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3-D nanocone solar cell boosts PV conversion efficiency by nearly 80%

Green Car Congress

With the creation of a 3-D nanocone-based solar cell platform, a team led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Jun Xu has boosted the light-to-power conversion efficiency of photovoltaics by nearly 80 percent. Nanocone-based solar cell consisting of n-type nanocones, p-type matrix, transparent conductive oxide (TCO) and glass substrate.

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Toyota Research Institute and Northwestern partner to accelerate new materials discovery with nanomaterial data factory; fuel cell catalysts first

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While the first application of the data factory will be used to discover new catalysts to make fuel cell vehicles more efficient, TRI and Northwestern believe this method of materials discovery will have wide-ranging applications in the future such as clean hydrogen production, CO 2 removal from air and high-efficiency solar cells.

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Ioxus Developing Higher Power Density Ultracapacitors

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Smaller Ioxus cells offer a power density of 22-28 kW/kg, and larger cells offer densities of 12-15 kW/kg, said Chad Hall, COO of Ioxus. Ioxus expects a new set of cells, targeted for release at the end of the year with different terminations, to surpass Maxwell’s large cells in both volumetric and gravimetric power densities.

Powered 218
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Northwestern team develops new approach to catalyst design using SPBCL and DFT; new HER catalyst 7x more active than Pt

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—Professor Chad A. Liliang Huang, Peng-Cheng Chen, Mohan Liu, Xianbiao Fu, Pavlo Gordiichuk, Yanan Yu, Chris Wolverton, Yijin Kang, Chad A. Mirkin, co-corresponding author. —Huang et al. The global catalysis market is expected to reach $34.3 billion in the next six years, according to a report by Grand View Research, Inc.

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Africa’s Electricity-Access Problem Is Worse Than You Think

Cars That Think

Knowing how many solar panels are on a roof informs us about the maximum possible rate of local generation but not about the annual capacity factor or about the final uses of generated electricity. This means that in 2019 about 770 million people had no electricity, three-quarters of them in Africa. What does 50 kWh/year deliver?

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The Top 10 Semiconductor Stories of 2023

Cars That Think

The Practical Power of Fusing Photons Chad Hagen Silicon solar cells are relatively cheap and plentiful, but they miss out on a lot of energy in sunlight. Instead of knocking excitons around, phonons in this molecule bind to them to create a new quasiparticle that flow freely through the semiconductor at twice the speed of electrons.

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Tesla Roadster battery replacement cuts 400 pounds, half the space

Baua Electric

Re/Cell replacement battery pack for the Tesla Roadster “Replacement packs for the Roadster are expensive and overburdened, with an unnecessary focus on straight-line performance and range,” Re/Cell president Chad Maglaque said in a statement.