Hopes for Solar-Powered Hydrogen by New Virus-Based Artificial Photosynthesis System
A team of researchers from the MIT, led by Professor Angela Belcher, used a modified virus as a biological scaffold for assembling the nanoscale components needed to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. The bacterial virus is called "M13", and it's said to be harmless.
NSW Scientists Demonstrating Laser-Ignited Radiation Free Nuclear Fusion
An Australian team of scientists from the University of New South Wales seems to have discovered the recipe for making nuclear fusion possible without the high-temperature hassle and without the fear that it would produce harmful nuclear residues.
Wake Forest's Plastic Fiber Solar Cells Doubling Energy Output of Flat Ones
Solar cells get efficient as time goes, but there are methods to improve the performance of current ones, made with older technologies. Wake Forest Center for Nanotechnology has just received a patent for a new solar cell technology that can double the energy production of current silicon flat cells at highly reduced costs.
New SOLO-TREC Thermal Engine Powers Ship Indefinitely by Using Ocean Energy
The Office of Naval Research is funding a project called "SOLO-TREC" (Sounding Oceanographic Lagrangian Observer -- Thermal RECharging), that uses the temperature difference in layers of the ocean to generate electricity and propel a ship theoretically indefinitely.
Chemically-Etched Black Silicon Proves Efficient Solar Cells Can Be Cheaper
While SiOnyx, a MA-based startup, uses lasers to create black silicon and improve the efficiency and price of solar cells, researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) discovered a simple chemical treatment that could replace the otherwise expensive antireflective solar cell coatings currently used in the industry.
On-Demand Hydrogen Production System for Commercial Use Released
eHydrogen Solutions, a company specialized in the development of on-demand hydrogen power stations, issued a press release announcing that they launched the "H2-Reactor Development Project". The H2-Reactor uses water as the hydrogen source, is self-contained and has an alloy of aluminum or magnesium as the reactive material (to get the hydrogen out of the oxygen bond).
Power-Conducting Plastics Could Significantly Slash the Cost of Solar Panels
Solar panels have become very popular these days, but the cost of making them has also reached a fairly high level. So far this thing happened because of the expensive materials used, but today researchers have managed to develop some new power-conducting plastics, able to slash the cost of making solar panels. In order to do that, they replaced tin oxide with conductive plastics.
Metallic Catalysts Could Increase the Efficiency of Li-Air Batteries Three Fold
The MIT researchers could easily change the balance towards Li-air batteries in the near future just by changing the actual electrode materials. In the paper published in the journal Electrochemical and Solid-State Letters, the researchers showed that by changing the carbon electrodes with gold or platinum electrodes as a catalyst, the efficiency of the battery will increase.
Chemistry Professor Innovation Making Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells More Efficient and Durable
Dye-sensitized (Graetzel) solar cells have been in the spot of many minds since they were first created in early '90s by Michael Graetzel, from...
Nissan Planning to Install Their New EV Rapid Charger Every 80km Around Japan
In order to promote the newly-developed rapid charger, Nissan has planned installing it in 200 stores throughout Japan. To avoid those situations when the batteries die when you least expect them to, Nissan has developed a network of similar charging stations. So, with 200 stations across Japan and with a 40km-radius circle around each charger, you can not remain without batteries.
