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05/19/2016 : 149976
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Is Sodium the Battery of the Future?
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Posted by Okachinepa on 01/23/2025 @
Courtesy of SynEvol
Credit: Jim GenSheimer
To get a piece of the $50 billion-a-year, expanding lithium-ion market, legions of battery experts and their backers have been working for years to create batteries that are less expensive than the industry standard.
Following a wild ride in lithium pricing due to COVID-induced problems with the material supply chain, sodium-ion batteries have become the newest darling contender among researchers, companies, and venture capitalists. However, a recent study published in Nature Energy suggests that developing a low-cost competitor for sodium-ion batteries may be years away and will necessitate a number of technological advancements and advantageous market conditions.
In comparison to lithium-ion batteries, sodium-ion batteries are frequently thought to have more robust supply chains and lower pricing. Sodium-ion batteries still have a long way to go despite their great potential. They typically have a lesser energy capacity per pound than lithium-ion batteries. Therefore, even with potentially cheaper material costs, sodium-ion batteries still cost more per unit of energy stored. This would probably prevent broad commercial adoption unless there are advances in research first.
The analysis identifies the most promising areas for development, starting with a new collaboration between the SLAC-Stanford Battery Center and the Precourt Institute for Energy at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. The recently launched STEER initiative evaluates the economic and scientific possibilities of new energy technologies and makes recommendations about "where to innovate, how to invest, and what to build" for the energy transition. The current study tested the durability of their roadmaps for the competitive potential of sodium-ion batteries by analyzing over 6,000 scenarios.
In 2022, lithium-ion battery prices increased for the first time, raising concerns about the possibility of a need for a substitute. As the study's lead author and the founder and team lead of STEER, which was launched in October 2023 with assistance from three U.S. Department of Energy offices, Adrian Yao stated, "Sodium-ion is perhaps the most compelling near-term challenger to lithium-ion, and many battery companies announced plans of major build out of sodium-ion manufacturing, promising pathways to lower prices than the incumbent."
According to Yao, a doctoral candidate who returned to academia after eight years as the founder and chief technology officer of a lithium-ion battery startup that is now producing its batteries on a large, commercial scale, "we recognized that if, when, and how sodium-ion batteries might undercut lithium-ion on price was largely speculative, especially given that the price of lithium-ion continues to fall."
ICourtesy of SynEvol
Credit: Jim GenSheimer
William Chueh, an associate professor of materials science in the School of Engineering, of photon science at SLAC, and of energy science and engineering in the Doerr School, and Sally Benson, the Precourt Family Professor in the Department of Energy Science & Engineering in the Doerr School of Sustainability, are Yao's PhD co-advisors and co-directors of STEER.
Benson stated that this sodium-ion study was the ideal endeavor to introduce STEER as a new method of directing research and funding toward the technological roadmaps that are most deserving of being pursued and, perhaps more importantly, away from those that are unlikely to succeed.
The study identifies numerous important avenues for sodium-ion battery makers to compete on price, particularly against a low-cost lithium-ion battery variation called lithium-iron-phosphate. Increasing energy densities without using essential minerals is crucial. Developers should specifically steer clear of nickel and aim for lithium-iron-phosphate energy densities. The more costly metal is currently used in the majority of the most popular sodium-ion designs.
"Our main goal was to highlight the effects of different market scenarios on the viability of competing technologies, rather than forecasting precise years for when we expect price parity," Chueh stated.
As investors and technologists, we cannot presume that once a technology enters commercial manufacturing, economies-of-scale would inevitably cause prices to fall. Chueh, who is also the head of the Precourt Institute for Energy, acknowledged that there would be a learning curve, but he quantified it to demonstrate that it is insufficient on its own. "Simply scaling production won't likely be enough to reduce the cost of sodium-ion batteries; engineering advancements will likely do much more."
