Today's Tech News: Notable or Not?

https://www6.slac.stanford.edu/news/2022-02-28-gismo-labs-innovative-plan-make-electricity-cheaper-greener-and-more-reliable.aspx "having TESS installed in homes would make switch from fuel-oil or propane-powered appliances to electric appliances more cost efficient... People who install renewable energy devices in their homes stand to benefit even more from TESS’s reduced energy costs and the ability to sell excess energy produced by those renewables. When considering options for helping the planet, it can often feel like consumers must pick between improving their standard of living or doing what's best for the environment" Related: Researchers develop new carbon-capture solution for a cleaner, more energy-dense fuel source https://techxplore.com/news/2023-08-carbon-capture-solution-cleaner-energy-dense-fuel.html Research aims to convert greenhouse gas into valuable products with electricity https://phys.org/news/2024-01-aims-greenhouse-gas-valuable-products.html

https://phys.org/news/2022-04-giant-tunneling-electroresistance-ferroelectric-tunnel.html "band of ferroelectric barrier decreases from left to right... valence band distribution in whole barrier is relatively flat and VBM is below Fermi energy, without occurrence of partial metallization... occurrence and disappearance of partial metallization in two polarization states change effective barrier width significantly and lead to low and high resistance states, with giant TER ratio achieved subsequently...  negatively charged polar interface based on interfacial substitution... large TER ratio in FTJs"

https://phys.org/news/2022-04-wide-temperature-range-high-voltage-aqueous-mxene.html "low-cost, environment-friendly and high-concentrated LiCl aqueous electrolyte regulate reaction kinetics MXene (Ti3C2Tx) electrode and electrolyte... symmetric planar aqueous MXene-MSCs... operating voltage 1.6 V, and energy density of 31.7 mWh cm-3 at room temperature... low freezing point (-57 °C) of high-concentrated LiCl-gel electrolyte also enabled MXene-MSCs to operate stably in a wide temperature range (-40°C to 60°C)... easy for them to be integrated into wearable microelectronics"

https://phys.org/news/2022-04-skyrmions-2d-material-advances-low-power.html "cobalt-doped iron germanium telluride (Fe5GeTe2) in form of nanoflakes. Fe5GeTe2 is typical 2D magnetic material owing to its unique layered structure and crystal symmetry, with iron atoms occupying specific points... by replacing exactly half of iron atoms with cobalt atoms—whose different electronic configuration meant atoms naturally occupied slightly different points in crystal—they could spontaneously break the material's natural crystal symmetry, which altered spin structure"

https://techxplore.com/news/2022-04-efficiency-tandem-solar-cells.html "efficiency of 29.2%... combining perovskite cell with a textured silicon cell... yields will likely top out at around 27% in the foreseeable future, owing to fundamental thermodynamic limitations. Modules incorporating these solar cells will have maximum yields of around 23–25%... limitations can be overcome by combining silicon with solar cell that absorbs blue-green part of solar spectrum and more efficiently, forming what's called tandem" Related: Creating ultralight flexible perovskite solar cells https://techxplore.com/news/2022-05-ultralight-flexible-perovskite-solar-cells.html A strategy to attain amorphous silicon solar cells with over 25% efficiency https://techxplore.com/news/2022-06-strategy-amorphous-silicon-solar-cells.html Tunneling recombination layer boosts efficiency of tandem solar cells https://techxplore.com/news/2023-11-tunneling-recombination-layer-boosts-efficiency.htm

https://phys.org/news/2022-04-ultrafast-optical-magnetic-memory-device.html "Magnetic random-access memory (MRAM) technology focuses on manipulating electron spin to deal with such glitch... data are written by switching direction nanomagnets... allows data to be saved in enduring manner when power is off, computers to boot faster, and consume less power... fastest stimuli commercially available to humankind to break nanosecond speed limitation, thousand times more energy efficient... world-record writing speed of 20 picoseconds (ps)"

