US Department of Energy

All-inorganic perovskite with exceptional solar cell properties

Scientists for the first time discovered how to make perovskite solar cells out of quantum dots and used the new material to convert sunlight to electricity with 10.77 percent efficiency.

New 3D design for mobile microbatteries

A French-US team has succeeded in improving the energy density of a rechargeable battery without increasing its size (limited to a few square millimeters in mobile sensors).

New kind of supercapacitor made without carbon

Researchers have for the first time developed a supercapacitor that uses no conductive carbon at all, and that could potentially produce more power than existing versions of this technology.

Turning brewery wastewater into battery power

Engineers have developed an innovative bio-manufacturing process that uses a biological organism cultivated in brewery wastewater to create the carbon-based materials needed to make energy storage cells.

Atomic sandwiches could make computers more energy efficient

Researchers have engineered a material that could lead to a new generation of computing devices, packing in more computing power while consuming a fraction of the energy that today's electronics require.

With Obama Administration, clean energy costs dropped up to 94 percent

The U.S. Department of Energy has released a new report that highlights the accelerated deployment of five clean energy technologies: wind turbines, solar technologies for both utility-scale and distributed photovoltaic, electric vehicles and light-emitting diodes.

Self-charging tag tracks fish as long as they swim

With each swish of a tail, scientists now have a tool that could study the movements of fish throughout their entire lives.

Research explores thermoelectric screen printing

What if you could easily print a thin layer of material - for use anywhere - that would allow you to create flexible energy harvesters or coolers? That may soon be a reality.

New steel for better electric motors

Within a few years, the U.S. Department of Energy wants plug-in electric vehicles to be just as affordable and convenient as the internal-combustion machines most of us drive today.

Solution to accelerate the commercialization of silicon anodes

A new approach could hold the key to greatly improving the performance of commercial lithium-ion batteries.

Discovery creates future opportunity in quantum computing

Scientists discovered a use for perovskites that runs counter to the intended usage of the hybrid organic-inorganic material.

Printed graphene treated with lasers to enable paper electronics

Treating inkjet-printed, multi-layer graphene electric circuits and electrodes with a pulsed-laser process improves electrical conductivity without damaging paper, polymers or other fragile printing surfaces.

Wildcat Discovery Technologies granted three patents

Wildcat Discovery Technologies, a technology company using high throughput methods to develop improved battery materials, is pleased to announce that it has been granted three patents from the United States Patent and Trademark Office for its groundbreaking copper fluoride cathode Wildcat calls "CM4".

3D printed tool for building aircraft achieves world record

A 3D printed trim-and-drill tool has received the title of largest solid 3D printed item by GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™.

Grant to produce nuclear radiation energy-harvesting device

Research grant to develop nuclear radiation energy harvesting and through-wall wireless communication for enclosed metal containers in nuclear environments, like pressure reactor vessels or nuclear spent-fuel canisters.

Self-shading windows developed

A team of researchers at MIT has developed a new way of making windows that can switch from transparent to opaque, potentially saving energy by blocking sunlight on hot days and thus reducing air-conditioning costs.

Images reveal battery materials' chemical reactions in five dimensions

Researchers have created a new imaging technique that allows scientists to probe the internal makeup of a battery during charging and discharging using different x-ray energies while rotating the battery cell.

New lithium-oxygen battery greatly improves energy efficiency

Lithium-air batteries are considered highly promising technologies for electric cars and portable electronic devices because of their potential for delivering a high energy output in proportion to their weight.

Researchers combine simulation, experiment for nanoscale 3-D printing

Designing a 3-D printed structure is hard enough when the product is inches or feet in size. Imagine shrinking it smaller than a drop of water, smaller even than a human hair, until it is dwarfed by a common bacterium.