According to the researchers, such developments and novel battery chemistries are generally worthwhile. Diversifying grid energy storage system technologies could improve the overall supply chain's resilience, according to the Department of Energy's 2022 energy storage supply chain analysis. As greater energy storage is required for the worldwide shift to sustainable energy, relying too much on lithium-ion batteries will provide security, economic, and geopolitical challenges. The study, for instance, models how supply shocks to graphite, a crucial component of lithium-ion batteries of which China controls more than 90% of the world's supply, might accelerate the competitiveness of sodium-ion batteries. Indeed, China started to severely limit graphite exports to the US on December 3, 2024.
Additionally, the study analyzes supply chain circumstances and market pressures that may harm sodium-ion's ability to compete with lithium-ion. For instance, assuming lithium prices stay close to their current historic lows, sodium-ion will have fewer technological options for achieving price advantage over the next ten years.
One crucial lesson we took up from industry professionals is that, although battery cell costs are significant, technologies only work well at the system level, such as in grid-scale battery energy storage systems or electric vehicles. For this reason, we're now broadening our focus to offer more comprehensive viewpoints, such as comprehending the cost of safety and other system issues," Yao stated.
STEER has started extending its methodology to other domains of technology. The supply chain of graphite, the previously stated and frequently disregarded important material, is being studied by its experts. At a roundtable in September in Washington, D.C., Department of Energy experts and industry leaders provided guidance on what questions to ask and how to respond. More than 40 industry groups participated in the event, which connected all graphite manufacturers with money from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the value chain from mining firms to automakers.
Along with other energy transition sectors like hydrogen and industrial decarbonization, the STEER team also intends to examine technology roadmaps in long-duration energy storage.
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UCLA’s New Cooling Device Continuously Lowers Temperatures by 16°FU
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Posted by Okachinepa on 01/22/2025 @
Courtesy of SynEvol
Credit: UCLA Soft Materials Research Laboratory
UCLA materials scientists developed a tiny cooling mechanism that continually removes heat through layers of flexible thin films. This design takes advantage of the electrocaloric phenomenon, which occurs when an electric field is applied to a material and briefly increases its temperature.
In lab trials, the researchers discovered that the prototype could consistently drop ambient temperatures in its immediate surrounds by 16 degrees Fahrenheit and up to 25 degrees near the source of the heat after about 30 seconds.
The concept, described in a research published in the journal Science, might be used to wearable cooling technology or portable cooling devices.
"Our long-term goal is to develop this technology for wearable cooling accessories that are comfortable, affordable, reliable, and energy-efficient — especially for people who work in very hot environments for long periods of time," said principal investigator Qibing Pei, a materials science and engineering professor at UCLA's Samueli School of Engineering. "As average temperatures rise due to climate change, dealing with heat is becoming a key health concern. We need a range of answers to the problem, and this could serve as one.
The experimental material consists of a circular stack of six thin polymer films that are slightly under an inch in diameter and one-quarter of an inch thick overall. Each layer has carbon nanotubes on both sides. The resulting material is ferroelectric, which means it changes shape in response to an electric field.
When the device's electric field is turned on, the stacked layers squeeze against one another in pairs. When the electricity is turned off, the stacked pairs separate and press on the adjoining layers. As this alternate process continues, the self-regenerative, accordion-like cascade movement removes heat layer by layer.
"The polymer films use a circuit to shuttle charges between pairs of stacked layers, which makes the flexible cooling device more efficient than air conditioners," said Hanxiang Wu, one of the study's co-lead authors and a postdoctoral scholar in Pei's group.
Courtesy of SynEvol
Credit: UCLA Soft Materials Research Laboratory
Traditional cooling technology is based on air conditioning and refrigeration, which need vapor compression, which not only consumes a significant amount of energy but also uses carbon dioxide as a coolant. The new device is simpler in construction and does not require any coolants or liquids that emit greenhouse gases. It runs purely on electricity, which can be generated sustainably using renewable energy sources like solar panels.
"This cooling device integrates advanced materials with an elegant mechanical architecture to deliver energy-efficient cooling by embedding functionality directly into its structure, reducing complexity, energy use, and computational demands," said Wenzhong Yan, co-lead author of the study and a postdoctoral scholar in mechanical engineering.