https://phys.org/news/2022-04-strategy-boost-pseudocapacitive-micro-supercapacitors.html "highly concentrated water-in-salt ambipolar redox electrolyte where one ambipolar mediator (ZnI2) could offer two redox couples (I-/I2 and Zn/Zn2+) natively, with matched charge storage... two electrons to be oxidized at positive electrode and reduced at negative electrode synchronously and individually, thus offering pseudocapacitive contribution for EG-MSCs... high volumetric capacity of 106 mAh/cm3, energy density of 111 mWh/cm3, and long-term cycling stability with 92.1% retention after 5,300 cycles" Related:  Strategies to limit redox electrolyte-enhanced carbon-based supercapacitor self-discharge https://techxplore.com/news/2023-12-strategies-limit-redox-electrolyte-enhanced-carbon-based.html

https://techxplore.com/news/2022-04-lithium-ion-battery-minutes-anode.html "affixed anode to standard lithium-ion battery and measured amount of time to charge... able to charge battery to 60% in 5.6 minutes (as opposed to 40% for control battery with no alterations) and to 80% in 11.4 minutes... did not test how long it would take to charge to 100% because doing so is not recommended for such batteries... did not reveal if they developed estimates for how much adding copper to anodes would add to price of batteries" Related: Electric vehicle battery capable of 98% charge in less than ten minutes https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2022/06/13/electric-vehicle-battery-capable-of-98-charge-in-less-than-ten-minutes/

https://phys.org/news/2022-04-discovery-one-way-superconductor-thought-impossible.html "to be sure superconducting diode effect, tried switching the diode; applied same magnitude current in both forward and reverse directions and measured no resistance (superconductivity) in one direction and real resistance (normal conductivity) in other direction... measured while applying magnetic fields of different magnitudes and showed effect was present at 0 applied field and gets killed by applied field... magnetic fields at nanometer scale difficult to control and limit"

https://techxplore.com/news/2022-04-cubic-halves-efficiency-droop-ingaaln.html "switching from polar h-LEDs to c-LEDs quenches the efficiency droop from 45% to 22% (i.e. a 51% reduction) thanks to polarization elimination and effective mass reduction. It is further found that the quantum efficiency of c-LEDs is much immune to the Auger electron-hole asymmetry, the increase of Auger coefficient, and thus efficiency degradation mechanisms. Hence, cubic-phase InGaAlN green LEDs offer an appropriate solution to quench the efficiency droop"

"could reversibly switch between 3D and 2D crystal structure dimensionalities of (Pb0.5Sn0.5)Se polycrystals by heating and cooling... In heated state, material assumed 3D crystal structure with metallic electronic structure, which resulted in high electronic, lattice thermal conductivity. When cooled, changed to 2D crystal structure with semiconducting electronic structure and reduced κ. At 373 K (100°C), κ for 3D phase observed 3.6 times higher than for 2D phase" Related:  Heat flow shown to be more efficient when temperature is oscillating than when static https://phys.org/news/2022-04-shown-efficient-temperature-oscillating-static.html

https://www.energymatters.com.au/renewable-news/sydney-scientists-to-power-tesla-with-printed-solar-panels/ "The printed panels – each 18 metres long – use innovative solar technology known as organic photovoltaics (OPV)... water-based solar paint that can be printed at high speed to fabricate large areas, using roll to roll processing techniques. OPV technology, also known as plastic cells will play major role in future of renewable energy... lightweight, easily installed alternative to conventional, silicon-based solar panels, which are heavy and cumbersome" Related: Tesla 4.0 Solar Cell: The Mind-Blowing $0.22/w Breakthrough! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1o-y7cH7bg

https://techxplore.com/news/2022-04-materials-electric-car-batteries.html "made membranes with varying amounts of a lithium-oxide garnet ceramic filler known as LLZO, in the form of both particles and wires just nanometers... both particles and nanowires were evenly distributed throughout polymer, and didn't form networks that could fast-track lithium ions. The membranes with more of filler were actually worse conductors of ions, bolstering conclusion that filler doesn't take part in transporting ions"

