October_AMP_Digital

14 / 102

A D V A N C E D M A T E R I A L S & P R O C E S S E S | O C T O B E R 2 0 1 5
1 4
GRAPHENE SHINES BRIGHT IN
WORLD’S THINNEST
LIGHT BULB
Led by Young Duck Kim, a postdoc-
toral research scientist in James Hone’s
group at ColumbiaUniversity, NewYork,
a team of scientists from Seoul National
University and Korea Research Institute
of Standards and Science demonstrat-
ed—for the first time—an on-chip vis-
ible light source using graphene as a
filament. They attached small strips of
graphene to metal electrodes, suspend-
ed the strips above the substrate, and
passed a current through the filaments
to heat them.
“We’ve created what is essen-
tially the world’s thinnest light bulb,”
says Hone, a mechanical engineering
professor at Columbia. “This new type
of ‘broadband’ light emitter can be in-
tegrated into chips and will pave the
way towards the realization of atom-
ically thin, flexible, and transparent
displays, and graphene-based on-chip
optical communications.” For more in-
formation: Young Duck Kim,
.
HARVESTING SOLAR
POWER AT NIGHT
A University of Texas at Arling-
ton materials science and engineering
team developed a new energy cell that
can store large-scale solar energy even
when it’s dark. The innovation is an
advancement over the most common
solar energy systems that rely on using
sunlight immediately as a power source.
Schematic illustration of electrically biased suspended graphene and light emis-
sion from the center of the suspended graphene. Courtesy of Young Duck Kim/
Columbia Engineering.
BRIEF
A research team from Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, and the University of California, Berkeley found that
blending together different types of salts in the electrolytes within lithium air batteries can increase their capacity while
preserving their ability to be recharged. In addition to lithium air batteries, the new methods are also expected to impact
other areas of battery research. , .
ENERGY TRENDS
UT Arlington scientists developed a new
solar cell that is more efficient and can
store solar energy even at night.
Those systems are hindered by not be-
ing able to use that solar energy at night
or when it is cloudy.
The team developed an all-
vanadium photo-electrochemical flow
cell that allows for efficient and large-
scale solar energy storage at any time.
The team is now working on a larger
prototype. “This research has a chance
to rewrite how we store and use solar
power,” says Fuqiang Liu, an assistant
professor who led the research team.
“As renewable energy becomes more
prevalent, the ability to store solar en-
ergy and use it as a renewable alterna-
tive provides a sustainable solution to
the problem of energy shortage. It also
can effectively harness the inexhaust-
ible energy from the sun.”
The work is a product of the 2013
National Science Foundation $400,000
Faculty Early Career Development grant
awarded to Liu to improve the way solar
energy is captured, stored, and transmit-
ted. For more information: Fuqiang Liu,
817.272.2704,