Carbon – OfdmFORUM

Vertically aligned single-walled carbon nanotubes for electrical power storage and the electronics marketplace

December 25, 2022 Audrey

Charging up with carbon nanotubes — Photograph and schematic representation (inset) of a scaled-up sample of vertically-aligned solitary-walled carbon nanotubes (VA-SWCNTs) developed on Inconel steel foil. Side shots show 50 percent-cells centered on VA-SWCNT anodes illuminating red, yellow and green LEDs. Credit: Lawrence Livermore Countrywide Laboratory

Lawrence Livermore Countrywide Laboratory (LLNL) scientists have designed vertically aligned one-walled carbon nanotubes on steel foils that could be a boon for electricity storage and the electronics industry.

Vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (VACNTs) have outstanding mechanical, electrical and transport houses in addition to an aligned architecture, which is important for programs these types of as membrane separation, thermal management, fiber spinning, electronic interconnects and strength storage.

To day, popular integration of VACNTs into following-technology technologies is thwarted by a absence of suitable, economic, mass-manufacturing capabilities. Superior-high-quality VACNTs are ordinarily manufactured on substrates this kind of as silicon (Si) or quartz wafers that are rigid, high-priced and electrically insulating.

Soon after checking out steel foil selections in scientific literature, the LLNL staff turned to Inconel metallic substrates allowing them to combine VACNTs into flexible equipment, get rid of a transfer stage from Si to other substrates and minimize electrical or thermal transport resistances at the interface in between CNTs and the substrate, which is important for electronic and strength storage apps. Inconel is a spouse and children of nickel-chromium-primarily based superalloys that are oxidation-corrosion-resistant supplies effectively-suited for support in extreme environments subjected to tension and heat.

“Transitioning expansion of superior-top quality CNTs from common Si substrates to steel foils opens the door to additional economical, significant-scale, semicontinuous and roll-to-roll manufacturing of multifunctional CNT composites, nanoporous membranes and electrochemical gadgets,” reported LLNL scientist Francesco Fornasiero, co-writer of a paper showing in the journal ACS Utilized Materials & Interfaces.

Synthesis of significant-quality one-walled CNTs (SWCNTs) on metallic foils would be specially important for electrical power-storage equipment, this kind of as lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). When graphitic supplies are common LIB anodes, their ability falls small of swiftly evolving electricity-storage demands.

“The large area area and outstanding digital conductivity of CNTs make them key candidates for high-potential, significant-charge electrochemical programs,” explained LLNL scientist Kathleen Moyer-Vanderburgh, direct author of the paper. “In unique, VA-SWCNTs grown on steel foils could supply a binder-free platform with powerful adhesion between the SWCNT and present-day collector, increased conductivity and aligned channels for rapid Li-ion diffusion.”

The LLNL team grew forests of vertically aligned SWCNT on Inconel steel for use as a LIB anode. Team associates found nearly invariant structural houses of the CNT forests above a extensive variety of synthesis disorders and for multiple metal substrates. Fabricated VA-SWCNT LIB anode shown steady biking for hundreds of cycles and large capability even at high biking premiums.

“Our results suggest that these SWCNTs on Inconel steel are promising components for superior-overall performance electrochemical devices,” stated LLNL scientist Jianchao Ye.

Extra facts:
Kathleen Moyer-Vanderburgh et al, Expansion and Performance of Significant-Excellent SWCNT Forests on Inconel Foils as Lithium-Ion Battery Anodes, ACS Applied Products & Interfaces (2022). DOI: 10.1021/acsami.2c18396

Delivered by
Lawrence Livermore

TechScape: Will the online video video games marketplace at any time confront its carbon footprint? | Local climate crisis

April 14, 2022 Audrey

When a corporation attempts to cut its carbon footprint, how much need to it forged the net? Is it responsible for the decisions of its prospects? What if it sells something that doesn’t have a carbon footprint at all – until finally the 2nd it is made use of?

For some businesses, flush with income, the reply is uncomplicated enough. Microsoft, for occasion, has committed to starting to be carbon damaging by 2030, and in the long run taking away from the atmosphere all the carbon it has ever emitted by 2050. In that accounting, it’s even accepting the price of downstream use of its merchandise: if you have driven an Xbox on a diesel generator, or charged a Zune making use of coal electrical power, Microsoft will offset all those emissions.