Pei is a joint faculty member in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and directs UCLA's Soft Materials Research Laboratory. He and his colleagues have been researching electrocaloric cooling systems that can lower temperatures low enough for real-world applications.
"Because we can use thin flexible films, electrocaloric cooling would be most ideal for next-generation wearables that can keep us cool under strenuous conditions," Pei told reporters. "It could also be used to cool electronics with flexible components."
Sumanjeet Kaur, a materials staff scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and leader of its Thermal Energy Group, is another author of the study and a co-inventor on the patent application UCLA has filed for this invention. "The potential of efficient wearable cooling in driving energy savings and mitigating climate change cannot be overstated," according to Kaur.
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Intel's New Best Graphics Card
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Posted by Okachinepa on 01/20/2025 @
Courtesy of SynEvol
Credit: Digital Trends
The Arc B570, one of the greatest graphics cards available, was recently released by Intel. It offers good 1080p gaming performance at a price we haven't seen in years, as you can see . However, the RTX 4060 from Nvidia presents some fierce competition.
The two low-cost GPUs were put on the test bench to evaluate how well they perform in various games. Even while both cards are great choices for those under $300, it's difficult to argue with Intel's new Arc B570 given how much less expensive it is than the Nvidia rival.
Courtesy of SynEvol
Credit: Digital Trends
The key consideration when comparing the Arc B570 and RTX 4060 is price. The Arc B570 costs only $220, whereas the RTX 4060 from Nvidia costs $300. $80, or a 36% price increase, is a quite big price difference that would typically point to a wide performance gap. However, it isn't the case here. When it comes to raw performance, the RTX 4060 and Arc B570 are surprisingly competitive.
Power, process, and VRAM are the only three crucial specifications. alliteration. Both GPUs employ TSMC for processing, however Nvidia uses a node that is a little bit smaller. It is more efficient, and the rated power draw reflects that. Although both cards still use a single 8-pin power socket, the Arc B570 can reach up to 150W while the RTX 4060 only consumes 115W.
VRAM is a considerable change, but not as much as the specifications would imply. The RTX 4060 has a narrower memory bus with 8GB, whereas the Arc B570 has a broader bus and 10GB. Intel wins hands-down, don't you think? Not precisely. The Arc B570 has a larger capacity, however its effective bandwidth is actually lower.
A tiny pool of L3 cache is built inside the RTX 4060 to increase memory bandwidth. AMD would describe this as an Infinity Cache. Since the Arc B570 lacks such a cache, the real-world gaming experience of the RTX 4060 and Arc B570 is essentially the same, even though Intel's GPU has a larger capacity. When playing intensive games like Indiana Jones and The Great Circle, you should treat both as though they have 8GB of graphics card space.
The Arc B570's price is a significant advantage in this regard. Regardless of which of these two GPUs you select, you will have to make concessions in VRAM-intensive games, although it is easier to defend such concessions with a $220 graphics card card as opposed to one that costs $300.
Courtesy of SynEvol
Credit: Digital Trends
Let's move on to the benchmarks. Performance in 1080p gaming is the primary goal of both the RTX 4060 and the Arc B570. If you want the best experience, stick with 1080p and a high refresh rate gaming monitor, though they might have enough power to scale up to 1440p in some light games. Except for difficult games like Black Myth: Wukong, which will need some upscaling help, you can easily play most games at 60 frames per second (fps) with either GPU.
But among the games tested, there isn't really a recurring pattern. The RTX 4060 has a tiny advantage overall, averaging 6%, but keep in mind that it costs 36% more. With the Arc B570, Intel unquestionably prevails in this conflict in terms of value.
But in this case, subtlety is crucial. Games like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Black Myth: Wukong, and Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered demonstrate how the Arc B570 mysteriously fails in certain games. Though the drops aren't as severe, the RTX 4060 also contains a few of those games, most notably Red Dead Redemption 2 and Returnal.
What matters is that both the RTX 4060 and the Arc B570 are achieving playable, and occasionally excellent, performance in these taxing games at 1080p and with all settings set to maximum. Value becomes more important when that bar is passed; in many of these titles, upgrading to the RTX 4060 won't provide in a notably superior experience. But there is one exception, and that is Black Myth: Wukong.
