News – Page 15 – EES Blog

Archive for the ‘News’ Category

Robust, flexible films for polymer solar cells

11 Feb 2013

Inverted organic solar cell device

Scientists in Korea have made a flexible hybrid plastic film, embedded with silver nanowires, which can be used as an electrode for flexible solar cells.

Silver nanowires were embedded in the surface of a glass-fabric reinforced transparent composite film to form a substrate with excellent opto-electrical properties, mechanical flexibility and, unlike typical plastic substrates, good thermal stability. An inverted polymer solar cell with an efficiency of 5.9% was made based on these hybrid electrodes, comparable to the efficiency of the more conventional devices based on indium tin oxide/glass.

Read this HOT article today:

High-performance hybrid plastic films: a robust electrode platform for thin-film optoelectronics
Jungho Jin, Jaemin Lee, Seonju Jeong, SeungCheol Yang, Ji-Hoon Ko, Hyeon-Gyun Im, Se-Woong Baek, Jung-Yong Lee and Byeong-Soo Bae
DOI: 10.1039/C3EE24306K

Comments Off on Robust, flexible films for polymer solar cells

Electricity at your fingertips: EES article in Chemistry World

07 Feb 2013

Scientists in South Korea have made a conducting polymer as part of a thin-film thermoelectric device that can generate electricity from the temperature difference between your fingertips and the environment.

While many kinds of inorganic semiconductors have been studied, organic thermoelectric materials that are flexible and non-toxic have only recently emerged, even though they are easily synthesised, lightweight and cheap. Such materials have the potential to be used in textiles and even turned into clothing that could use wasted body heat as an energy source.

The researchers, led by Eunkyoung Kim from Yonsei University, optimised a polymerisation and electrochemical redox process to create conducting polymers based on poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene (PEDOT) with good electrical conductivity and relatively high thermoelectric properties, reporting a power factor of more than 1260 μW m^-1 K^-2.

Interested to know more? Read the full article in Chemistry World here…

Read the article from EES:

Flexible PEDOT electrodes with large thermoelectric power factors to generate electricity by the touch of fingertips
Teahoon Park, Chihyun Park, Byeonggwan Kim, Haejin Shin and Eunkyoung Kim
DOI: 10.1039/C3EE23729J

Comments Off on Electricity at your fingertips: EES article in Chemistry World

Reassessing the health effects of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident: EES article in Chemistry World

29 Jan 2013

While the Japanese tsunami of March 2011 was devastating in its own right, the long term health consequences because of the damage to the nuclear reactor at Fukushima Daiichi are also of serious concern.

There are a number of factors that have to be considered when assessing the health effects of radiation exposure: for example land decontamination efforts, size of evacuation area, shielding by buildings and terrain and consumption of contaminated food.

What are the long-term consequences for public health following the 2011 disaster in Fukushima?

Jan Beyea, from the US expert consulting service Consulting in the Public Interest, together with fellow colleagues has been analysing previous calculations of the subsequent nuclear accident in Japan, and believes that the number of predicted future mortalities from cancer is higher than originally predicted. ‘Health consequences predicted for the Fukushima Daiichi accident are dominated by “groundshine” gamma radiation from the decay over several decades of dispersed radioactive caesium. Although an individual’s risk is small, the mid-range, predicted number of future mortalities from cancer is closer to 1000 than the 125 figure calculated without considering long-term groundshine [gamma radiation emitted from radioactive materials deposited on the ground].

Interested to know more? Read the full article in Chemistry World here…

Read the article from EES:

Accounting for long-term doses in “Worldwide health effects of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident”
Jan Beyea , Edwin Lyman and Frank N. von Hippel
Energy Environ. Sci., 2013, Accepted Manuscript
DOI: 10.1039/C2EE24183H

Comments Off on Reassessing the health effects of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident: EES article in Chemistry World

Challenges in Chemical Renewable Energy (ISACS12) – key dates and confirmed speakers

23 Jan 2013

Key Dates and Deadlines:

3 May 2013 – Oral abstract submission deadline Submit your abstract now

21 June 2013 – Poster abstract submission deadline

12 July 2013 – Early bird registration deadline

2 August 2013 – Registration closes

Confirmed Speakers:

