Unlocking the potential of lithium-sulfur batteries

Researchers develop electrolyte additives for enhanced energy storage: “Synchrotron techniques provide powerful tools for characterizing battery materials”

15-Jan-2025 - Lithium-ion (Li-ion)batteriesare an integral part of society, from cellphones and laptops to electric vehicles. While Li-ion batteries have been a major success to date, scientists worldwide are racing to design even better​“beyond Li-ion” batteries in the shift toward a more electrified ...

Catalytic combo converts CO2 to solid carbon nanofibers

Tandem electrocatalytic-thermocatalytic conversion could help offset emissions of potent greenhouse gas by locking carbon away in a useful material

16-Jan-2024 - Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and Columbia University have developed a way to convert carbon dioxide (CO2), a potent greenhouse gas, into carbon nanofibers, materials with a wide range of unique properties and many potential long-term uses. ...

Next generation solar fuels: How a record-breaking copper catalyst converts CO₂ into liquid fuels

Researchers have made real-time movies of copper nanoparticles as they evolve to convert carbon dioxide and water into renewable fuels and chemicals

21-Feb-2023 - Since the 1970s, scientists have known that copper has a special ability to transform carbon dioxide into valuable chemicals and fuels. But for many years, scientists have struggled to understand how this common metal works as an electrocatalyst, a mechanism that uses energy from electrons to ...

New discoveries made about a promising solar cell material, thanks to new microscope

23-Nov-2022 - A team of scientists from the Department of Energy’s Ames National Laboratory developed a new characterization tool that allowed them to gain unique insight into a possible alternative material for solar cells. Under the leadership of Jigang Wang, senior scientist from Ames Lab, the team ...

A most singular nano-imaging technique

Berkeley Lab's SINGLE provides images of individual nanoparticles in solution

20-Jul-2015 - Just as proteins are one of the basic building blocks of biology, nanoparticles can serve as the basic building blocks for next generation materials. In keeping with this parallel between biology and nanotechnology, a proven technique for determining the three dimensional structures of individual ...

X-rays and electrons join forces to map catalytic reactions in real-time

01-Jul-2015 - A new technique pioneered at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory reveals atomic-scale changes during catalytic reactions in real time and under real operating conditions. A team of scientists used a newly developed reaction chamber to combine x-ray absorption ...

Advanced light source sets microscopy record

Berkeley Lab researchers achieve highest resolution ever with X-ray microscopy

15-Sep-2014 - A record-setting X-ray microscopy experiment may have ushered in a new era for nanoscale imaging. Working at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), a collaboration of researchers used low energy or "soft" X-rays to image structures only five ...

Nanoparticles seen as artificial atoms

Berkeley Lab researchers observations of nanorod crystal growth points way to next-generation energy devices

30-May-2012 - In the growth of crystals, do nanoparticles act as "artificial atoms" forming molecular-type building blocks that can assemble into complex structures? This is the contention of a major but controversial theory to explain nanocrystal growth. A study by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy ...

ORNL microscopy inspires flexoelectric theory behind 'material on the brink'

17-Apr-2012 - Electron microscopy, conducted as part of the Shared Research Equipment (ShaRE) User Program at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has led to a new theory to explain intriguing properties in a material with potential applications in capacitors and actuators. A research team ...

Better lithium-ion batteries are on the way from Berkeley Lab

A revolutionary conducting polymer enables the use of low-cost, high-energy silicon as a next generation of lithium-ion battery anodes

28-Sep-2011 - Lithium-ion batteries are everywhere, in smart phones, laptops, an array of other consumer electronics, and the newest electric cars. Good as they are, they could be much better, especially when it comes to lowering the cost and extending the range of electric cars. To do that, batteries need to ...