Scientists have uncovered a root cause of the growth of needle-like structures — known as dendrites and whiskers — that plague lithium batteries, sometimes causing a short circuit, failure, or even a fire. Such defects are a major factor holding back the batteries from even more widespread use and further improvement.
Read moreResearchers have shown for the first time that a cheap catalyst can split water and generate hydrogen gas for hours on end in the harsh environment of a commercial electrolyzer — a step toward clean, large-scale hydrogen production for fuel, fertilizer and industry.
Read morePhysicists are using photon-proton collisions to capture particles in an unexplored energy region, yielding new insights into the matter that binds parts of the nucleus together.
Read moreScientists have investigated a simple biomimetic light-harvesting system using advanced spectroscopy combined with a microfluidic platform. The double-walled nanotubes work very efficiently at low light intensities, while they are able to get rid of excess energy at high intensities. These properties are useful in the design of novel materials for the harvesting and transport of photon energy.
Read moreResearchers have designed and tested a new electrolyte composition that could greatly accelerate the adoption of the next generation of lithium-ion batteries.
Read moreResearchers have constructed a framework for starting and raising a fusion plasma to temperatures rivaling the sun in hundreds of milliseconds.
Read moreScientists have combined graphene and single-walled carbon nanotubes into a transparent hybrid material with conductivity higher than either component exhibits separately.
Read moreChemists have succeeded in synthesizing two complex natural products from the group of dithiodiketopiperazines (DTPs). For this, they employed a new strategy based on ''C-H bond activation,'' resulting in a short and high yielding route. The researchers describe their new concept for the total synthesis of Epicoccin G and Rostratin A.
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The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2019 is being awarded to John B. Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham, and Akira Yoshino "for the development of lithium-ion batteries."