Page 120 - Berkeley Lab News Today

 E-Mail IMAGE: Wanli Yang, a senior scientist in Berkeley Labs Advanced Light Source, working on a resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) system. Yang adapted the RIXS technique for a recent Joule study... view more  Credit: Berkeley Lab An international team working at the U.S. Department of Energys Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) used a unique X-ray instrument to learn new things about lithium-rich battery materials that have been the subject of much study f...

Researchers used a Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, or Berkeley Lab, X-ray device to gain insight into the process by which lithium-ion batteries, such as those found in electric vehicles, lose battery life over time. These findings point toward a key to designing electric vehicles that charge much faster and maintain battery health. The study, a collaboration between Stanford University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Toyota Research Institute, used imaging technology at S...

Date Time Spintronics Technology Revolution Could Be Just a Hopfion Away Artist’s drawing of characteristic 3D spin texture of a magnetic hopfion. Berkeley Lab scientists have created and observed 3D hopfions. The discovery could advance spintronics memory devices. (Credit: Peter Fischer and Frances Hellman/Berkeley Lab) Adecade ago, the discovery of quasiparticles called magnetic skyrmions provided important new clues into how microscopic spin textures will enable spintronics, a new class of...

Solvation cages may lead to more efficient operation of high-voltage battery cells Membranes that allow certain molecules to quickly pass through while blocking others are key enablers for energy technologies from batteries and fuel cells to resource refinement and water purification. For example, membranes in a battery separating the two terminals help to prevent short circuits, while also allowing the transport of charged particles, or ions, needed to maintain the flow of electricity. The mos...

UC Berkeley professor emeritus of chemistry and former director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, or Berkeley Lab, David Shirley died March 29 at the age of 87 due to age-related illnesses. Remembered by friends and colleagues as being someone with great scientific passion, ceaseless generosity and immense devotion to his students, Shirley made great contributions to his field throughout his time on campus. Among other achievements, Shirley helped pioneer research on electron spectrosco...

IMAGE: An illustration of tailocins, and their altruistic action painted by author Vivek Mutaliks daughter, Antara. Image:  Antara Mutalik Imagine there are arrows that are lethal when fired on your enemies yet harmless if they fall on your friends. Its easy to see how these would be an amazing advantage in warfare, if they were real. However, something just like these arrows does indeed exist, and they are used in warfare ... just on a different scale. These weapons are called tailocins, an...

 E-Mail IMAGE: Illustration of caged lithium ions in a new polymer membrane for lithium batteries. Scientists at Berkeley Labs Molecular Foundry used a drug-discovery toolbox to design the selective membranes. The technology... view more  Credit: Artem Baskin/Berkeley Lab Membranes that allow certain molecules to quickly pass through while blocking others are key enablers for energy technologies from batteries and fuel cells to resource refinement and water purification. For example, ...

Si/GaN Device can Help Accelerate Commercialization of Hydrogen Fuel Cells About three years ago, researchers from the University of Michigan had identified a new artificial photosynthesis device composed of silicon and gallium nitride (Si/GaN). Guosong Zeng, a postdoctoral scholar in Berkeley Lab’s Chemical Sciences Division, at work testing an artificial photosynthesis device made of gallium nitride. Zeng, along with Berkeley Lab staff scientist Francesca Toma, discovered that the device ...

 E-Mail IMAGE: Guosong Zeng, a postdoctoral scholar in Berkeley Labs Chemical Sciences Division, at work testing an artificial photosynthesis device made of gallium nitride. Zeng, along with Berkeley Lab staff scientist Francesca... view more  Credit: Thor Swift/Berkeley Lab Three years ago, scientists at the University of Michigan discovered an artificial photosynthesis device made of silicon and gallium nitride (Si/GaN) that harnesses sunlight into carbon-free hydrogen for fuel cell...

X-Ray Experiments, Machine Learning Could Trim Years Off Battery R&D An X-ray instrument at Berkeley Lab contributed to a battery study that used an innovative approach to machine learning to speed up the learning curve about a process that shortens the life of fast-charging lithium batteries. Researchers used Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source, a synchrotron that produces light ranging from the infrared to X-rays for dozens of simultaneous experiments, to perform a chemical imaging techni...