Indicator up for our weekly engineering publication, TechScape.

But for other people, the decisions are trickier. The video games field, in some approaches, faces the purest distillation of this dilemma. It produces a leisure products, which exists practically entirely in software, and can, depending on decisions made by the developer, use as a lot electrical energy as boiling a kettle or as very little as powering a wristwatch. So what does it indicate to be a local weather-aware match developer?

This weekend, I put in some time at the WASD celebration in London, hoping to come across an reply. Tamara Alliot, the main government of recreation developer Nerial – and a previous sustainability supervisor in advance of she moved into games – factors out that there are plenty of techniques that a developer can tackle its footprint just before even needing to pay back interest to the trickier philosophical points.

“The impact of taking part in the online games is one of the impacts of the industry, but it’s not the only detail,” she states. “I believe we have to admit that there is a online video recreation provide chain, and a components lifecycle. The daily life of the components, the electricity and the products made use of to make the computer systems by themselves – that’s a thing every person requires to consider some accountability for.”

In regular carbon accounting, the largest expenditure for a little indie studio like Alliot’s is almost certainly vacation, in accordance to Graeme Struthers, the co-founder of publisher Devolver, who will publish Nerial’s forthcoming Card Shark. “A whole lot of organizations are likely to be going through the process of seeking to lower their emissions and locating the that, for the reason that they are quickly largely distant, they just cannot – and they should not – be likely into any employee’s lifestyle and expressing ‘you want to place a jumper on! You require to switch down the heating!’ And so since of that, it’s vacation to situations like [WASD] that is the largest piece of the puzzle.”

Large fish, minor fish, cardboard box

Some developers have produced big alterations in the areas that are underneath their regulate. Athletics Interactive,

Local weather transform: Most techniques to seize and reuse carbon really enhance emissions

February 23, 2022 Audrey

Carbon capture and utilisation systems, which intention to pull carbon dioxide from the air and use it for emissions-decreasing procedures, emit much more carbon than they take away

Natural environment

18 February 2022

By Alex Wilkins

A CO2 dense phase pump facility at the Hawiyah Natural Gas Liquids Recovery Plant, operated by Saudi Aramco, in Hawiyah, Saudi Arabia, on Monday, June 28, 2021. The Hawiyah Natural Gas Liquids Recovery Plant is designed to process 4.0 billion standard cubic feet per day of sweet gas as pilot project for Carbon Capture Technology (CCUS) to prove the possibility of capturing C02 and lowering emissions from such facilities. Photographer: Maya Siddiqui/Bloomberg via Getty Images — A carbon capture facility at the Hawiyah Organic Gas Liquids Restoration Plant in Saudi Arabia

Maya Siddiqui/Bloomberg through Getty Pictures

Most carbon capture and utilisation (CCU) systems, which pull carbon dioxide from the air and use it for other emissions-lowering procedures, emit much more carbon than they seize. This finding indicates that CCU tasks, which have captivated billions of bucks in investment decision, won’t do a great deal to achieve the Paris Agreement‘s emissions targets to reduce warming by much more than 1.5°C.

CCU systems just take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, either capturing it instantly from the air or absorbing it at polluting resources, and places it to use in procedures this sort of as producing fuel, plastics and concrete. In contrast to easy carbon capture know-how, CCU doesn’t store the CO2 for lengthy durations. CCU technologies either use vitality to change CO2 into fuels or use CO2 itself to push other industrial processes like oil extraction or growing plants.

Kiane de Kleijne at Radboud College in the Netherlands and her colleagues assessed the life cycles of far more than 40 CCU processes in opposition to 3 standards: could they permanently store CO2 does the CO2 they accumulate occur from atmospheric and organic resources and does the procedure have zero emissions.

Sign up for us for a mind-blowing pageant of thoughts and activities. New Scientist Are living is likely hybrid, with a stay in-individual event in Manchester, United kingdom, that you can also enjoy from the comfort of your possess property, from 12 to 14 March 2022. Find out much more.

Kleijne and her group observed that the bulk of these technologies failed to fulfill these standards, with 32 of the 40 emitting a lot more carbon than they captured. Only 4 methods appeared to be completely ready for use whilst also emitting small quantities of carbon. These involve technologies that make use of CO2 in concrete production and for oil extraction.

