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IMAGE: A new Georgia Tech manufacturing process could enable battery makers to produce lighter, safer, and more energy-dense batteries. view more
Credit: Allison Carter, Georgia Tech
A new fabrication technique could allow solid-state automotive lithium-ion batteries to adopt nonflammable ceramic electrolytes using the same production processes as in batteries made with conventional liquid electrolytes.
The melt-infiltration technology developed by materials science researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology uses electrolyte materials that can be infiltrated into porous yet densely packed, thermally stable electrodes.
The one-step process produces high-density composites based on pressure-less, capillary-driven infiltration of a molten solid electrolyte into porous bodies, including multilayered electrode-separator stacks.
Tokyo, Japan - Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have studied the properties of mixtures of silicone-coated magic sand , a popular kid s toy, and normal sand. Silicone-coated sand particles were found to interact with each other only, and not with other sand particles. The team discovered that adding silicone-coated sand beyond a certain threshold leads to an abrupt change in clustering and rigidity, a simple, useful way to potentially tune the flow of granular materials for industry.
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IMAGE: INRS Professor Monique Lacroix is an expert in sciences applied to food, such as irradiation. view more
Credit: Christian Fleury (INRS)
A combined treatment of irradiation and essential oil vapors could effectively destroy insects, bacteria and mold in stored grains. A team from the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS), led by Professor Monique Lacroix, has demonstrated the effect of this process on insects affecting rice. The study was published in the
Microorganisms and insects are the main enemies of stored grains. Currently, the food industry uses fumigants to destroy them. However, these compounds, which evaporate or decompose into gases into air or water, are threatening human health and the environment. When grain is fumigated, a small amount of gas is absorbed by the grain and released into the atmosphere. For food irradiation, the treatment is physical. If new molecules are produced, they are no different than those produc
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Delving deeper into the chemical processes used to make various goods from biomass can help manufacturers use them with greater efficiency, and therefore, increase production. Thomas Schwartz aims to unravel the inner workings of a common method for crafting a compound for rubber known as butadiene, an effort backed by the National Science Foundation.
The assistant professor of chemical engineering at the University of Maine received a $513,995 NSF CAREER Award to advance his ongoing dissection of the Lebedev process. The well-known, multi-step chemical reaction is used to make butadiene from biomass-derived ethanol. However, little research has been conducted on the Lebedev process at the molecular level.
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IMAGE: The BP copolymer offers several advantages that put it miles ahead of the conventional PVDF binder in terms of stability and durability view more
Credit: Noriyoshi Matsumi from JAIST
Anyone who has owned a smartphone for over a year is most likely aware that its built-in lithium (Li)-ion battery does not hold as much charge as when the device was new. The degradation of Li-ion batteries is a serious issue that greatly limits the useful life of portable electronic devices, indirectly causing huge amounts of pollution and economic losses. In addition to this, the fact that Li-ion batteries are not very durable is a massive roadblock for the market of electric vehicles and renewable energy harvesting. Considering the severity of these issues, it is no surprise that researchers have been actively seeking ways to improve upon the state-of-the-art designs of Li-ion batteries.