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Updates every hour. Last Updated: 1-Aug-2025 09:11 ET (1-Aug-2025 13:11 GMT/UTC)

Printed energy storage charges into the future with MXene inks

Boise State University College of Engineering
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Lightweight energy storage devices are essential for developing compact wearable and distributed electronics, and additive manufacturing offers a scalable, low-cost approach to fabricating such devices with complex geometries. However, additive manufacturing of high-performance, on-demand energy storage devices remains challenging due to the need for stable, multifunctional nanomaterial inks. Herein, the development of 2-dimensional (2D) titanium carbide (Ti₃C₂T_x MXene) ink that is compatible with aerosol jet printing for energy storage applications is demonstrated. The developed MXene ink demonstrates long-term chemical and physical stability, ensuring consistent printability and achieving high-resolution prints (≈45 µm width lines) with minimal overspray. The high-resolution aerosol-jet printed MXene supercapacitor achieves an areal capacitance of 122 mF cm^-2 and a volumetric capacitance of 611 F cm^-3, placing them among the highest-performing printed supercapacitors reported to date. These findings highlight the potential of aerosol jet printing with MXene inks for on-demand, scalable, and cost-effective fabrication of printed electronic and electrochemical devices.

Journal: Small Methods
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy, DOE/US Department of Energy

Heat domes and flooding have nearly tripled since the ’50s

University of Pennsylvania
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new study led by Michael Mann of the University of Pennsylvania finds that atmospheric patterns known to lock in extreme weather, like heat domes and flooding, have nearly tripled since the 1950s. The research highlights a growing gap between real-world risks and what climate models currently capture.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Funder: University of Pennsylvania, DOE/US Department of Energy

New material behavior to improve speed and efficiency of technology

University of Minnesota
Peer-Reviewed Publication

In a new study, researchers at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities discovered surprising magnetic behavior in one of the thinnest metallic oxide materials ever made. This could pave the way for the next generation of faster and smarter spintronic and quantum computing devices.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

Next generation of batteries may get lifespan boost with help from new UCLA imaging techniques

California NanoSystems Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Lithium-metal batteries could hold double the energy compared to today’s lithium-ion batteries, but they currently have a much shorter lifespan.

A UCLA team developed a technique that, for the first time, allows for high-resolution imaging of lithium-metal batteries while they charge.

Measuring a corrosion layer that forms on lithium offered clues for better battery design, and the imaging technique may have uses in other fields, such as biology.

Journal: Science Advances
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

Physics professor receives Department of Energy grant to explore light-matter interactions

Kennesaw State University
Grant and Award Announcement

KSU professor Mahmoud Asmar has received a three-year grant worth $799,800 from the U.S. Department of Energy. His work aims to deepen our understanding of how to generate and stabilize topological out-of-equilibrium quantum states.

Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

The fundamental nature of the universe explored using new instrument offering insights into behavior of fusion machines and the sun

Princeton University

Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory unveils a machine with unmatched capabilities to explore the phenomenon known as magnetic reconnection.

Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy, U.S. National Science Foundation

Review: Heat-resilient crops are within reach — given enough time and money

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, News Bureau
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Laboratory and field experiments have repeatedly demonstrated that modifications to the process of photosynthesis or to the physical characteristics of plants can make crops more resilient to hotter temperatures. Scientists can now alter the abundance or orientation of leaves, change leaf chemistry to improve heat tolerance and adjust key steps in the process of photosynthesis to overcome bottlenecks, researchers report in a new review in the journal Science.

Journal: Science
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy, Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research, Gates Agricultural Innovations

Shape-shifting hybrid materials offer bright future for solar and LED innovation

University of Utah
Peer-Reviewed Publication

University of Utah’s Bischak Lab discovers new shape-shifting properties in perovskites—a type of layered material made from alternating sheets of inorganic and organic components— that could make them ideal for next-generation LEDs, solar panels and batteries.

Journal: Matter
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

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