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Los Angeles, CA (SPX) May 01, 2026
Chemists at the University of Warwick have identified a series of previously unknown materials formed during the heating of molecular precursors, including a new structural form of bismuth vanadate, a well-studied clean-energy compound with potential roles in solar fuel generation and next-generation batteries. The findings, published April 30 in Nature Communications, show that the interm

London (SPX) May 01, 2026
Researchers have identified previously unknown materials, including a new form of a widely studied clean-energy material, by carefully controlling and tracking how molecular precursors break down during heating. The study, published in Nature Communications, uncovers a series of hidden intermediate stages that appear when molecules are heated to become materials. Capturing these intermedia

Los Angeles CA (SPX) May 01, 2026
Rice University chemical engineers have developed a method to make perovskite-based photovoltaics more durable by driving the material directly into its desirable black crystal phase while making it harder to degrade into an inactive yellow phase. Aditya Mohite and collaborators used two key additives in the precursor solution to create perovskite crystalline films that retained 98 percent

Berlin (SPX) May 01, 2026
Photreon, a KIT spin-off, has developed a photoreactor panel that generates hydrogen directly from sunlight and water without electrolyzers or electrical power. 'We avoid the detour through electrically powered electrolysis, producing chemical energy from sunlight and water,' said photreon co-founder Paul Kant from KIT's Institute for Micro Process Engineering. Kant noted that photreon's m

Tokyo (SPX) May 01, 2026
Researchers have achieved a power conversion efficiency of 20.21 percent in pseudo-planar heterojunction organic solar cells by introducing a crystalline polymer buffer layer that shields against solvent-induced erosion during fabrication. The study, published in Chinese Journal of Polymer Science, addresses a persistent challenge in layer-by-layer deposition. During application of the top

Tokyo (SPX) May 01, 2026
Researchers at Chiba University have developed the first universal model for energy level alignment at electrode, hole-collecting monolayer, and perovskite interfaces in solar cells, establishing a physically consistent framework that explains and provides guidelines for material performance across diverse combinations. A team led by Professor Hiroyuki Yoshida from the Graduate School of E

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Apr 28, 2026
Researchers from Ocean University of China and Huzhou University have developed a phase-change photothermal foam that continues to produce freshwater after sunlight fades, addressing one of the core limitations of solar-driven desalination technology. The material, designated PPy-CS/PF@DDA, is constructed by confining dodecylamine inside a polypyrrole-coated chitosan/phenolic resin foam. P

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Apr 29, 2026
Researchers at Korea University have published a comprehensive review documenting how artificial intelligence is overcoming the core design barriers that have limited the practical deployment of metasurfaces - ultra-thin flat optical devices capable of bending, focusing, and filtering light in ways conventional glass optics cannot. Metasurfaces are constructed from millions of sub-waveleng

Los Angeles, CA (SPX) Apr 29, 2026
Chemical physicists at the University of Maryland have demonstrated that the nuclear spin states of molecular hydrogen can be controlled simply by freezing it inside dry-ice crystals - no magnetic fields or chemical catalysts required. The findings, published in Physical Review Letters on April 29, 2026, open potential paths toward improved hydrogen fuel storage, more stable quantum memory, and

Los Angeles, CA (SPX) Apr 29, 2026
Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Oxford argue in a new Science Robotics paper that the safety frameworks developed for AI chatbots are fundamentally inadequate for robots operating in the physical world, and that a layered, context-aware approach to robot safety is urgently needed. The paper, published April 29, focuses on th