https://techxplore.com/news/2022-04-paper-thin-loudspeaker.html "thin-film loudspeaker by mounting it to wall 30 centimeters from microphone to measure sound pressure level, recorded in decibels. 25 volts of electricity passed through at 1 kilohertz... speaker produced high-quality sound at conversational levels of 66 decibels. At 10 kilohertz sound pressure level increased to 86 decibels... Because the tiny domes are vibrating, rather than the entire film, the loudspeaker has a high enough resonance frequency that it can be used effectively for ultrasound applications"

https://phys.org/news/2022-04-teams-neutral-atoms-quantum-circuits.html "One team entangled atoms that were not adjacent to one another using optical tweezers to move them around and then used them to demonstrate that approach could be used to realize well-established quantum information state... other team entangled qubit pairs using laser beams to create complex of six qubits in Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger state... then run two quantum algorithms—one that measured the molecular energy of given atom, the other to work on MaxCut problem"

https://www.tue.nl/en/news-and-events/news-overview/25-04-2022-how-the-eindhoven-heat-battery-can-quickly-make-millions-of-homes-gas-free/ "In Netherlands we have about 150 PetaJoule (a number with 15 zeros) of residual heat from industry per year... enable you to take almost 3.5 million homes off gas, more than twice the target of Dutch government, namely 1.5 million homes gas-free by 2030... Heat grids use pipes with water, which cools and therefore limits radius of action," Adan explains... heat grids have hefty investment risk and has to be broken open to build them... test trial to use heat battery for reuse of industrial residual heat"  Related:  Pioneering the energy transition with revolutionary heat storage systems https://www.innovationnewsnetwork.com/pioneering-energy-transition-with-revolutionary-heat-storage-systems/28874/

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-04-discovery-mcla-clinical-candidate-screened.html "EGFR activity promotes uncontrolled cell growth, LGR5 marks surface of cancer stem cells... development of MCLA-158/ Petosemtamab; also on characterization of its mechanism of action. MCLA-158/ Petosemtamab degrades EGFR protein in cancer stem cells that have LGR5 marker, thereby blocking growth and survival pathways in cells that initiate and spread cancer" Related: New drug could ‘switch off’ genes that trigger deadly brain tumors https://www.braintomorrow.com/glioblastoma-brain-tumor-drug/ Scientists identify a new drug that halts recurring brain tumor growth https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-05-scientists-drug-halts-recurring-brain.html Orally administered tumor vaccine shows promise in animal models https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-05-orally-tumor-vaccine-animal.html Scientists develop 'off the shelf' engineered stem cells to treat aggressive brain cancer https://medicalx

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/kincsem-hyper-gt-hypercar-use-radical-hydrogen-technology "The Hyper-GT chassis will be a carbon tub, understood to be under development by yet another well-known UK tech company whose identity can’t be revealed. McLaren Applied will be responsible for the whole electric powertrain – four electric motors, one per wheel, plus the inverters, traction control systems and a “relatively small” high- performance battery, which should allow the car’s all-up weight to be low against its peers. Total power will be “over 500kW”, or 670bhp" Related: Energy crisis: UK hydrogen breakthrough paves way for 'cheap' truly green power https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/1600898/energy-crisis-uk-hydrogen-breakthrough-paves-way-cheap-truly-green-power Powering the future: Unlocking the role of hydrogen in lithium-ion batteries https://techxplore.com/news/2024-01-powering-future-role-hydrogen-lithium.html

https://www.iit.edu/news/harnessing-wave-energy-illinois-tech-associate-professor-carrie-hall-named-fulbright-scholar "control systems for complex thermal systems to assist with the challenge of providing better control for wave energy converters to improve efficiency and durability... don't know in advance how big they'll be, when or in what direction exactly they'll hit... capture energy in multiple directions and leverage state-of-the-art control and prediction methods accommodate varying wave conditions"

