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World's first solar battery claimed to "run on light and air"
Electron microscope images of the nanometer-sized rods of titanium dioxide that cover the surface of a piece of titanium gauze, allowing air to enter the battery to recharge it while also gathering light to generate electricity (Image: Yiying Wu, Ohio State University)
Researchers at Ohio State University (OSU) have created a dye-sensitized solar cell that stores its own power by "breathing" air to decompose and re-form lithium peroxide. Its creators believe the device, which effectively combines a battery and a solar cell in one, could reduce renewable energy costs by 25 percent.
"The state of the art is to use a solar panel to capture the light, and then use a cheap battery to store the energy," explains OSU professor Yiying Wu. "We've integrated both functions into one device. Any time you can do that, you reduce cost."
This new design uses three electrodes, as opposed to the usual four. At the bottom lies a lithium plate, upon which lies a layer of electrolyte, a thin sheet of porous carbon and then another layer of electrolyte. At the top, a permeable titanium gauze mesh houses a dye-sensitive titanium dioxide photoelectrode, which looks rather like blades of grass at the 1 μm scale and generates triiodide ions under illumination. These ions then spread to the oxygen electrode surface via an iodide "shuttle," where they oxidize into lithium peroxide.
Electrons in the connected battery chemically decompose the lithium peroxide into lithium ions and oxygen, with the oxygen released into the air and lithium ions stored as lithium metal. When the battery discharges, it pulls oxygen from the surrounding environment and consumes it to re-form lithium peroxide – after which the cycle can repeat again.
The mesh is coated with a red dye called ruthenium compound to tune the wavelength of light it captures. This dye absorbs light and releases electrons, creating an electric current as new electrons are drawn from the iodide solution to replace them. Unfortunately, the dye runs out after just eight hours of charging and discharging, which is too short of a lifetime for a cost-effective rechargeable solar cell.
The researchers have done preliminary tests with a hematite (rust) photoelectrode to replace the dye-sensitized titanium oxide, with that seemingly offering comparable efficiency and "remarkably better" stability that may put its lifetime in the same ballpark as rechargeable batteries already on the market.
If they can settle on a material that gets similar efficiency (almost 100 percent of electrons retained, compared to around 80 percent in typical cells) to this titanium oxide version, while also lasting a number of years, the OSU researchers' invention could have huge repercussions in renewable energy. Broader uptake of renewables is currently limited by the high ratio of cost to energy generated and much of the cost comes from grid energy storage that loses more than 25 percent of the electricity coming in.
The US Department of Energy is funding further research, while OSU will license the solar battery to industry and seek to improve its performance.
A paper describing the research was published in the journal Nature Communications.
Source: Ohio State University
Source: http://www.gizmag.com/solar-cell-battery-hybrid/34119/
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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