Latest Charge carriers Stories
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Researchers have identified what causes light emitting diodes (LEDs) to be less efficient at high drive currents, opening up the door for the energy efficient lighting alternative to be better implemented. Previously, scientists had only theorized about the cause behind LED "droop," which refers to a mysterious drop in the amount of light produced when a higher current is applied to the lights. This phenomenon has helped hold LED...
Fast and efficient biologically inspired catalyst could someday make fuel cells cheaper To make fuel cells more economical, engineers want a fast and efficient iron-based molecule that splits hydrogen gas to make electricity. Online Feb. 17 at Nature Chemistry, researchers report such a catalyst. It is the first iron-based catalyst that converts hydrogen directly to electricity. The result moves chemists and engineers one step closer to widely affordable fuel cells. "A drawback with...
Charged particle accelerators have become crucially important to modern day life, be it in health care for cancer treatment or for answering important fundamental scientific questions like the existence of the HIGGS boson, the so called 'God particle'. In a simple picture, charged particles like electrons and protons are accelerated between two end plates across which an electrical voltage is applied. High energies need high voltages (millions and billions of volts) and long acceleration...
Hydrogen production by solar water splitting in photoelectrochemical cells (PEC) has long been considered the holy grail of sustainable energy research. Iron oxide is a promising electrode material. An international team of researchers led by Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, have now gained in-depth insights into the electronic structure of an iron oxide electrode – while it was in operation. This opens up new possibilities for an affordable...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online CSIRO scientist John Lowke thinks he has the mysterious balls of lightning thing figured out, despite himself never witnessing one. Lowke has written a new scientific paper, and has also given the first mathematical solution explaining the birth of ball lightning and how it is capable of passing through glass. Documented sightings of ball lightning have been made across the world for centuries, but no explanation of how it occurs...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online A team of researchers at MIT are trying to unlock the mysteries of a promising material for future electronic devices. Scientists have managed to create three-dimensional "movies" of electron behavior in a topological insulator (TI), which were first discovered a few years ago. TIs are considered to hold great promise for new kinds of electronic devices, and having a better understanding of the unusual behavior within the material...