https://news.berkeley.edu/2022/04/07/engineered-crystals-could-help-computers-run-on-less-power/ "superlattice structure composed of three atomic layers of zirconium oxide sandwiched between two single atomic layers of hafnium oxide, totaling less than two nanometers in thickness, provided the best negative capacitance effect. Because most state-of-the-art silicon transistors already use a 2-nanometer gate oxide composed of hafnium oxide on top of silicon dioxide, and since zirconium oxide is also used in silicon technologies, these superlattice structures can easily be integrated into advanced transistors"

https://sciencex.com/news/2022-04-2d-layered-dielectrics-ultra-thin-transistors.html "Density Functional Theory (DFT) and identified 32 different 2D vdW dielectrics... 6 promising dielectric candidates introduced for n-MOS Field Effect Transistors (FETs)... rare-earth oxyhalides (HoOI, LaOBr, LaOCl, LaOI, SrI2, and YOBr). Our theoretical study and computational modeling explicitly reveal that these introduced 2D dielectrics with a thickness less than 0.8 nm outperform traditional 3D oxide dielectrics such as HfO2 with a thickness of 10 nm"

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2022/04/22/the-mobility-revolution-hybrid-lithium-ion-battery-capable-of-recharging-within-a-minute/ "high energy density (285 Wh/kg) and can be rapidly charged with high-power density (22,600 W/kg)... porous carbon hollow structure with large surface area by changing orientation of polymer resin from linear to twisted. When the twisted resin was carbonized, more micropores were formed... carbon structure with surface area 12 times larger... anode was made using a germanium-embedded hollow carbon nanosphere material to reduce degradation and maximize dispersion of lithium ions" See also:  Fast EV charging: Korean tech charges battery in 60 seconds https://cleantechnica.com/2022/04/27/korean-researchers-develop-battery-tech-with-blistering-charge-speeds/

https://phys.org/news/2022-04-advanced-digital-ultra-high-capacity-optical-transmission.html "all-fiber multiplexer to interface single-mode fibers with novel three-core coupled core fibers. transmit 172 Terabits per second over 2040 km... Using infrared camera and reference beam to measure amplitude and phase of both polarizations of optical beam, a full characterization of the phase and amplitude of light was used to obtain key metrics... real-time optical receiver with advanced digital signal processing on a commercial off-the-shelf GPU using CUDA"

https://techxplore.com/news/2022-04-in-situ-composite-solid-state-electrolyte-high-voltage.html "P(PDEM-D4)-CSE exhibits high ionic conductivities (i.e., 4.0 × 10−5, 1.68 × 10−4, and 5.73 × 10−4 S·cm−1 at 30°C, 60°C, and 100°C, respectively). CSE can induce more uniform, reversible Li plating/stripping behaviors, mainly owing to formation of compatible solid electrolyte interface... enables long-life 4.4 V-class solid-state LMBs based on LiCoO2 cathode... 79.7% capacity retention and 99.74% average Coulombic efficiency after 500 cycles at 0.5 C rate"

https://techxplore.com/news/2022-04-boost-batteries-consumer-electronics.html "one electron can be reversibly stored, which only provides battery with maximum capacity of 110 mAh/g. Catalysis has been widely used in lithium-based batteries such as lithium-oxygen batteries and lithium-sulfur batteries to improve energy and power... successfully achieve reversible two-electron storage in polymer-based ORB. all-organic polymer battery with cell voltage of 2.8 V... one of highest voltages in organic batteries... doubles energy storage capability... capacity of 175 mAh/g"

https://techxplore.com/news/2022-04-sulfonamides-robust-cathode-material-proton.html "attaching electron-withdrawing groups to the molecular scaffold... increase electric potential... At 1 V, output voltage achieved was 20% higher than in next-best materials... gel-like electrolyte which was adapted to the sulfonamide cathode material and enabled flexible construction. This malleable battery pack retained capacity over 600 charge/discharge cycles... easy to manufacture, stable under standard environmental conditions, and virtually insoluble in water"

