EES Blog

Researchers in China have used human hair to make a vital component of energy-storage devices. The discovery could lead to more efficient and environmentally-friendly replacements for traditional batteries.

Many batteries currently in use, such as the lead–acid batteries in cars, are heavy and bulky and rely on hazardous chemicals to store electrical charge. With increasing worldwide sales of mobile electronics, the environmental impact of batteries is receiving more attention and motivating research into supercapacitors, which can be made from sustainable carbon-based materials.

Unfortunately, these carbon materials are usually either difficult to manufacture or derived from fossil fuels. Now, however, Feng Yan and his team at Soochow University have used a simple carbonisation process to turn human hair – a common and renewable waste product – into carbon flakes suitable for use in supercapacitor electrodes.

Interested to know more? Read the full news article by Stephan McCarthy in Chemistry World here…

Read the article by Wenjing Qian et al. in EES:

Human Hair-Derived Carbon Flakes for Electrochemical Supercapacitors
Wenjing Qian, fFengxia Sun, Yanhui Xu, Lihua Qiu, Chang-Hai Liu, Sui-Dong Wang and Feng Yan
Energy Environ. Sci., 2013, Accepted Manuscript
DOI: 10.1039/C3EE43111H, Paper

After years of using platinum, scientists suggest they could one day use extracts from marine plants to replace it in solar cells.

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) are quickly becoming a widespread and affordable alternative to photovoltaic solar cells. With this change of direction, it is pertinent that DSCs are made to be as efficient and inexpensive as possible for the mass market.

Platinum is traditionally used as the electrode material in DSCs, which, although it shows impressive performance, is not environmentally friendly and has high production costs.

Now, Tingli Ma and co-workers based in China, Japan and Switzerland have expanded their research on natural dyes and biomass manipulation to see if sea tangle, a common marine plant, is a suitable source of raw materials for DSCs. And their results look promising. The naturally sourced materials improve on the power conversion efficiency of previously tested natural dyes to the point where they are comparable to those of synthetic, more expensive materials.

Interested to know more? Read the full news article by Jessica Brand in Chemistry World here…

Read the article by Liang Wang et al. in EES:

From Marine Plant to Photovoltaic Devices
Liang Wang, Yantao Shi, Xiaogong Bai, Yujin Xing, Hong Zhang, lin Wang, Wei Guo, Ning Wang, Ting Li Ma and Michael Gratzel
Energy Environ. Sci., 2013, Accepted Manuscript
DOI: 10.1039/C3EE42767F, Communication

The latest issue of EES is now online. You can read the full issue here.

The outside front cover features the paper Simulations of the irradiation and temperature dependence of the efficiency of tandem photoelectrochemical water-splitting systems by Sophia Haussener, Shu Hu, Chengxiang Xiang, Adam Z. Weber and Nathan S. Lewis.

Facile synthesis of mesoporous Ni 0.3Co 2.7O 4 hierarchical structures for high-performance supercapacitors is the paper highlighted on the inside front cover by Hao Bin Wu, Huan Pang and Xiong Wen (David) Lou.

Issue 11 contains a number of excellent Opinion, Analysis, Review and Perspective articles:

Survival of the fattest
Peter R. Mooij, Gerben R. Stouten, Jelmer Tamis, Mark C. M. van Loosdrecht and Robbert Kleerebezem

Towards 15% energy conversion efficiency: a systematic study of the solution-processed organic tandem solar cells based on commercially available materials
Ning Li, Derya Baran, Karen Forberich, Florian Machui, Tayebeh Ameri, Mathieu Turbiez, Miguel Carrasco-Orozco, Martin Drees, Antonio Facchetti, Frederik C. Krebs and Christoph J. Brabec

The identification, characterization and mitigation of defect states in organic photovoltaic devices: a review and outlook
John A. Carr and Sumit Chaudhary

Metal free sensitizer and catalyst for dye sensitized solar cells
Shahzada Ahmad, Elena Guillén, Ladislav Kavan, Michael Grätzel and Mohammad K. Nazeeruddin

Retrieving and converting energy from polymers: deployable technologies and emerging concepts
Bilge Baytekin, H. Tarik Baytekin and Bartosz A. Grzybowski

Graphene-based nanocomposites: preparation, functionalization, and energy and environmental applications
Haixin Chang and Hongkai Wu

Exceeding the Shockley–Queisser limit in solar energy conversion
Cory A. Nelson, Nicholas R. Monahan and X.-Y. Zhu

Stimulus-responsive graphene systems towards actuator applications
Yang Zhao, Long Song, Zhipan Zhang and Liangti Qu

After 150 million theoretical calculations, scientists at Harvard University in the US reveal results that could cut down the time and cost of experimental tests to find better organic electronic materials for solar cells.

Most solar cells are made from expensive inorganic materials. Solar cells from organic materials are a cheaper alternative and scientists have been working to find designs that are as efficient as their inorganic counterparts. However, new organic solar cell materials must be built and tested before scientists can decide whether the idea is an improvement.

The Harvard Clean Energy Project (CEP) team led by Alán Aspuru-Guzik is using the predictive power of computers to speed up this process. Analogous to the modern drug discovery process, where large numbers of molecules can be virtually screened taking only the most biologically active ones forward into development and trials, Aspuru-Guzik’s group screened 2.3 million molecular structures to find ones that had the best properties for solar cells.

Interested to know more? Read the full news article by Rowan Frame in Chemistry World here…

Read the article by  J Hachmann et al. in EES:

Lead candidates for high-performance organic photovoltaics from high-throughput quantum chemistry – the Harvard Clean Energy Project
Stuart Licht, Baochen Cui, Jessica Stuart, Baohui Wang and Jason Lau
Energy Environ. Sci., 2013, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C3EE42654H, Paper