EES Blog

Scientists in Korea say that silica (SiO₂; quartz) could be a cheap anode for lithium ion batteries.

Silica was benign and would not react with lithium because of its stability as an oxide, but the team has shown that by using mechanical milling, the oxide is reduced and the silica forms nanosized silicon embedded in amorphous silica using bulk crystalline quartz powders.

When they applied the material as an anode in lithium ion batteries, they found that the milled silica exhibited a reversible capacity ~800mAhg^-1 over 200 cycles.

‘HOT’ EES Communication:

Quartz (SiO₂): a new energy storage anode material for Li-ion batteries
Won-Seok Chang, Cheol-Min Park, Jae-Hun Kim, Young-Ugk Kim, Goojin Jeong and Hun-Joon Sohn
Energy Environ. Sci., 2012, DOI: 10.1039/C2EE00003B

US scientists have made solar panels that work in three dimensions to use the sun’s energy throughout the day.

The panels gave up to 20 times more energy output compared to flat solar panels and there’s no need for expensive, cumbersome tracking systems in which flat solar panels rotate to point at the sun.

Read this ‘HOT’ Communication:

Solar energy generation in three dimensions
Marco Bernardi, Nicola Ferralis, Jin H. Wan, Rachelle Villalon and Jeffrey C. Grossman
Energy Environ. Sci., 2012, DOI: 10.1039/C2EE21170J

‘HOT’ Communication

Charles Teplin and colleagues have grown biaxially textured heteroepitaxial crystal silicon (c-Si) films on display glass, which could be used as a low-cost material for photovoltaics. They have fabricated a proof-of-concept c-Si solar cell, with an open circuit voltage of 375 mV.

Read this ‘hot’ article today:

Biaxially-textured photovoltaic film crystal silicon on ion beam assisted deposition CaF₂ seed layers on glass
James R Groves, Bingrui Joel Li, Bruce Clemens, Vincenzo LaSalvia, Falah Hasoon, Howard M. Branz and Charles Teplin
Energy Environ. Sci., 2012, Accepted Manuscript
DOI: 10.1039/C2EE21097E

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Researchers in Korea have fabricated a highly bendable plastic crystal composite electrolyte (PCCE)  for use in all-solid-state lithium-ion batteries. They exhibit unprecedented improvement in bendability and high ionic conductivity.

Read the ‘HOT’ EES paper:

UV-curable semi-interpenetrating polymer network-integrated, highly bendable plastic crystal composite electrolytes for shape-conformable all-solid-state lithium ion batteries
Hyo-Jeong Ha, Eun-Hye Kil, Yo Han Kwon, Je Young Kim, Chang Kee Lee and Sang-Young Lee
Energy Environ. Sci., 2012, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C2EE03025J

Scientists have investigated how to improve catalysts for liquid solar fuels, an active area of renewable energy research, by studying the conversion of carbon dioxide to formate or methanol.

They used a nickel complex catalyst to analyse the proton and electron transfer process. They discovered that the reaction proceeds via proton coupled electron transfer, the catalyst is bifunctional and its protons have an important role, which was unexpected, they say.

The research has further implications for fuel production and catalyst design.

Read this ‘HOT’ EES article:

Formate oxidation via ß-deprotonation in [Ni(P^R₂N^R’₂)₂(CH₃CN)]²⁺ complexes
C S Seu et al, Energy Environ. Sci., 2012
DOI: 10.1039/c2ee03341k