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An artificial photosynthesis system that combines semiconducting nanoparticles with a non-photosynthetic bacterium could offer a promising new route for producing sustainable solar-driven hydrogen fuel.

Other artificial photosynthesis systems that integrate nanomaterials into living microbes have been developed before, which reduce carbon dioxide or produce hydrogen, for example. However, usually it is the microorganism itself that makes the product via a metabolic pathway, which is aided by a light-activated nanomaterial that supplies necessary electrons.

Now, the labs of Kara Bren and Todd Krauss at the University of Rochester, US, have turned this concept on its head. They have designed a new hybrid bio-nano system that combines a finely-tuned photocatalytic semiconducting nanoparticles to make hydrogen with a bacterium which, while it does not photosynthesise or make hydrogen itself, it provides the necessary electrons to the nanomaterial to synthesise hydrogen.

All-perovskite tandem solar cells, stacks of p-n junctions formed from perovskites with different energy bandgaps, have the potential of achieving higher efficiencies than conventional single-junction solar cells. So far, however, most proposed all-perovskite tandem cells have not achieved the desired power conversion efficiencies (PCEs), often due to difficulties associated with creating suitable narrow-and wide-bandgap subcells.

Researchers at Nanjing University and University of Toronto recently developed new inorganic wide-bandgap perovskite subcells that could increase the PCEs and stability of these promising solar cells. Their design, introduced in a paper in Nature Energy, involves the insertion of a passivating dipole layer at the interface between organic transport layers and inorganic perovskites within the cells.

“Our research group has been focusing on improving the PCEs of all-perovskite tandem solar cells, which have broken the world record several times and have been included in the ‘solar cell efficiency tables,’” Hairen Tan, one of the researchers who carried out the study, told Tech Xplore.

In a recent presentation, Tesla said that it was working to eliminate rare Earth magnets from its EVs over supply and toxicity concerns.

In a major move, Tesla is looking to rid its electric vehicles of rare Earth minerals, potentially eliminating the biggest environmental concern over the increasing number of EVs on the road.

The surprise announcement came during Tesla’s Master Plan 3 Investor event where the company outlined its business strategy for the next few years.

Continue reading “Elon Musk says he’s getting rid of rare Earth magnets in Tesla EVs” »

The Chinese billionaire will be teaching students about sustainable agriculture and food production.

Jack Ma, the co-founder of the multinational technology company, Alibaba, marks his return to teaching as he begins a public role as visiting professor at the Tokyo College in Japan today, Business Insider.

Once the richest man in China, Ma had humble beginnings and worked as an English lecturer for several years before he co-founded Alibaba.

Continue reading “Professor Jack Ma of Alibaba to begin classes at Tokyo College” »

The first deliveries of the Tesla Cybertruck are expected to take place later this year, and there are still a handful of unknowns about the futuristic truck. In recent weeks, however, Tesla CEO Elon Musk shared some details about the vehicle, alongside some included in the automaker’s latest Master Plan.

In its Master Plan 3 unveiled on April 5, Tesla stated that the Cybertruck will have a 100 kWh battery pack. However, it’s not clear if this refers to a base model or another specific variant, as reported by The Street. The battery pack size is the same as those of the Model S and X, Tesla’s premium-level sedan and SUV, despite the truck being a wider and heavier vehicle than these.

Cybertruck rivals in the electric pickup sector include the Rivian R1T and the Ford F-150 Lightning, which feature 135 kWh and 131 kWh battery packs, respectively. The Cybertruck will also include a 3,500-pound payload capacity, adjustable air suspension, and lockable exterior storage measuring about 100 cubic feet.

More than one in three new vehicles sold in 2030 will be electric thanks to “explosive” growth in the market, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

The influential Paris-based group says electric cars are already on track to make up 18% of sales in 2023. With new policies driving growth in the US and the EU, the share of electric models in 2030 is now set to be more than double what it expected just two years ago.

The expansion means that the demand for oil-based fuels such as petrol and diesel in the road transport sector will start to decline within just two years. Around 5% of current oil demand will have been wiped out by 2030, it adds.

In a new study, scientists have observed long-lived excitons in a topological material, opening intriguing new research directions for optoelectronics and quantum computing.

Excitons are charge-neutral quasiparticles created when light is absorbed by a semiconductor. Consisting of an excited electron coupled to a lower-energy electron vacancy or hole, an exciton is typically short-lived, surviving only until the electron and hole recombine, which limits its usefulness in applications.

“If we want to make progress in quantum computing and create more sustainable electronics, we need longer exciton lifetimes and new ways of transferring information that don’t rely on the charge of electrons,” said Alessandra Lanzara, who led the study. Lanzara is a senior faculty scientist at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and a UC Berkeley physics professor. “Here we’re leveraging topological material properties to make an exciton that is long lived and very robust to disorder.”

University of Alberta researchers have developed a new catalyst that could revolutionize how we generate power and purify water. When placed in any type of water and provided with a small amount of power, the catalyst produces hydrogen that can be fed into a fuel cell to generate electricity along with distilled water that is safe to drink.

The catalyst was discovered almost entirely by chance when Robin Hamilton was creating an electrode for an undergraduate student working on a waste biomass upcycling project. He mixed up a combination of powders and allowed them to sit overnight in water, intending to finish the cell the following day. When he returned in the morning, the mixture was bubbling—a reaction that was extremely out of the ordinary.

“It ends up being that when you mix these two things together, they interact, they work together and hydrogen comes off. It floored us,” says Hamilton, a senior research associate in the Department of Chemistry.

Tesla received a large order for Model 3s from an Emirati taxi company, Arabia Taxi Dubai, helping the company to cut its carbon footprint.

Tesla’s retail consumer pressure is undeniably large. Still, the automaker has also grown in popularity in the commercial space, especially from customers looking to cut operating costs while reducing their carbon footprints. Predominantly, these orders have been coming from ride-hailing companies and car rental services. Now, a Dubai-based taxi company is also looking to capitalize on the cut-cutting opportunity.

According to the announcement from Arabia Taxi Dubai, it will buy 269 Tesla Model 3s to become part of its taxi fleet in the United Arab Emirates. Currently, Arabia Taxi advertises itself as the largest taxi fleet in Dubai and one of the largest in the country. With this new purchase, it looks to double down on that lead.