The Elements of Innovation Discovered
The Elements of Innovation Discovered
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As researchers around the world race to develop more efficient ways to remove carbon dioxide emissions from the atmosphere, several recent breakthroughs hold promise for slowing the pace of global climate change. The pressing need to combat the ongoing climate crisis and reduce CO2 emissions has driven researchers to explore carbon capture and utilization since the late 20th century. As the challenge of carbon capture looms, various attempts to store excess carbon dioxide...
Over the last two decades, perovskite crystal lattices have been held as extremely promising materials in photovoltaic and light-emitting devices. This family of minerals exhibits unique electrical properties currently being utilized in solar cells. A Penn State-led team has created a faster, more cost-effective process to fabricate larger perovskite devices than previously possible. Their reported findings were published in the journal Nature Communications and have opened a...
A team of researchers at Pennsylvania State University has developed a technology that enables electric vehicle batteries to obtain a full charge in just 10 minutes. The breakthrough in EV battery design, reported in the Oct. 12 edition of the journal Nature, produced a record-breaking combination of a shorter charge time and more energy acquired for a longer travel range. "The need for smaller, faster-charging batteries is greater than ever," said Chao-Yang Wang, the William...
Coal ash, acid drainage, and tailings for future green economy As the world continues to prime itself for the global energy shift, academia, governments and the private sector are scrambling to extract the valuable minerals and metals necessary to power the low-carbon renewable future – resulting in some truly innovative and unconventional methods. In addition to the rare earths, cobalt, lithium, and other technology metals that capture headline attention, this list often miss... Full story
As rapidly advancing technology leaves behind printed circuit boards, old computers, obsolete televisions, and other electrical devices, mountains of electronic waste, or e-waste, being stockpiled around the world is becoming a major environmental concern. Considered the fastest-growing waste stream in the developed world, scientists and policymakers worry that these end-of-life products are spawning environmental contamination and seepage into the world's food chain. Others,...
With a little bit of gold, scientists at Pennsylvania State University have taken another step toward the vision of turning windows into transparent solar cells that generate electricity while still offering a view of the world outside. "Transparent solar cells could someday find a place on windows in homes and office buildings, generating electricity from sunlight that would otherwise be wasted," said Kai Wang, assistant research professor of materials science and... Full story
In the world of cybersecurity, innovations that offer robust protection of private data from ill-intentioned people are becoming more crucial. Now, researchers at Pennsylvania State University have leveraged graphene's unique properties to design a way to make encryption harder to crack. Current silicon-based technologies exploit microscopic differences between computing components to create secure keys. However, artificial intelligence can predict these keys, thereby gaining... Full story
4 was a year many will not forget, from the onset of COVID-19 in the spring, to the subsequent economic instability left in its wake. A silver lining to this challenging year, however, may be the innovations and inventions developed to combat the contagion and bring certainty back into people's lives. Turning to relatively unexplored technologies and chemistries, companies sought the natural antimicrobial powers of "medical" metals and minerals such as the natural... Full story
Best known for its contribution to advancing the Round Top rare earths and critical minerals mine project, Texas Mineral Resources Corp. is now leading a group targeting the development of a plant capable of recovering rare earths from Pennsylvania coal byproducts. The Texas-based mineral explorer is teaming up with Penn State University; Jeddo Coal Company, a family-run mining company with a Pennsylvania operation; and H22OS Consulting, an engineering and construction firm...
Penn State scientists have developed a process that could transform acid mine drainage from an environmental liability that is costly to an asset that produces rare earths and other valuable minerals. "We are currently incurring costs just to treat the water, and in many cases, we are not even collecting all these minerals," said Sarma Pisupati, professor of energy and mineral engineering at Penn State. "Now we are able to turn what had been considered a waste product into a v...
Since the outbreak of COVID-19, ultraviolet light has emerged as a popular way to kill novel coronavirus without the use of harsh chemicals. While research has shown that UV light is an effective destroyer of viruses and bacteria, the devices that emit a strong enough dose to get the job done tend to be bulky and expensive. "You have to ensure a sufficient UV light dose to kill all the viruses," said Roman Engel-Herbert, Penn State associate professor of materials science,...
A bit of graphene could double the strength of carbon fiber while reducing the cost of this material prized for its strength-to-weight ratio. About half the weight of aluminum but much stronger and rigid, carbon fiber is an ideal material for aircraft, sporting and safety equipment. At more than $10 a pound, however, this material has yet to compete with aluminum, which sells for less than $1/lb, for most commercial applications. The aerospace sector, where carbon fiber's supe...
Pennsylvanian coal helped to fuel America's Industrial Revolution, and mines in the Keystone State have since provided a domestic source of iron ore, cobalt, nickel, and various other metals. Now, researchers at Pennsylvania State University have identified a potential motherlode of battery metals to feed into America's EV Revolution in waste left behind by more than two centuries of mining in the commonwealth. "Preliminary estimates indicate that waste left by coal mining... Full story
From electric vehicles plugged into renewable energy to smartphones connected to 5G networks, new technologies take advantage of the special properties of a suite of critical minerals and metals that are often rare and in short supply. In addition to the rare earths, cobalt, lithium, and other technology metals that capture headline attention, this list includes even more obscure mined materials such as gallium, germanium, scandium, and tellurium. While scarce, these critical... Full story
