Background For many years, the goal of efficient electricity generation at small scales with hydrocarbon fuels has been impractical due to heat loss and other challenges. Current approaches to electricity generation at small scales involve the combustion of hydrocarbon fuels to drive generators, which can be useful for remote or off-grid applications,...

Background The conversion of solar energy to fuels requires both water (H2O) and carbon dioxide (CO2) as feedstocks. These feedstocks provide the carbon and hydrogen atoms necessary to form hydrocarbons. By removing oxygen from one or both of these compounds, liquid hydrocarbon fuels can be produced. Water can be converted into hydrogen and oxygen...

Background Perovskites have widely been considered as promising next-generation materials for future display and solid-state lighting applications. Most current perovskite LEDs are produced using solution processing, and over 20% external quantum efficiencies (EQE) in LEDs have been achieved in recent studies. Vacuum-based deposition has also attracted...

­Background Removal of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere by direct air capture (DAC) can be accomplished using two chief approaches, liquid and solid. Liquid systems pass air through chemical solutions containing basic ions (e.g., hydroxide ions or bicarbonate ions), heat the resulting mixture to release the captured CO2, and then reuse the...

­Background Electric power utilities have started using phasor measurement units (PMUs) to obtain time-synchronized measurements of the voltage and current magnitudes and phase angles, frequency, and rate-of-change frequency (RoCoF) throughout their systems. However, there are still several key measurements that PMUs are unable to provide. In particular,...

­Potential Applications • CO2 capture from ambient air • CO2 concentration for industrial use Benefits and Advantages • Lower operating costs due to self-heating process • Process requires only air, water, and electrical energy as inputs • Fully contained from capture through concentration/compression Invention...

­Background Discarded polyethylene-based plastics are not usually recycled because of their resistance to depolymerization due to stable carbon bonds. Pyrolysis is a quick thermochemical treatment technique that destroys plastic structures and turns them into fuels and chemical products. For the pyrolysis process, however, feedstock drying is required,...

­Background Nanoparticle-based metallic powders are of interest for rapid sintering, thermal bonding, and electrically conductive metal pastes due to its unique properties, such as lower sintering temperature compared to bulk counterparts and efficient light absorption for photonic curing. However, there are some drawbacks associated with the production,...

Lithium lanthanum zirconate (Li7La3Zr2O12, LLZO) is a promising fast ion conductor for Li-ions, with the potential to greatly enhance the energy density and safety of future Li-ion batteries. Many advantages can be obtained by reducing the size of this material to nanometric dimensions. These include but are not limited to: (1) the ability to stabilize...

­Background Direct air capture (DAC) is a process of capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) directly from air. The CO2 can be captured when the air contacts a chemical medium or functionalized sorbent, and then removed from the chemical medium or functionalized sorbent to yield a CO2 stream. Invention Description Researchers at Arizona State University...