There are a handful of top cleantech stories we simply couldn’t get to over the past week. Below are quick snapshots of them (+ links) for cleantech enthusiasts who could be deprived of some useful information if we didn’t share. Enjoy! Battery Development May Extend Range of Electric Cars It’s … [continued]
We’ve been so busy following the latest graphene news that we almost forgot all about our two our other fave “miracle” materials of the new millenium, carbon nanotubes and spider silk, but it looks like Florida State University has given us a chance to catch up on both at the … [continued]
While we’ve been busy touting graphene as the “miracle material of the new millennium,” there’s another advanced materials kid on the block called carbon nanotubes and they haven’t exactly been on the snooze either. A team of researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) has just announced that they’ve … [continued]
Plasma-treated carbon nanotubes can function very effectively as an inexpensive means of purifying water in developing countries, according to new research from the Singapore University of Technology and Design. Water purification membranes enhanced with the plasma-treated carbon nanotubes are ‘perfectly’ structured for the removal of contaminants and brine from water, … [continued]
Silicon could provide lithium-ion batteries with ten times their typical storage capacity, but this ubiquitous semiconductor is notoriously fragile when applied to battery technology. One promising line of research is to apply silicon to a flexible platform, enabling it to expand without cracking. That is the approach taken by a … [continued]
In what sounds like a solution in search of a problem, a few years ago researchers at Rice University figured out a way to create graphene ribbons by “unzipping” carbon nanotubes. Well, now it looks like a problem has been found, and it’s a big one with huge implications for … [continued]
Researchers at the University of Maryland NanoCentre have developed yet another silicon-based lithium-ion battery technology which they say could be more reliable than previous silicon designs. Silicon designs have a track record for extremely high energy density, which is 10 times more than that of conventional lithium-ion batteries that use … [continued]
Researchers from Rice University have created a ‘seamless’ graphene and nanotube hybrid. The material is probably the best electrode interface material possible for energy storage usages and other related electronics applications, according to the researchers. The new hybrid material appears as “forests of carbon nanotubes that rise quickly from … [continued]
For more than a decade, scientists have tried to improve lithium-based batteries by replacing the graphite in one terminal with silicon, which can store 10 times more charge. But after just a few charge/discharge cycles, the silicon structure would crack and crumble, rendering the battery useless. Now a team led … [continued]
Though boron is better known for the making of bleach, as a sort of metalloid cousin to silicon it also has some intriguing potential in solar energy research. Now a team of researchers at Rice University is exploring the possibility that atom-thin sheets of boron could lead to the next … [continued]