“If you’re caught with these types of a know-how that does not have the opportunity to actually reduce emissions substantially, and ideally to net zero, then that could be a scenario that is unwanted,” says de Kleijne.

“Engaging in some of these utilisation pursuits in fact works by using far more carbon,” says Stuart Haszeldine at the College of Edinburgh in the Uk.

Many of the technologies also don’t seem completely ready for deployment on a massive scale, so they might not be valuable in hitting the Paris Agreement’s emission targets by 2030, suggests de Kleijne. “2030 is very shortly, and a large amount of these technologies are continue to below growth,” she states.

When the analysis utilized assumptions about long term energy mix that could improve – for case in point, energy was assumed to be wholly

Urtopia’s carbon fiber e-bicycle goes weighty on the tech

December 7, 2021 Audrey

The electrification of the bicycle has historically meant just that: A bike, but with an electric motor. You might discover some other clever conveniences on greater-close types, but “a lot less is a lot more” has typically been the way. Urtopia, the most current e-bike manufacturer from China, has other thoughts. Its debut ride is, on paper, a single of the most tech-major bikes we’ve seen. The spec sheet reads far more like a phone’s than a following-gen fixie.

For instance, beyond the 250W hub motor with 3 ranges of using guide (and an estimated 30-80 mile array), there is an integrated dot-matrix display, a fingerprint reader, GPS, 4G (by means of eSIM), mmWave sensors for car detection, an integrated alarm and, well… the record goes on.

The bicycle itself has a hanging aesthetic that doesn’t hassle to cover the actuality that this is maybe the most technologically highly developed design you’ll see this calendar year. The body was made by Mathis Heller who has working experience with BMW and IKEA among other individuals, and it’s pure curves and racing traces. The stealth bomber search is even further enhanced with all the cables concealed from see inside the body. The Urtopia is pitched as a town bike and even though the (detachable) battery isn’t extremely clear, there is no question to even the most informal of glances that you are not wielding a regular analog pedaller.

When this point arrived, I was dreading putting it with each other. Previous experience has taught me that while not complicated, you are going to want to set apart some time (and space) to get factors established up. Turns out, the prototype product I analyzed only really necessary the front wheel inserted and the tires pumped and I was fantastic to go.

The noticeable attract here for gadget lovers will be the “smartbar” — an onboard computer developed proper into the handlebars. The dot matrix display is the centerpiece of the bicycle and only dials up that “bike from the future” vibe. On the right-hand facet in which the bell would usually be is the fingerprint reader which interacts with the laptop in a couple ways (it’s also a electronic bell). The remaining-hand side homes the 4-way D-pad which is where by you transform modes and settings together with powering the bicycle on (but not off, additional on that later on).

In spite of that extensive listing of wise attributes, not all of them were being offered to take a look at on the prototype I was sent. The hardware for the mmWave sensors is there, but there’s no way to activate it. The GPS and eSIM have to have the companion application to get the job done and that is not prepared still also. Sadly, those people are some incredibly exciting features we’ll have to wait around and see on, but most everything else was existing and correct.

Ahead of the enjoyable things, the essential e-bike operation (ability/speeds/vary

Enel CEO skeptical of carbon seize and storage technological innovation

November 29, 2021 Audrey

The CEO of multinational Italian strength company Enel has expressed question on the usefulness of carbon capture and storage, suggesting the technology is not a climate solution.

“We have tried and experimented with — and when I say ‘we’, I imply the electric power industry,” Francesco Starace explained to CNBC’s Karen Tso on Wednesday.

“You can think about, we tried out challenging in the previous 10 several years — it’s possible far more, 15 many years — simply because if we had a trustworthy and economically attention-grabbing resolution, why would we go and shut down all these coal vegetation [when] we could decarbonize the method?”

The European Fee, the EU’s govt arm, has described carbon capture and storage as a suite of technologies concentrated on “capturing, transporting, and storing CO2 emitted from ability plants and industrial facilities.”

The idea is to stop CO2 “achieving the atmosphere, by storing it in appropriate underground geological formations.”

The Fee has reported the utilization of carbon seize and storage is “important” when it arrives to encouraging lessen greenhouse gasoline emissions. This see is primarily based on the competition that a considerable proportion of equally business and electric power era will nevertheless be reliant on fossil fuels in the decades ahead.

