The quest for clean and sustainable energy sources has been a pressing concern for researchers and environmentalists alike. With the world’s population growing at an unprecedented rate, the demand for energy is higher than ever before. Traditional fossil fuels, such as coal, oil, and natural gas, are not only finite resources but also major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. As a result, the need for alternative energy sources that are both renewable and environmentally friendly has become increasingly urgent.
One such promising alternative is hydrogen, a clean and abundant element that can be used as a fuel for various applications, including transportation and electricity generation. However, the production of hydrogen has long been a challenge, as it typically requires the use of fossil fuels or large amounts of electricity. This is where the solar-to-hydrogen breakthrough comes in, potentially revolutionizing the clean energy landscape.
The solar-to-hydrogen process involves using sunlight to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen, a process known as photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting. This method has been the subject of extensive research for decades, but it has been hindered by the lack of efficient and cost-effective materials that can effectively absorb sunlight and catalyze the water-splitting reaction.
Recently, however, researchers have made significant strides in overcoming these obstacles, paving the way for a new era of clean energy. One such breakthrough comes from a team of scientists at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) and the University of Cambridge, who have developed a new class of photoelectrodes made from a novel metal oxide material. This material, known as a perovskite, has shown remarkable efficiency in converting sunlight into hydrogen, with minimal energy loss.
The key to the success of this new material lies in its unique electronic structure, which allows it to absorb a wide range of sunlight wavelengths and efficiently transfer the energy to the water-splitting reaction. Additionally, the perovskite material is highly stable and resistant to corrosion, making it an ideal candidate for long-term use in PEC water-splitting devices.
Another notable development in the solar-to-hydrogen field comes from researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, who have developed a new type of solar cell that can directly produce hydrogen from water. This innovative device, known as a direct solar water-splitting cell, combines the functions of a solar cell and an electrolyzer into a single unit, eliminating the need for external electrical connections and significantly reducing energy losses.
The direct solar water-splitting cell is made from a combination of semiconductor materials, which are carefully arranged in a multi-layered structure to optimize the absorption of sunlight and the generation of hydrogen. This design has demonstrated impressive efficiency levels, rivaling those of traditional solar cells and electrolyzers.
These groundbreaking advancements in solar-to-hydrogen technology hold immense potential for the future of clean energy. By harnessing the power of the sun to produce hydrogen, we can significantly reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and curb greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, hydrogen can be easily stored and transported, making it a versatile energy carrier that can be used in various applications, from powering vehicles to generating electricity for homes and industries.
As research in the solar-to-hydrogen field continues to progress, we can expect to see further improvements in efficiency and cost-effectiveness, making this clean energy solution increasingly viable on a large scale. With the potential to revolutionize the way we produce and consume energy, the solar-to-hydrogen breakthrough marks the dawn of a new era in clean energy, one that promises a brighter and more sustainable future for our planet.
atalysts spur the world’s economy, but they still hold many mysteries. “One-third of global gross domestic product relies on catalysts, and yet do we really understand how they operate under working conditions? Absolutely not,” says Charlotte Vogt, an assistant professor of chemistry at the Technion—Israel Institute of Technology.
Vogt is determined to fill that knowledge gap. Her research reveals the inner workings of catalysts that could tackle climate change by decarbonizing our energy systems and industrial processes, and she’s driven by the urgency of the challenge. “We have to come up with new catalytic systems at record speed, and how are we going to do that if we don’t really understand them?” she says.
Most of the common reactions in the chemical industry involve passing gases or liquids over solid catalysts at high temperatures or pressures. To improve the performance of these heterogeneous catalysts, chemists try to understand the mechanism of the reaction going on at the catalyst’s surface. Traditionally, this approach has involved using spectroscopic and other techniques to study simplified versions of the reaction systems—perhaps focusing on a single facet of a catalyst crystal at extremely low pressure so that just a few reactant molecules adhere to its surface.
Despite the insights they have provided, these model systems are completely different from the conditions of industrial reactions and can give a misleading or incomplete view of how the catalyst works. So Vogt instead studies catalysts in their real-world operating environments, known as operando in chemical parlance, and in real time, which poses enormous experimental challenges.
A catalyst particle can have many different reaction sites that change during the reaction. And the catalyst is surrounded by a blizzard of reactant and product molecules, most of which are not undergoing the reaction in question at any given moment. “You’re sometimes looking for spectroscopic signals that are like a needle in a haystack,” Vogt says. “So we’re developing techniques to elucidate those tiny but important signals and distinguish them from everything that is not important.”
“We have to come up with new catalytic systems at record speed, and how are we going to do that if we don’t really understand them? ”
Charlotte Vogt, professor, Technion—Israel Institute of Technology
Her team studies catalysts using X-rays at synchrotron facilities, for example, or infrared spectrometers in Vogt’s lab. Then the researchers use machine learning and pattern recognition techniques to comb through the terabytes of data. They also design specialist reactors that can operate at realistic conditions while allowing spectroscopists to peer inside the heart of the reaction.
