Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog

Category: sustainability

MXene-polymer composite enables printed, eco-friendly device for energy harvesting and motion-sensing

Researchers at Boise State University have developed a novel, environmentally friendly triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) that is fully printed and capable of harvesting biomechanical and environmental energy while also functioning as a real-time motion sensor. The innovation leverages a composite of Poly (vinyl butyral-co-vinyl alcohol-co-vinyl acetate) (PVBVA) and MXene (Ti3C2Tx) nanosheets, offering a sustainable alternative to conventional TENGs that often rely on fluorinated polymers and complex fabrication.

TENGs are innovative energy-harvesting devices that convert mechanical energy into electricity using the triboelectric effect. They were invented by Prof. Zhong Lin Wang of the Georgia Institute of Technology and generate power through contact and motion between materials, making them ideal for applications like wearable electronics, IoT sensors, and self-powered devices.

This work, published in the journal Nano Energy and led by Ph.D. student Ajay Pratap under the supervision of Prof. David Estrada of the Micron School of Materials Science and Engineering at Boise State University, showcases how additive manufacturing can produce high-performance, skin-compatible, and flexible devices for real-world applications in energy harvesting, wearables electronics, and human-machine interaction.

AI Will Eat Social Media Alive

Social media is being consumed by AI from the inside out.

Over half of all new written content online is now AI-generated, and more than half of all internet traffic is bots.

Facebook’s most-viewed images are AI slop, YouTube recommends brainrot to new users, and global content farms churn out synthetic shock content for pennies.

The platforms aren’t fighting it because engagement is engagement, whether it comes from humans or machines.

Mark Zuckerberg is calling AI the \.

Perovskite solar cells need decades-long durability. New work shows which fast-aging tests come closest

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) could conquer the mass market within a few years, perhaps even being produced in Europe. Their large-scale production is highly cost-effective, and unlike silicon solar cells, their production is less energy-intensive. However, perovskite solar cells ideally need to achieve decades-long warranties, which remains a challenge.

To assess their long-term stability, various test methods are used to accelerate aging. But how accurately do these methods reflect the actual degradation processes? A new study in Joule by a team led by Dr. Carolin Ulbrich (HZB) and Andreas Bartelt (HTW Berlin) now answers this question.

Dead lithium batteries revived to 95% capacity via electrochemical bath

You know how rejuvenating a bath feels after a long day of work? Almost like you’re renewed. Turns out that’s not exclusive to humans. Scientists at Cornell University have developed an electrochemical bath that restores spent lithium-ion batteries to nearly 100% capacity.

Unlike conventional battery recycling methods that involve the complete physical destruction of batteries, followed by complex, energy-intensive recovery processes to extract critical battery-making materials, the scientists’ method recycles lithium-ion battery electrodes directly. Rather than breaking down structurally intact electrodes to extract materials that will make other electrodes, their approach regenerates the existing electrodes using an electrochemical solution.

The researchers say this method restored batteries to 95% of their original capacity, and even helped recycled batteries last longer. According to them, the method could also slash recycling costs by 56% while being more environmentally friendly.

This Sodium Battery From China Matched Tesla in a Surprising Head-to-Head Test

A new study found that a commercial sodium-ion battery from China rivals Tesla’s batteries in manufacturing quality and several key performance benchmarks.

With improvements to cold-weather charging and energy density, sodium-ion batteries could become a more affordable alternative for electric vehicles and grid-scale energy storage.

Sodium-ion battery shows tesla-like quality in new study.

AI Companies Don’t Have a Profitable Business Model. Does That Matter?

The generative AI boom is fueled by staggering investments (including OpenAI’s multibillion-dollar chip deals), but for many companies, profitability as a result of these investments has remained elusive, leading some economists to warn of an AI bubble. In this Q&A, Harvard Business School’s Andy Wu wades through the potential and hype of the new technology. In particular, he highlights structural challenges facing most companies and warns of inevitable expiration dates on current legacy subscription models. He says that the industry’s future will depend on sustainable economics and business models that are able to capture value.

New energy-boosting quantum mechanism discovered in photosynthetic bacteria

Researchers have discovered how certain photosynthetic bacteria use a sophisticated quantum mechanism to increase their efficiency when capturing sunlight. The study, published today in the journal Nature Chemistry and led by Professor Jenny Clark, reveals that nature has been using a process called “singlet fission,” effectively a “two-for-one” energy deal, to optimize solar harvesting. The findings provide a new blueprint for green technology, particularly as engineers attempt to copy this mechanism to build next-generation solar panels and quantum technologies.

While scientists have long understood the basic rules of how plants and bacteria convert light into chemical fuel, the biological role of singlet fission has historically remained poorly understood.

How longer exciton lifetimes could ease efficiency trade-off in organic solar cells

Although the efficiency of organic solar cells has now risen to more than 20%, there are physical limits that make it difficult to further increase their performance. A research team from Linköping University in Sweden, the University of Potsdam, the Paul-Drude-Institut in Berlin and other collaborators has now demonstrated which physical processes limit a key parameter in the performance of organic solar cells. This opens up the possibility of overcoming the long-standing efficiency limits of organic solar cells.

The work is published in the journal Nature Photonics.

/* */