Examine far more about clean up electrical power from CNBC Pro

Enel’s Starace, however, seemed skeptical about carbon capture’s probable.

“The fact is, it won’t do the job, it has not labored for us so much,” he reported. “And there is a rule of thumb here: If a know-how will not definitely pick up in five decades — and here we’re talking about more than 5, we are talking about 15, at minimum — you better drop it.”

There are other local weather solutions, Starace claimed. “Fundamentally, halt emitting carbon,” he said.

“I’m not expressing it is not value seeking yet again but we are not likely to do it. It’s possible other industries can consider more challenging and realize success. For us, it is not a solution.”

Carbon capture technological innovation is normally held up as a supply of hope in minimizing worldwide greenhouse fuel emissions, showcasing prominently in countries’ climate strategies as well as the web-zero approaches of some of the world’s biggest oil and fuel businesses.

Proponents of these technologies believe they can engage in an critical and varied part in conference international energy and weather ambitions.

Local climate researchers, campaigners and environmental advocacy teams, however, have extensive argued that carbon seize and storage technologies extend the world’s fossil gas dependency and distract from a a lot-essential pivot to renewable alternatives.

Options to raise shareholder dividends

Starace was talking following Enel published a strategic approach for 2022-24 and laid out its aims for the decades ahead. Among other issues, Enel will make direct investments of 170 billion euros ($190.7 billion) by 2030.

Immediate investments in renewable energy assets that Enel will own are set to strike 70 billion euros. Consolidated mounted renewable capacity, or potential that is immediately owned by Enel,

Carbon nanotubes could help electronics withstand outer space’s harsh conditions

October 29, 2021 Audrey

Space missions, such as NASA’s Orion that will take astronauts to Mars, are pushing the limits of human exploration. But during their transit, spacecrafts encounter a continuous stream of damaging cosmic radiation, which can harm or even destroy onboard electronics. To extend future missions, researchers reporting in ACS Nano show that transistors and circuits with carbon nanotubes can be configured to maintain their electrical properties and memory after being bombarded by high amounts of radiation.

The lifetime and distance of deep space missions are currently limited by the energy efficiency and robustness of the technology driving them. For example, harsh radiation in space can damage electronics and cause data glitches, or even make computers break down completely. One possibility is to include carbon nanotubes in widely used electronic components, such as field-effect transistors. These single-atom-thick tubes are expected to make transistors more energy efficient compared to more run-of-the-mill silicon-based versions. In principle, the ultra-small size of the nanotubes should also help reduce the effects that radiation would have when striking memory chips containing these materials. However, the radiation tolerance for carbon nanotube field-effect transistors has not been widely studied. So, Pritpal Kanhaiya, Max Shulaker and colleagues wanted to see if they could engineer this type of field-effect transistor to withstand high levels of radiation, and build memory chips based on these transistors.

To do this, the researchers deposited carbon nanotubes on a silicon wafer as the semiconducting layer in field-effect transistors. Then, they tested different transistor configurations with various levels of shielding, consisting of thin layers of hafnium oxide and titanium and platinum metal, around the semiconducting layer. The team found that placing shields both above and below the carbon nanotubes protected the transistor’s electrical properties against incoming radiation up to 10 Mrad—a level much higher than most silicon-based radiation-tolerant electronics can handle. When a shield was only placed beneath the carbon nanotubes, they were protected up to 2 Mrad, which is comparable to commercial silicon-based radiation-tolerant electronics. Finally, to achieve a balance between fabrication simplicity and radiation robustness, the team built static random-access memory (SRAM) chips with the bottom shield version of the field-effect transistors. Just as with experiments performed on the transistors, these memory chips had a similar X-ray radiation threshold as silicon-based SRAM devices.

These results indicate that carbon nanotube field-effect transistors, especially double-shielded ones, could be a promising addition to next-generation electronics for space exploration, the researchers say.

Radiation-immune and repairable chips to fabricate durable electronics

More information:
Carbon Nanotubes for Radiation-Tolerant Electronics, ACS Nano (2021). DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.1c04194

Provided by
American Chemical Society

Citation:
Carbon nanotubes could help electronics withstand outer space’s harsh conditions (2021, October 27)
retrieved 29 October 2021
from https://phys.org/news/2021-10-carbon-nanotubes-electronics-outer-space.html

This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research,