Feature Articles
Michelle A. Harris , Sameer Patwardhan
Commercial solar panels have primarily used silicon for decades, but now a new material, perovskite, is revolutionizing the solar energy field, but the toxic element lead and the long-term stability of perovskites remain major challenges. At the ANSER center, researchers are taking on these challenges...
Kathryn Fixen
Energy independence means informing and inspiring the best and brightest in today's schools. Learn how energy science is getting in the classroom...
Hayden T. Black
Solving today's energy challenges demands great minds from diverse backgrounds work together. Learn how scientists are bringing together experts from across the globe...
Research Highlights
Designing efficient, affordable reactions that turn plant matter into plastics means understanding the catalyst involved. Scientists' discoveries reveal insights about the performance of a promising clay-like catalyst...
A material best depicted as a honeycomb that is only one atom thick, graphene selectively transports protons via atom-sized defects, opening up the doors to discoveries for energy storage and water desalinization...
The catalyst is affordable and abundant, but can it produce water and not destructive hydrogen peroxide in a fuel cell? Scientists are finding out...
Can methane stop being flared from oil wells and instead be turned into fuel? Scientists used computation and theory to design a promising catalyst that turns methane to methanol...
Cells that use the energy from sunlight to create energy-dense fuels could greatly benefit from a simple dip in plastic...
Irradiating superconductors could raise the amount of electric current they can carry by a factor of 10...
By compressing the chemical benzene to 200,000 times atmospheric pressure and decompressing it slowly, scientists created small, extremely stiff, and strong threads with some extreme possibilities...
Interviews
Editor's Note
The Summer Stretch
For some, summer offers an opportunity to laze about a swimming pool and contemplate the clouds high overhead, but for many others, summer is a time to stretch and try new things. This issue of the newsletter highlights work being done in the Energy Frontier Research Centers that stretch beyond the usual, the ordinary. They are reaching out to teachers, students, and collaborators in other countries. They are designing new materials and protective layers for solar cells. They are taking on challenges as diverse as creating plastic from plants, one-atom-thick membranes that could offer a host of advantages, and resistance-free wires for transmitting energy. Take a moment or two to learn about how researchers are doing what it takes to push back the frontiers of energy research.
Editorial Board and Writers
Editorial Board
- Hayden Black, Center for Solar Fuels
- Jennifer Esbenshade, Center for Electrochemical Energy Science
- Laura E. Fernandez, Inorganometallic Catalyst Design Center
- Kathryn Fixen, Center for Biological Electron Transfer and Catalysis
- Anastasia Ilgen, Center for Frontiers of Subsurface Energy Security
- Ryan Patet, Catalysis Center for Energy Innovation
- Sameer Patwardhan, Argonne-Northwestern University Solar Energy Research Center
- Nicholas Quackenbush, Northeast Center for Chemical Energy Storage
- Jonathon Rameau, Center for Emergent Superconductivity
- Robert L. Sacci, Fluid Interface Reactions, Structures and Transport Center
- Kristin Manke, Center for Molecular Electrocatalysis, Editor-in-Chief
Guest Writers
- Michelle Harris, Argonne-Northwestern University Solar Energy Research Center
- Ashley Marshall, Center for Advanced Solar Photophysics
- Garrett Williams, Center for Biological Electron Transfer and Catalysis
Disclaimer: The opinions in this newsletter are those of the individual authors and do not represent the views or position of the Department of Energy.