Nature Communications

Battery buzz: Three trends toward safer, cleaner lithium-ion power sources for consumer electronics

By Stephanie Liverani / November 1, 2016

Lithium-ion batteries are necessary for next-generation consumer electronics to compete with market demands for longer battery life and unsurpassed power. And researchers are focusing on making these power sources safer and better for the environment.

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Single-layer ‘super material’ semiconductor shows promise as novel light source

By Stephanie Liverani / October 28, 2016

Two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides (or TMDCs) are particularly promising single-layer materials. And researchers at the University of Würzburg in Germany say TMDCs are actually capable of generating light when supplied with energy.

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Tech innovation roundup: See-through circuitry, wi-fi from lasers, and liquid metals propel next-gen electronics

By Stephanie Liverani / August 16, 2016

In the past couple weeks alone, significant innovations in next-generation electronic devices have made news. Check out these recent buzzworthy developments in tech research that are helping transform electronics as we know them.

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Let there be light: Novel light-processing technique heals defects in perovskite solar cells to improve stability

By Stephanie Liverani / May 27, 2016

Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and other affiliated institutions in the U.S. and the U.K. say they’ve “made significant inroads toward understanding a process for improving perovskites’ performance, by modifying the material using intense light,” according to an MIT news article.

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Watch for splinters—Will transparent wood replace glass in solar cells and windows?

By Stephanie Liverani / April 1, 2016

When it comes to developing the latest solar energy solutions, a few materials seem to get most of the press—logical materials like perovskites, silicon, and glass. But what if the next superstar solar cell material defies traditional logic?

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Like a MOF to the glass: New technique forms hybrid glasses from metal-organic frameworks

By April Gocha / September 24, 2015

A worldwide research team has figured out how to form MOFs into glasses through careful techniques to prevent the materials’ degradation during processing.

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New phase-change ceramic stores energy and releases it under pressure

By April Gocha / July 28, 2015

Scientists at the University of Tokyo have discovered a unique ceramic that can store heat long-term and release it on-demand, opening up new possibilities for a variety of energy storage systems.

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Free energy? Bacterial spores help capture invisible power from water evaporation

By April Gocha / June 29, 2015

Scientists at Columbia University are using their research to think differently about sustainable energy generation. And that approach is allowing the team to harness an invisible power source that’s available nearly everywhere—water evaporation.

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3-D printing 2-D materials with air—direct ink writing builds graphene aerogels

By April Gocha / May 14, 2015

Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Lab have combined three of the most promising and popular technologies today—3-D printing, graphene, and aerogels. The team is the first to 3-D print graphene aerogels, according to a LLNL press release.

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I’m blue da ba dee: Striped mollusks hide unique photonic structures that may inspire future displays

By April Gocha / March 10, 2015

MIT researchers recently discovered that the shells of blue-rayed limpets—a fingernail-sized mollusk—contain unique biological photonic structures that are the first known to be made from inorganic, mineralized structures.

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