Energy Focus: Rechargeable room-temperature sodium-air battery involves sodium superoxide
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ith the growing presence of electric vehicles, there is an increasing drive to produce low-weight, high-capacity batteries that operate at room temperature. Significant attention has focused on lithium-air batteries, which reduce weight and volume by using atmospheric oxygen in place of an onboard reactant, and can thus rival the energy density of gasoline. Current lithium-air systems however suffer from several limitations, including complex chemistries and irreversible electrolyte decomposition during cycling. Addressing this problem, P. Hartmann of Justus Liebig University Giessen, Germany, A.K. Dürr of BASF, and their colleagues have demonstrated a reversibly charging/discharging sodium-air battery that may provide an alternative path to a rechargeable metal-air battery. Their results are reported in a letter published online December 2, 2012 in Nature Ma-
Energy Focus 20-fs resolution pump-probe spectroscopy reveals role of hot exciton dissociation in polymer solar cells
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olymer solar cells consist of a blend of a semiconducting polymer donor with a fullerene derivative electron acceptor. The photoinduced dynamics at the interface between the donor and acceptor components are fundamental to light-to-current conversion. The precise mechanisms occurring on ultrafast time scales (
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