Kisuk Kang, Korea – EES Lectureship
Fraser A. Armstrong, UK
Matthias Beller, Germany
Peter G. Bruce, UK
Emily A. Carter, USA
Ib Chorkendorff, Denmark
Holger Dau, Germany
Richard Friend, UK
Shunichi Fukuzumi, Japan
Harry B. Gray, USA
Sossina M. Haile, USA
Tobin J. Marks, USA
Daniel G. Nocera, USA
Yang Shao-Horn, USA
Licheng Sun, Sweden

This conference will review current research developments and identify future challenges in a comprehensive programme which explores the following themes:

Photovoltaics
Fuel cells
Solar fuels
Molecular catalysis
New battery materials

Keep updated: Sign up for ISACS e-alerts

Comments Off on Challenges in Chemical Renewable Energy (ISACS12) – key dates and confirmed speakers

Henry Snaith joins EES Advisory Board

10 Dec 2012

Energy & Environmental Science is delighted to welcome Dr Henry Snaith of the University of Oxford to our Advisory Board. Dr Snaith is an expert on photovoltaic and optoelectronic devices and is a Senior Research Fellow of Jesus college.

The research carried out in his group covers both improving the absolute performance of existing technologies as well as undertaking fundamental studies to better understand the photovoltaic process.

The work includes:

developing novel routes to fabricating functional nanostructured composites
integration into solar cells
device fabrication and characterisation

Dr Snaith’s most recent articles in Energy & Environmental Science include his protocol article on measuring the performance of solar cells as well as original research.Take a look at these articles today:

How should you measure your excitonic solar cells?
Henry J. Snaith
DOI: 10.1039/C2EE03429H

The origin of an efficiency improving “light soaking” effect in SnO₂ based solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells
Priti Tiwana, Pablo Docampo, Michael B. Johnston, Laura M. Herz and Henry J. Snaith
DOI: 10.1039/C2EE22320A

The effect of selective interactions at the interface of polymer–oxide hybrid solar cells
Eleonora V. Canesi, Maddalena Binda, Antonio Abate, Simone Guarnera, Luca Moretti, Valerio D’Innocenzo, R. Sai Santosh Kumar, Chiara Bertarelli, Agnese Abrusci, Henry Snaith, Alberto Calloni, Alberto Brambilla, Franco Ciccacci, Stefano Aghion, Fabio Moia, Rafael Ferragut, Claudio Melis, Giuliano Malloci, Alessandro Mattoni, Guglielmo Lanzani and Annamaria Petrozza
DOI: 10.1039/C2EE22212D

Comments Off on Henry Snaith joins EES Advisory Board

Push for renewables may have unforeseen consequences: EES article in Chemistry World

06 Dec 2012

Energy policies within one country can have significant unforeseen consequences, two UK researchers warn. For example, ambitious renewables targets in western countries could have serious repercussions in developing nations. Their analysis points to a ‘pressing need’ for synchronising policies across the economy as a whole, including assessing consequences overseas.

Oliver Inderwildi of the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at the University of Oxford, and David Ward of the Culham Science Centre, used the UK target for renewable energy as an example of how one policy can have dramatic potential impacts, both locally and globally. The UK has been set a target of generating up to 15% of final energy demand by 2020 by the EU.

‘We find that wind, for electricity, and imported biomass, for heat, transport fuel and electricity, almost has to be the way forward for the UK, at least on the short timescale of the 2020 targets,’ says Ward. But the amounts of biomass necessary to meet the target far exceed what the UK can supply itself, so imports will have to increase significantly, leading to local and global impacts.

Interested to know more? Read the full article in Chemistry World here…

Read the article from EES:

Global and local impacts of UK renewable energy policy
D. J. Ward and O. R. Inderwildi
Energy Environ. Sci., 2013, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C2EE22342B

Comments Off on Push for renewables may have unforeseen consequences: EES article in Chemistry World

A greener approach to gas transport: EES article in Chemistry World

05 Dec 2012

Gas storage, both long and short term, is an expensive and energy intensive process, which has left the use of isolated natural gas reserves and gas sequestration plans unfeasible. However, an international collaboration of scientists has developed a way of storing gas in ‘bioclathrates’ formed from fruit and vegetables.

