Researchers at Columbia Engineering have developed a new gel electrolyte that both improves the lifetime and safety of anode-free lithium batteries, an emerging battery architecture that could dramatically boost energy density while simplifying manufacturing. Although such design promises higher energy density and lower cost, the approach has long been plagued by short battery life and safety concerns caused by unstable lithium plating and parasitic reactions at the electrode-electrolyte interface.

Flexible electronics are often sold on a simple promise: bendable screens, lightweight solar cells or wearable devices that can bend and flex without breaking. But what does that ‘flexibility’ actually look like at the molecular scale, and how does it affect performance?

A team led by researchers at Penn State used a plant-based material to separate and recover dysprosium, a heavy rare earth element used in industrial manufacturing, from other rare earth elements. According to the researchers, the approach is environmentally friendly, more sustainable and efficient than other commercial approaches.

The Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Kairos Power have entered into a $27 million strategic partnership to accelerate the technology needed to deploy a new generation of advanced nuclear reactors and support U.S. nuclear energy goals.  The Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Kairos Power have entered into a $27 million strategic partnership to accelerate the technology needed to deploy a new generation of advanced nuclear reactors and support U.S. nuclear energy goals.  

In the pursuit of powerful and stable quantum computers, researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, have developed the theory for an entirely new quantum system – based on the novel concept of ‘giant superatoms’. This breakthrough enables quantum information to be protected, controlled, and distributed in new ways and could be a key step towards building quantum computers at scale.