficult because they release hydrogen only when heated, often producing unwanted byproducts.

2D materials design: Material strength and toughness simultaneously achieved through layer twisting

The mechanical strength and toughness of engineering materials are often mutually exclusive, posing challenges for material design and selection. To address this, a research team from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) has uncovered an innovative strategy: by simply twisting the layers of 2D materials, they can enhance toughness without compromising material’s strength.

This breakthrough facilitates the design of strong and tough new 2D materials, promoting their broader applications in photonic and . The findings have been published in Nature Materials.

While 2D materials often exhibit exceptional strength, they are extremely brittle. Fractures in materials are also typically irreversible. These attributes limit the use of 2D materials in devices that require repeated deformation, such as high-power devices, flexible electronics and wearables.

“It’s Like Armoring Your Home”: Breakthrough Coating Transforms Ordinary Windows Into Powerful Energy-Saving Shield for Every Household

IN A NUTSHELL 🌟 Rice University researchers developed a groundbreaking glass coating that reflects heat and reduces energy costs. 🔬 The coating is made from a tough layer of boron nitride and carbon, offering resistance to UV light and temperature swings. 💡 This innovation uses pulsed laser deposition at room temperature, making it cost-effective and.

Giga Nevada EXPLODES With Semi Progress

Tesla’s Giga Nevada factory is making significant progress in the production of its Semi trucks and batteries, and is expected to play a major role in the company’s future growth and dominance in the electric vehicle market ## ## Questions to inspire discussion.

Semi-Truck Production.

🚛 Q: What progress is Tesla making on semi-truck trailers at Giga Nevada? A: Tesla is using double drop trailers to haul oversized loads of large machinery, which is a critical step in the factory’s development for semi-truck production.

🔋 Q: How does the LFP battery production at Giga Nevada relate to semi-truck goals? A: The LFP factory is designed to produce 10 gigawatts of stationary batteries annually, which is insufficient for Tesla’s goal of producing 50,000 semi-trucks.

Battery Production.

⚡ Q: What is the current status of battery production at Giga Nevada? A: Battery production is almost ready to begin, with the LFP factory set up to manufacture stationary batteries.

Heterometallic nanosheets containing multiple metal ions achievable through new technique

Coordination nanosheets are a unique class of two-dimensional (2D) materials that are formed by coordination bonds between planar organic ligands and metal ions. These 2D nanomaterials are increasingly utilized in energy storage, electronic devices, and as electrode-based catalysts due to their excellent electronic, optical, redox properties, and catalytic activity.

Over the last decade, coordination nanosheets composed of various transition , such as nickel (Ni) ions linked to benzenehexathiol (BHT)—an organic compound—have been successfully synthesized in laboratories. However, their production has relied on a two-phase interfacial reaction that occurs between two immiscible phases of matter.

Furthermore, the selective synthesis of well-organized heterometallic nanosheets, containing two or more metal ions, has proven to be difficult. To address these two major issues limiting the production of novel coordination nanosheets, a team of researchers led by Professor Hiroshi Nishihara, from the Research Institute for Science and Technology (RIST), Tokyo University of Science (TUS), Japan, has conducted a series of innovative experiments.

From 0 to 100 in 12 minutes—roadmap for lithium–sulfur batteries

Grab a coffee and your car is fully charged—this is how many people envision the future of mobility. But today’s batteries still fall short of this ideal. While modern lithium–ion batteries can charge from 20% to 80% in about 20 to 30 minutes, a full charge takes considerably longer—and fast charging puts significant stress on the cells.

A new international review study published in the journal Advanced Energy Materials now shows how lithium– batteries (LSBs) could overcome these limitations.

Researchers from Germany, India, and Taiwan—coordinated by Dr. Mozaffar Abdollahifar from the research group of Professor Rainer Adelung at Kiel University (CAU)—systematically analyzed hundreds of recent studies and identified mechanisms that can enable LSBs to operate stably and efficiently even at high charging rates. Their goal: charging times under 30 minutes—ideally as low as 12 minutes—combined with higher energy density and extended driving range.

Rewriting a scientific law to unlock the potential of energy, sensing and more

A research team from Penn State has broken a 165-year-old law of thermal radiation with unprecedented strength, setting the stage for more efficient energy harvesting, heat transfer and infrared sensing. Their results, currently available online, are slated to be published in Physical Review Letters on June 23.

Nanosheet material stores heat below 100°C using dual water adsorption modes

Efficiently capturing and storing excess heat, particularly below 200°C, is paramount to achieving a carbon-neutral society. Every year, factories and homes produce excess heat, much of which gets wasted. Likewise, as the world gets more reliant on renewable energy sources, the need to capture and store heat grows.

A collaboration between Tohoku University and the Japan Atomic Energy Agency has made significant strides in this regard, developing nanosheets of layered manganese dioxide (MnO2) that can store heat even below 100°C.

Details of the study were published in the journal Communications Chemistry.

Quantum battery model achieves theoretical speed limit, demonstrates genuine advantage

Over the past few years, researchers have developed various quantum technologies, alternatives to classical devices that operate by leveraging the principles of quantum mechanics. These technologies have the potential to outperform their classical counterparts in specific settings or scenarios.

Among the many quantum technologies proposed and devised so far are quantum batteries, energy storage devices that could theoretically store energy more efficiently than classical batteries, while also charging more rapidly. Despite their predicted potential, most quantum battery solutions proposed to date have not yet proven to exhibit a genuine quantum advantage, or in other words, to perform better than their classical counterparts.

Researchers at PSL Research University and the University of Pisa recently introduced a new deceptively simple quantum battery model that could exhibit a genuine quantum advantage over a classical analog battery. The new model, outlined in a paper published in Physical Review Letters, was found to successfully reach the so-called quantum speed limit, the that a quantum system could theoretically achieve.