Key Highlights
•
A new method for recycling old lithium-ion batteries uses a “defect-driven” process to create oxygen vacancies in the material, which repairs its internal structure and improves performance. This upcycling approach could make battery recycling more efficient and produce materials that are as good as new, helping to reduce electronic waste and the need for new mining.
Source →
•
Researchers have engineered a new type of contact for solar cells that reduces energy loss at the interfaces, achieving a record efficiency of 26.34% for single-junction silicon cells and 32.73% for perovskite/silicon tandem cells. This advancement in contact technology is a crucial step toward making solar panels more powerful and cost-effective.
Source →
•
Scientists have developed a heat-treatment technique that gives zinc metal anodes a specific crystal alignment, which allows them to work reliably under extremely high charging and discharging currents. This grain boundary engineering is key to building safer, longer-lasting, and faster-charging zinc-based batteries for grid storage.
Source →
•
The recycled battery material, optimized with precise oxygen vacancy control, showed a high capacity retention of 91.3% in lab cells and 94.1% in more realistic full-cell tests, demonstrating performance suitable for commercial reuse. This proves that well-designed recycling can restore spent batteries to a state that meets the demands of practical applications.
Source →
•
The improved solar cell contacts work on both the front and back of the cell, a design known as bifacial, which helps to minimize a major source of efficiency loss called charge recombination. This engineering solution is vital for pushing the efficiency limits of the next generation of commercial solar panels.
Source →
Stay curious. Stay informed — with
Science Briefing.
Always double check the original article for accuracy.
