Direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs), which produce electricity using methanol, will be an alternative solution in the transition away from fossil fuels and toward a ‘hydrogen’ economy. However, undesired methanol oxidation on the cathode side in DMFCs degrades the essential platinum catalyst, causing performance and stability problems. Now, scientists from Korea have found a simple…

Developing safe and sustainable fuels for nuclear energy is an integral part of an energy security mission. «Actinide nitride fuels are potentially a safer and more economical option in current power-generating systems,» said Bi Nguyen, Los Alamos National Laboratory Agnew postdoc and lead author of research recently published in the journal Inorganic Chemistry, which was…

A research team reveals the phase transition and metal ex-solution phenomena to increase the catalytic activity. A joint research team of Professor Jeong Woo Han and Ph.D. candidate Kyeounghak Kim of POSTECH’s Department of Chemical Engineering, and Professor Guntae Kim of UNIST have uncovered the mechanism by which PBMO — a catalyst used in fuel…

Researchers have identified the active nitrogen atoms in the carbon catalyst of a technology that will help optimize a proposed renewable energy storage technology. In a study recently published in Angewandte Chemie International Edition, researchers from the University of Tsukuba reported chemical details for optimizing the oxygen reduction reaction in PEM fuel cells in acidic…

Anion exchange membrane (AEM) fuel cells (AEMFCs), which produce electricity using hydrogen, are considered an alternative to currently used proton exchange membrane fuel cells. However, AEMs have problems with stability in alkaline conditions, which can be overcome by crosslinking — but effects of crosslinker length on AEMFC performance are not well understood. Now, scientists have…

New research shows that fuel poverty makes people’s physical and mental health worse. Researchers found that not being able to keep homes warm enough affects people’s levels of life satisfaction. But they also found that it impacts people’s physical health by causing higher levels of inflammation, measured by fibrinogen, a blood-based biomarker. Researchers investigated how…

Researchers have developed a new battery material that could enable long-range electric vehicles that can drive for hundreds of miles on a single charge, and electric planes called eVTOLs for fast, environmentally friendly commutes. But while lithium metal extends an EV’s driving range by 30-50%, it also shortens the battery’s useful life due to lithium…

Design of aerial vehicles and weapon systems relies on the ability to predict aerodynamic behavior, often aided by advanced computer simulations of the flow of air over the body. High-fidelity simulations assist engineers in maximizing how much load a rotorcraft can lift or how far a missile can fly, but these simulations aren’t cheap. A…

Researchers believe a new hinge is the key to get load-bearing, large, Army quadrotors to climb a few dozen feet in seconds. Dr. Jean-Paul Reddinger, a research aerospace engineer with the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command, now known as DEVCOM, Army Research Laboratory, is studying how quickly a quadrotor the size of a king-sized…

A team has demonstrated magnetic Feshbach resonances between a single barium ion and lithium atoms at near absolute zero temperature. The researchers found that depending on the strength of the external magnetic field, the expansion of the ion and atoms can be controlled. Quantum effects dominate at ultralow temperatures In classical physics, the molecular formation…