Chalk another one up for the treasures at FT ....bismuth is yet to rear its head and we have no shortage of it in our unique technical deposit at NICO, Some have to see the value in this deposit and start to act on it.....self charging ion batteries wow ...the future is going to be very interesting...
A team of researchers from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) has developed an inexpensive, lightweight, and non- ...
the wall (Nano Letters, "Photorechargeable Lead-Free Perovskite Lithium-Ion Batteries Using Hexagonal Cs3Bi2I9 Nanosheets"). The increasing
A team of researchers from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) has developed an inexpensive, lightweight, and non-toxic (lead-free) photo-battery that has dual functions in harvesting solar energy and storing energy on a single device, making it possible to charge a battery under the sun, without having to plug the device into the wall…The increasing demand for sustainable energy sources has driven a surge of interest in solar energy and developing storage devices for it. One such device, the photo-battery, is capable of both generating and storing energy in a single device architecture…A team led by Prof. Jonathan Eugene HALPERT, Assistant Professor from the Department of Chemistry at HKUST, has made advancements towards developing more efficient photobatteries by expanding the utility of a class of materials known as perovskite, which has had applications in solar cells and most recently in batteries…The perovskite halide the team developed acts as a photoelectrode that can harvest energy under illumination without the assistance of an external load in a lithium-ion battery, and is in stark contrast with its existing counterpart for it does not contain lead, hence it has higher stability in air and is free from the concerns of lead poisoning. For their research, the team has replaced lead with bismuth (Bi), a non-toxic element, and forming a strongly light-absorbing crystalline material…The lithium-ion battery works by allowing electrons to move from a high energy state to a lower one, while doing work in an external circuit. The photobattery has a mechanism similar to an ordinary battery except that it need not be supplied current or plugged into the wall to be charged electrically, but can be charged photoelectrically under the sun…The active material in this new battery is the lead-free perovskite which, when put under light, absorbs a photon and generates a pair of charges, known as an electron and a hole…“At present, we plug all our appliances into the wall to charge them. With further development in this field of photobatteries, we might not have to plug them in at all in the future,” said Prof. Halpert. “We might be able to harvest solar energy and use it to fulfil the power requirements of any devices with modest power needs. Our work is one of the initial steps taken in this field, and, of course, a lot of improvements will be needed to achieve better performance, but we are confident that we can improve its stability and average efficiency with further refinement.”…This photobattery can serve as the built-in battery for devices such as smartphones or tablets, and even remote energy storage applications, which can be made easy with these photobatteries for they are lightweight and portable.