American Chemical Society

Quantum dots made from fool's gold boost battery performance

If you add quantum dots - nanocrystals 10,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair - to a smartphone battery it will charge in 30 seconds, but the effect only lasts for a few recharge cycles.

New low-cost battery could help store renewable energy

Storing electric power for days when the air is still or when the sun goes down remains a challenge, largely due to cost.

Chemist aims to put his nanohoops into future devices

Nanohoops, can be made using both carbon and other atoms. Because they efficiently absorb and distribute energy, they may be useful in solar cells, organic light-emitting diodes or as new sensors or probes for medicine.

Discovery about new battery overturns decades of false assumptions

New findings have overturned a scientific dogma that stood for decades, by showing that potassium can work with graphite in a potassium-ion battery - a discovery that could pose a challenge and sustainable alternative to the widely-used lithium-ion battery.

Scientists grow organic semiconductor crystals vertically

Scientists have discovered a way to make organic semiconductors more powerful and more efficient.

Method for scaling up production of thin electronic material

Sheets of graphene and other materials that are virtually two-dimensional hold great promise for electronic, optical, and other high-tech applications. But the biggest limitation in unleashing this potential has been figuring out how to make these materials in the form of anything larger than tiny flakes.

Silk bio-ink could help advance tissue engineering with 3-D printers

Finding an ideal bio-ink for 3-d printing has stalled progress toward printing more complex tissues with versatile functions — tissues that can be loaded with pharmaceuticals, for example.

Light-harvesting nanoparticles, captures energy from hot electrons

Researchers have demonstrated an efficient new way to capture the energy from sunlight and convert it into clean, renewable energy by splitting water molecules.

Solar cell absorbs high-energy light at 30-fold higher concentration

By combining designer quantum dot light-emitters with spectrally matched photonic mirrors, a team of scientists created solar cells that collect blue photons at 30 times the concentration of conventional solar cells, the highest luminescent concentration factor ever recorded.

Thin ribbon of flexible electronics can monitor health, infrastructure

A new world of flexible, bendable, even stretchable electronics is emerging from research labs to address a wide range of potentially game-changing uses.

Smart fabrics need a new class of batteries

As new wearable technologies are developed, researchers are looking for ways to provide power.

Flexible, biodegradable device can generate power from touch

Scientists report the development of a biodegradable nanogenerator made with DNA that can harvest the energy from everyday motion and turn it into electrical power.

World's first solar battery to performance milestone

After debuting the world's first solar air battery last fall, researchers at The Ohio State University have now reached a new milestone.

Nano-copper is 10 times stronger than copper

At IDTechEx we have invited a number of leading players in the nanocarbon industry to write opinion pieces, reflecting on their produces, latest research, market insight, and commercialisation experience. We will be releasing these articles over the next few weeks.

A low cost atmospheric pressure PECVD technology

Flexible electronic devices such as organic Photovoltaics or OLED displays require encapsulation envelopes with extreme gas permeation barrier properties to achieve the required life time stability.

Researchers produce powerful biosensor for medical diagnostics

This new biosensor has demonstrated very high sensitivity in detecting cholera toxins and can provide earlier diagnosis of conditions such as cancer and other infectious diseases.

Tiny wires could provide a big energy boost

Researchers have found a promising new approach to delivering the short but intense bursts of power needed by such small devices.

Printing 3D graphene structures for tissue engineering

Researchers have found a way to print three-dimensional structures with graphene nanoflakes.

Robust new process forms 3D shapes from flat sheets of graphene

Researchers have developed a new approach for forming 3D shapes from flat, 2D sheets of graphene, paving the way for future integrated systems of graphene-MEMS hybrid devices and flexible electronics.

First flexible phase-change random access memory

Phase change random access memory is one of the strongest candidates for next-generation nonvolatile memory for flexible and wearable electronics.