https://phys.org/news/2022-04-sapphire-fiber-enable-cleaner-energy.html "uses a sapphire optical fiber—a thread of industrially grown sapphire less than half a millimeter thick... can withstand temperatures over 2000°C. When light is injected onto one end of the sapphire fiber, some is reflected back from a point along the fiber which has been modified to be sensitive to temperature... writing a channel along length of fiber, such that light is contained within tiny cross-section, one-hundredth of a millimeter in diameter"

https://techxplore.com/news/2022-04-fabricating-qubits-advanced-semiconductor.html "fabricated at an Intel facility, using all-optical lithography and fully industrial processing processes. Optical lithography, also known as photolithography, is manufacturing technique used to transfer a pattern onto a substrate using a photosensitive material... allows us to tap directly into our rich history of process innovations that have driven Moore's law over the last 50 years" Related: 2D materials could allow manufacturers to "catch up" with Moore's Law https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/mit-method-2d-materials-moores-law Nanoscale ferroelectric semiconductor could power AI and post-Moore's Law computing on a phone https://techxplore.com/news/2023-02-nanoscale-ferroelectric-semiconductor-power-ai.html Layered and traditional semiconductors supporting heterogeneous integration open door for post-Moore era https://techxplore.com/news/2023-08-layered-tra

https://techxplore.com/news/2022-04-uncovering-secret-ternary-polymer-solar.html "adding extra ingredient to the mix—giving ternary PSC—can improve power conversion efficiency (PCE) and stability... conducted electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy while PSC was operating. This gave them the chance to observe the behavior of the electrons and holes when cell was irradiated with sunlight... accumulation of charge over time contributes to the performance of cells deteriorating... adding an acceptor molecule, known as ITIC, to this system improves PCE and the stability" Related: A new conducting polymer complex to create stable and fully printable organic solar cells https://techxplore.com/news/2022-05-polymer-complex-stable-fully-printable

https://techxplore.com/news/2022-04-efficient-flexible-solar-cells-excellent.html "incorporated polymer guests into the PM6:BTP-eC9 blend film to form entangled chain networks, thus improved the ductility and morphologically stability of the blend film. Due to the effective dissipation of local load caused by the entangled structure, the crack-onset strain of the developed ternary blend membrane is 17.14% higher than that of the traditional binary blend membrane. In addition, a stabilized PCE of 16.52% was obtained for the polyethylene terephthalate-substrate-based flexible OSCs"

https://techxplore.com/news/2022-04-electrical-perovskites.html "two different aspects of charge-carrier behavior in thin films of a promising perovskite known as CsFAMA (a cesium-containing triple-cation mixed halide perovskite). First, they used a series of brief laser pulses to excite the charge carriers and then examine them just a few picoseconds (trillionths of a second) later... as the density of charge carriers increases, it linearly narrows the energy gap that electrons need to vault when they are excited by incoming light" Related: CityU chemists develop a strategy for highly efficient and stable perovskite solar cells https://www.cityu.edu.hk/research/stories/2022/04/22/cityu-chemists-develop-strategy-highly-efficient-and-stable-perovskite-solar-cells A solution to perovskite solar cell scalability problems https://techxplore.com/news/2022-04-solution-perovskite-solar-cell-scalability.html Cheaper solar cells could be on the way thanks to new materials https://tech

https://techxplore.com/news/2022-04-energy-shift-world-largest-batteries.html "closed-loop" systems that tap a surface or underground supply, then repeatedly cycle that water between reservoirs... pipe water between two 60-acre (24.3-hectare) reservoirs... could power nearly 500,000 homes for up to 12 hours... hundreds of abandoned U.S. mines that could host pumped storage, with upper reservoirs and lower ones below ground. They are close enough to transmission and distribution infrastructure and to solar and wind generating facilities" Related: Hydropower technology turning even low-lying hills into green power stores https://www.rechargenews.com/energy-transition/-no-water-hydropower-technology-set-for-full-scale-debut/2-1-1635557

