Energy

Tue 1 Aug 2017. Engineers produce long lasting, energy density battery. The new research have applied a new twist to the old chemistry behind batteries. The result is a battery that takes advantage of intercalation and complexation chemistry to make the cathodes rechargeable to a larger extent, greatly extending its life. This is the first time a novel calcium hydroxide interlayer is used to block the poisonous zinc ions through complexation which will allow the battery to maintain its high energy density over 900 cycles. More

  Physics

Tue 27 July 2017. New transistor concept developed. Transistors, as used in billions on every computer chip, are nowadays based on semiconductor-type materials, usually silicon. As the demands for computer chips in laptops, tablets and smartphones continue to rise, new possibilities are being sought out to fabricate them inexpensively, energy-saving and flexibly. The new transistors could be based on a completely different principle. They use metal nanoparticles which are so small that they no longer show their metallic character under current flow but exhibit an energy gap caused by the Coulomb repulsion of the electrons among one another. Via a controlling voltage, this gap can be shifted energetically and the current can thus be switched on and off as desired. More

  Chemistry

Sun 25 July 2017. A new chemical reaction with potential to speed drug development. Chemists have long sought to develop new reactions for the direct conversion of simple hydrocarbon building blocks into valuable materials such as pharmaceuticals in a way that dependably creates the same chemical bonds and orientations. A new method has been developed for the direct conversion of a variety of double bond-containing materials into useful products. More

  Nuclear

Sun 27 Feb 2017. New laser spectroscopy technique to understand atomic and nuclear structure of newly discovered radioactive atoms. The heavy actinide element actinium (Ac) was produced in a series of experiments using the particle accelerator at Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. The quickly decaying atoms of this element were captured in a gas chamber filled with Ar, sucked into a supersonic jet, and spotlighted with laser beams. By doing so, the outer electron in a different orbit is brought. A second laser beam then shoots the electron away. This ionizes the atom, meaning that it becomes positively charged and is now easy to manipulate and detect. The colour of the laser light is like a fingerprint of the atomic structure of the element and the structure of its nucleus. More