This is an excellent illustration of a state-of-the-art PC experience where Nvidia performs noticeably better than Intel. I predict that newer games will put more strain on the Arc B570 due to its marginally poorer performance, forcing you to make concessions sooner rather than later like you would with the RTX 4060. Whether those concessions are worth an additional $80 is the question. Well, I'll let you decide that.
Courtesy of SynEvol
Credit: Digital Trends
Ray tracing games can be played on both the RTX 4060 and Arc B570, especially at 1080p with some help from upscaling. In this scenario, Nvidia's ray tracing performance isn't as bad as it normally is. With the exception of Returnal, where the Arc B570 actually outperformed the RTX 4060, the two computers displayed nearly identical results.
Both GPUs are capable of ray tracing, and the Arc B570 performs admirably. But more games are beginning to use full-fledged path tracing, such Alan Wake 2 and Black Myth: Wukong, and Nvidia continues to have an advantage in those games. You'll have a better chance, but honestly, I don't think either of these GPUs are that good for comprehensive route tracing at activating all of the Nvidia GPU's graphic features.
You will occasionally need to use performance-enhancing options with this type of GPU. It is XeSS for Intel. A variety of games use this AI-powered upscaling tool, and Intel recently unveiled the XeSS 2 version, which incorporates frame generation. Although XeSS 2 is incredibly effective, it has a major flaw. As of this writing, there is just one game that offers it.
For the RTX 4060, Nvidia provides DLSS 3, which also provides frame generation and AI-assisted upscaling. Although XeSS and DLSS are quite comparable in terms of quality and performance, Nvidia has a considerable advantage in terms of support. More than 500 games support DLSS, and nearly 200 of them use Frame Generation DLSS 3.
At this pricing point, value is crucial, and Intel's Arc B570 delivers on that promise. PC gamers who are just starting out will find it to be a great choice. Perhaps you wish to play Marvel Rivals with some friends or finally check out the PC versions of large strategy games like Crusaders King 3. At a price that hasn't been matched in a few years, the Arc B570 can provide that experience.
But when it comes to those high-end gaming experiences like Black Myth: Wukong, you'll have to make some concessions. The RTX 4060 stands out in those titles thanks to its improved performance and DLSS 3. Instead of getting better performance in every game, you're investing the extra $80 to enable those experiences when they arise.
Thus, in my opinion, the Intel Arc B570 comes out on top. It offers incredible value, making it a simple choice for anyone searching for a contemporary GPU on a tight budget. Although the RTX 4060 is more of a stepping stone to Nvidia's more costly alternatives than a workhorse like the Arc B570, it still makes sense for some people.
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Engineers Address the "Dead Zone" Issue
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Posted by Okachinepa on 01/20/2025 @
Courtesy of SynEvol
Credit: Fred Zwicky
To get rid of "dead zones" in fluid flow in electrodes used for battery-powered seawater desalination, engineers have created a solution. This innovation entails a tapered flow channel design inside the electrodes that is driven by physics and allows for quicker and more effective fluid movement. When compared to traditional reverse osmosis methods, this design may use less energy.
Significant obstacles have prevented desalination technology from being widely used. Reverse osmosis, the most widely used technique, uses a lot of energy and money to filter salt from water by pushing it through a membrane. The battery desalination process, on the other hand, employs electricity to extract charged salt ions from the water. But up until now, this method has been limited by the energy needed to force water through electrodes with small, uneven pore gaps.
According to Kyle Smith, a professor of mechanical science and engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, who conducted the study, "traditional electrodes still require energy to pump fluids through because they do not contain any inherently structured flow channels." "However, by forming channels inside the electrodes, the method may eventually become more effective than what is typically employed in the reverse-osmosis process and require less energy to force the water through."
Smith's battery-based desalination method is the result of years of modeling and testing by his Illinois research team, which recently showed the first application of electrodes with tiny microchannels known as interdigitated flow fields.