https://www.laserfocusworld.com/science-research/article/14270618/miniscope-offers-windowlike-view-of-brain-functions-in-action "tiny electrically tunable lens, curvature researchers manipulate via static voltage without causing rise in temperature. Used on mouse model, Mini2P shifted focal plane between surface and deeper cell layers within brain’s cortex, thanks to lens’ curvature... produces 3D structure recordings of brain tissue, can record along multiple planes in Z-axis (toward the top of the brain, ranging from axonal branches... allows study neural network activity at high resolution in naturally behaving animals"

https://news.gsu.edu/2022/04/18/georgia-state-researchers-take-step-toward-developing-electric-eye/ "biomimetic artificial vision device, which uses synthetic methods to mimic biochemical processes, using na­notechnology... more than 80 percent of information is captured by vision in research, industry, medication... can enter narrow spaces... medical diagnosis, environmental study, manufacturing, archaeology... advances color recognition... unique stacking technique... van der Waals semiconductor-empowered vertical color sensing structure... precise color recognition capability" Related: An eye implant engineered from proteins in pigskin restored sight in 14 blind people https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/eye-implant-pig-protein-restored-sight-blind-people-rcna42681

https://techxplore.com/news/2022-04-advanced-power-circuits.html "topology of dual-phase series capacitor DC-DC convertor, voltage-mode PWM controller with two feedback loops proposed to realize modulation of output voltage and series capacitor voltage... fast transient response technology overcame shortcomings of traditional PWM control... used dual-phase inductor current to simultaneously charge the load to further improve the response speed of converter... settling time of only 0.9μs, which is fastest transient responses"

https://newatlas.com/environment/hydrogen-greenhouse-gas/ "hydrogen's Global Warming Potential (GWP) is about twice bad as previously understood; over a 100-year time period, tonne of hydrogen in atmosphere will warm Earth some 11 times more than tonne CO2, with uncertainty of ± 5. Hydrogen reacts with same tropospheric oxidants that clean up methane. Methane is an incredibly potent greenhouse gas, causing some 80 times more warming than equivalent weight CO2 over first 20 years"

https://techxplore.com/news/2022-04-stress-misaligned-particles-typical-lithium.html "lithium can't go into the cathode uniformly... it slows down the intercalation mechanics... make lithium insertion or extraction more uniform on these aggregates or individual particles... Introducing some porosity in the particle agglomerates might sacrifice some energy density, but at the same time would allow lithium to go in more uniformly. That could allow you to get more energy at a given charge/discharge rate"

https://news.clemson.edu/extract-from-a-common-kitchen-spice-could-be-key-to-greener-more-efficient-fuel-cells/ "Curcumin is used to decorate the gold nanoparticles to stabilize them, forming a porous network around the nanoparticles... deposited curcumin gold nanoparticle on surface of electrode at a 100 times lower electric current than previous studies. Without the curcumin coating gold nanoparticles agglomerate... Without this curcumin coating  performance is poor... We need this coating to stabilize and create porous environment around nanoparticles, and then they do a super job with alcohol oxidation" Related: Reversible fuel cells can support grid economically, study finds https://techxplore.com/news/2022-04-reversible-fuel-cells-grid-economically.html  See also: Electricity out one way, green hydrogen the other – engineering the reversible fuel cell https://www.imeche.org/news/news-article/electricity-out-one-way-green-hydrogen-the-other-engineering-the-reversible-fue

https://source.wustl.edu/2022/04/opening-up-the-electromagnetic-spectrum/ "first fully integrated parity-time symmetric electronic system... can be made without the use of exotic materials, only requiring the same standard microelectronic fabrication technology used today for common integrated circuits... new technology implemented a concept with remarkable mathematical properties originating from quantum physics into an integrated circuit. It opens up a new part of the spectrum for research in the giga- to terahertz range"