Clathrate hydrates are a form of clathrate compound in which a guest molecule is trapped inside a crystalline cage of ordered, hydrogen bonded water molecules and can form around a large number of low molecular weight gases, such as methane and CO₂. Unfortunately, the formation of clathrate hydrates is very slow and requires high pressures to introduce the gas into the water, and low temperatures to form the ice-like structures. This leaves it no more energy efficient than standard methods of gas storage, such as liquefaction and compression into porous sorbents.

Vegetables and fungi were used to accelerate the kinetics of clathrate storage

Interested to know more? Read the full article in Chemistry World here…

Read the article from EES:

Gas storage in renewable bioclathrates
Weixing Wang , Chao Ma , Pinzhen Lin , Luyi Sun and Andrew I. Cooper
Energy Environ. Sci., 2013, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C2EE23565J

Fancy submitting an article to EES? Then why not submit to us today.

Comments Off on A greener approach to gas transport: EES article in Chemistry World

Flexible conductive paper with applications from solar cells to touch screens

26 Nov 2012

Scientists in the US and Sweden have produced a highly transparent and flexible paper that they coated with tin-doped indium oxide to make it conductive, so it can be used as a substrate for flexible solar cells. The material can be produced on a large scale at low cost, with an environmentally friendly, solution-based process.

Read more about this exciting research in this HOT EES article:

Transparent and Conductive Paper From Nanocellulose Fibers
Liangbing Hu, Guangyuan Zheng, Jie Yao, Nian Liu, Ben Daniel Weil, Yi Cui , Martin Eskilsson, Erdem Karabulut, Lars Wagberg, Zhichao Ruan, Shanhui Fan, Jason Bloking and Michael D. McGehee
DOI: 10.1039/C2EE23635D

Comments Off on Flexible conductive paper with applications from solar cells to touch screens

Excellent research by young investigator recognised by EES

23 Nov 2012

We are delighted to announce that Professor Kisuk Kang of Seoul National University (SNU) has been chosen by the Energy & Environmental Science Board to receive the inaugural Energy & Environmental Science prize for an excellent research paper published in EES by an outstanding young scientist. Professor Kang’s article “Flexible energy storage devices based on graphene paper” was selected from a strong shortlist of papers that had also received a lot of attention from the community.

Kang is professor of materials science and engineering at SNU where he also received his B.S. His Ph.D at MIT was on the design of electrode materials for lithium batteries. Before he joined to SNU, he was a professor at KAIST, Korea. His research lab at SNU focuses on developing new materials for LIB or post-Li battery chemistries such as Na, Mg batteries and metal-air batteries using combined experiments and ab initio calculations.

As part of his prize Kang will give an EES sponsored lecture – watch this space for more details.

Read this exciting research today:

Flexible energy storage devices based on graphene paper
Hyeokjo Gwon, Hyun-Suk Kim, Kye Ung Lee, Dong-Hwa Seo, Yun Chang Park, Yun-Sung Lee, Byung Tae Ahn and Kisuk Kang
Energy Environ. Sci., 2011, 4, 1277-1283
DOI: 10.1039/C0EE00640H

Comments Off on Excellent research by young investigator recognised by EES

Nanomaterials role in removing pollutants from the environment

21 Nov 2012

Scientists based in Singapore have reviewed the application of nanomaterials in removing chemical and biological pollutants from the environment in this fascinating Energy & Environemntal Science article. Their review has recently been highlighted on nanowerk.

Read the review in full:

A review on nanomaterials for environmental remediation
Mya Mya Khin, A. Sreekumaran Nair, V. Jagadeesh Babu, Rajendiran Murugan and Seeram Ramakrishna
DOI: 10.1039/C2EE21818F

Table of contents image

Comments Off on Nanomaterials role in removing pollutants from the environment

EES Blog

Archive for the ‘News’ Category

Robust, flexible films for polymer solar cells

Electricity at your fingertips: EES article in Chemistry World

Reassessing the health effects of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident: EES article in Chemistry World

Challenges in Chemical Renewable Energy (ISACS12) – key dates and confirmed speakers

Henry Snaith joins EES Advisory Board

Push for renewables may have unforeseen consequences: EES article in Chemistry World

A greener approach to gas transport: EES article in Chemistry World

Flexible conductive paper with applications from solar cells to touch screens

Excellent research by young investigator recognised by EES

Nanomaterials role in removing pollutants from the environment

Links

Categories

Archives

Meta