IDFFs are used in electrodes in the group's most recent investigation as well, however this time the channel shape is tapered rather than straight. Fluid flow, or permeability, was enhanced two to three times when electrodes with tapered channels were used instead of straight ones. The journal Electrochimica Acta has published the results.
"We discovered dead zones within the electrodes where we saw pressure drops and nonuniform flow distribution as a result of our initial work on straight channels in electrodes," said Habib Rahman, a graduate student at Illinois. "We developed a library of 28 distinct straight channels to experiment with and comprehend conductance and flow variation, and ultimately, we implemented this channel-tapering technique in order to overcome this challenge."
The time it takes to mill the channels into the electrodes was one of the manufacturing difficulties Smith and Rahman encountered during the trials, which would be an issue in any situation involving scaled-up production. Smith asserted that they are certain that this obstacle can be surmounted.
"Our channel-tapering theory and related design principles can be directly applied to any other electrochemical device that uses flowing fluids, including those for energy storage conversion and environmental sustainability like fuel cells, electrolysis cells, flow batteries, carbon capture devices, and lithium recovery devices," Smith stated, in addition to its influence on electrochemical desalination. "Our approach here provides physics-based design guidelines to create uniform flow and minimize pressure drops simultaneously, in contrast to previous channel-tapering strategies that used impromptu designs."
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Ultra-Thin Lenses Will Transform Technology
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Posted by Okachinepa on 01/17/2025 @
Courtesy of SynEvol
Credit: 2024 Konishi et al.
Researchers have created a novel way to use common semiconductor manufacturing processes to create Fresnel zone plates, which are paper-thin optical lenses.
Even though these lenses are currently less effective, their potential for mass production and application-specific design could revolutionize a variety of industries, including consumer electronics and astronomy.
A new generation of compact optical devices may be made possible by paper-thin optical lenses, which are easy enough to produce in large quantities utilizing microchip manufacturing techniques. Fresnel zone plates (FZPs) are flat lenses that have been created and tested by researchers from JSR Corp. and the University of Tokyo utilizing standard semiconductor manufacturing tools, namely the i-line stepper. This is the first time that this method has been used to create such lenses. Despite not being as effective as traditional lenses at the moment, these flat lenses have the potential to completely transform optics in a variety of fields, including consumer electronics, healthcare, and astronomy.
Metalenses and other flat lenses are already available, but they are costly, complicated, and scarce. With the assistance of academic researchers, manufacturers are investigating alternative technologies in response to the need for improved performance, reduced costs, and superior quality. FZPs have become a viable option, particularly for applications with limited space. For the first time, researchers successfully produced sample lenses through a simple and efficient process using standard industry machinery.
Courtesy of SynEvol
Credit: 2024 Konishi et al.
"We used a common semiconductor lithography system, or stepper, to develop a straightforward and mass-producible method for FZPs," stated Associate Professor Kuniaki Konishi of the Institute for Photon Science and Technology. The reason for this is a unique kind of photoresist or mask known as a color resist, which was first created for use as color filters. We created lenses that could concentrate visible light down to about 1.1 microns—roughly 100 times thinner than a human hair—by merely coating, exposing, and developing this material.
The new FZPs' current flaw is that they only have a 7% light-gathering efficiency, which results in images that are too noisy. However, the group is already figuring out how to boost this fourfold by altering how they use the color is resistant. Though it is possible, this would necessitate a higher level of control over the physical characteristics of the color resists than the researchers had at the time of this investigation.
Courtesy of SynEvol
Credit: 2024 Konishi et al.
Together with effectively creating FZPs, we also developed simulations that closely reflect our tests. This means that before committing to manufacturing, we might modify designs to fit certain uses in various industries, like medicine," Konishi explained. Additionally, we anticipate economic and environmental advantages as well because, in contrast to conventional manufacturing techniques, the FZP production process uses a lot less energy and does not use hazardous etching chemicals.
Therefore, it may be some time until FZPs enable you to record situations in excellent visual fidelity using your really tiny smartphone, but this or similar technology will probably be developed shortly.
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