Combating climate change: Recyclable batteries remove CO2 from the atmosphere

Female scientists at Paderborn University awarded research prize

26-Nov-2024 - With the new Climate Protection Act, Germany has committed to achieving greenhouse gas neutrality by 2045. To achieve this, emissions must be avoided, CO2 removed from the atmosphere and fossil fuels replaced with renewable energy sources. According to experts, however, it will still be necessary ...

Bee-friendly protection for plants

New types of sensors could help to develop plant protection products that are safe for bees

17-Oct-2024 - The increasing global demand for plant-based foods makes the use of pesticides necessary in order to protect crops from pests and ensure crop yields. However, there is one major disadvantage: among others, the widespread use of pesticides has led to a considerable reduction in insect populations ...

From waste to value: The right electrolytes can enhance glycerol oxidation

"Our research could help to convert biomass by-products into valuable chemicals more efficiently"

03-Jul-2024 - When biomass is converted into biodiesel, huge amounts of glycerol are produced as a by-product. So far, however, this by-product has been little utilised, even though it could be processed into more valuable chemicals through oxidation in photoelectrochemical reactors. The reason for this: low ...

Why do just one experiment at a time when you can do ten?

Synthetic fuels and chemicals from CO₂: Ten experiments in parallel

28-Jun-2024 - Empa researchers have developed an automated system, which allows them to research catalysts, electrodes, and reaction conditions for CO₂ electrolysis up to ten times faster. The system is complemented by an open-source software for data analysis. If you mix fossil fuel with a little oxygen and ...

MXenes for energy storage: Chemical imaging more than just surface deep

19-Jun-2024 - A new method in spectromicroscopy significantly improves the study of chemical reactions at the nanoscale, both on surfaces and inside layered materials. Scanning X-ray microscopy (SXM) at MAXYMUS beamline of BESSY II enables the investigation of chemical species adsorbed on the top layer ...

Freeze casting - a guide to creating hierarchically structured materials

Diverse applications not only in biomedicine, but also in engineering, from new catalysts to highly porous battery electrodes

30-Apr-2024 - Freeze casting is an elegant, cost-effective manufacturing technique to produce highly porous materials with custom-designed hierarchical architectures, well-defined pore orientation, and multifunctional surface structures. Freeze-cast materials are suitable for many applications, from ...

How Silicon Can Improve the Performance of Solid-State Batteries

Researchers from Germany and Canada analyze the potential of silicon as an alternative electrode material

30-Jan-2024 - High-performance batteries are required for a wide range of applications and demand is growing rapidly. This is why the research and development of electrochemical energy storage systems, including for electromobility, is one of the most important areas of work in materials science worldwide. The ...

Capturing CO2 with electricity: A microbial enzyme inspires electrochemistry

Towards a new solution for atmospheric CO2 utilization

04-Oct-2023 - Humans continuously emits greenhouse gases, worsening global warming. For example, carbon dioxide (CO2) accumulates dramatically over the years and is chemically very stable. Yet, some microbes capture CO2 using highly efficient enzymes. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Marine ...

Anode Models for Green Hydrogen Production

Advancement of green H2 production

04-Sep-2023 - Researchers from the Interface Science Department at the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society conducted experiments using atomically defined model pre-catalysts to unveil intricate details of the electrocatalytic water splitting reaction, targeting the advancement of green H2 ...

New study on optimizing microbial fuel cells shows electrode material can make all the difference

22-Dec-2022 - At present, microbial fuel cells are mainly used in research laboratories to generate electricity. In order for industrial applications to be considered in the future, the fuel cells must be further developed so that they can produce consistently higher amounts of electricity than is currently ...