Vogt is applying these techniques to the reactions of small molecules, including carbon dioxide and ammonia, that have a huge global impact. In addition to studying conventional heterogeneous catalysts, she’s also interested in developing operando techniques to study electrocatalytic reactions that produce NH3 or convert CO2 into fuels and other useful products. Deployed at an industrial scale, these reactions could take advantage of the growing availability of renewable electricity.
In 2021, Vogt established her research group at the Technion, where she has joined the new Stewart and Lynda Resnick Sustainability Center for Catalysis. “She mixes a deep knowledge of science with a vision of how to apply it to real-world problems,” says Ilan Marek, the center’s director. “She was a perfect fit.”
Vogt has always understood the power of chemistry to change the world. Her father, Eelco Vogt, was the global R&D director for catalysts at chemical company Albemarle, “so I had a really good role model at home,” Charlotte Vogt says. After undergraduate and master’s degrees at Utrecht University, she stayed on for a PhD with Bert M. Weckhuysen, a leading proponent of operando spectroscopy. “She is very driven, she knows how to organize things, and she has a real passion for science,” Weckhuysen says.
Her PhD research included dissecting the Sabatier reaction, which typically uses a nickel catalyst to convert CO2 and hydrogen into methane and water. Improving the efficiency and selectivity of that process could offer a way to use industrial CO2 emissions as a raw material for storing renewable energy in chemical fuels. Vogt’s spectroscopy work revealed how the nickel catalyst particles’ size and structure affected the reaction and how metal oxide supports beneath the nickel particles influenced the products formed.
Weckhuysen and Eelco Vogt are old friends, so Charlotte Vogt was determined to forestall any suggestions of favoritism and worked hard to establish herself as an independent scientist. “In fact, during my PhD I didn’t talk to my dad about my science. Not one word,” she says.
Now that Vogt has her own lab, though, she’s happy to discuss the trials and tribulations of being an assistant professor with her father and has even collaborated on a paper with him. “He’s an amazing support system to have,” she says.
About one person in 50 – equally in men and women –will suffer from alopecia areata at some point in their life.
Haifa researchers have found a non-genetic cause for alopecia areata baldness, which triggered the surprising incident at the the 94th Academy Awards in which actor Will Smith slapped comedian Chris Rock after he joked about Smiths wife’s shaved head because of the autoimmune disease.
About one person in 50 – equally in men and women – will suffer from alopecia areata at some point in their life. The condition can develop at any age, although most people are diagnosed for thefirst time before the age of 30. In recent years, more and more research evidence has accumulated on the source of the autoimmune disease in an inflammatory process caused by cells that develop in patients with genetic predisposition that attack the hair follicle at its growth stage and results in the collapse of the immune system that characterizes it.
But a new study at the dermatology department at the Rambam Healthcare Campus and the skin research lab at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology’s Rappaport Faculty of Medicine has found evidence of another source – involvement of innate lymphoid cells-type 1 (ILC1) – that can cause its outbreak among people who do not belong to the high-risk group.
It has just published in the online journal e-Life under the title “Involvement of ILC1-like innate lymphocytes in human autoimmunity, lessons from alopecia areata.”
Hair loss caused by alopecia areata. (credit: Wikimedia Commons)
A common skin disease that breaks out when the immune system attacks and harms the hair follicles, after accidentally recognizing the body’s tissue as a foreign tissue, it causes baldness on largeareas of the scalp, and in more severe cases, there is body-hair loss on larger and other places, as well as itching and a feeling of burning in the affected areas. There is no cure, but last June, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a first drug to treat severe cases of the condition – baricitinib (Olumiant).
Olumiant is a Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitor that blocks the activity of one or more of a specific family of enzymes, interfering with the pathway that leads to inflammation. It restored hair growth in 25% to 35% of patients but also causes side effects.
Rambam and Technion researchers found evidence of another source
In recent years, more and more research evidence has accumulated on the source of the autoimmune disease in an inflammatory process caused by cells that develop in patients with genetic predisposition, which attack the hair follicle at its growth stage and results in the collapse of the training that characterizes it. However, a new study common to Rambam and the Technion has found evidence of another source, which can cause the outbreak of the disease among people who do not belong to the risk group.
The conventional hypothesis is that CD8 cells are responsible for the disease. But in a study conducted by a team led by Prof. Amos Gilhar and in collaboration with researcher Dr. Aviad Keren and Professor Dr. Rimma Laufer- Britva , another group of cells was found that so much was unknown to its involvement in the disease. LC-1 constantly secretes a variety of proteins that usually attack external factors that invade the tissues they are in,” explained Gilhar.
Thus, the classic lymphocyte cells, those that used to be regarded as solely responsible for the onset of the disease, are not alone.
As part of the research experiments, the team transferred these cells to a healthy scalp and then transplanted on unique mice. Exposing hair follicles from a completely healthy source to ILC-1 cells caused the secretion of a high level of interferon gamma, a material known as a major part in causing hair loss leading to alopecia areata – so there is not a single route, in which genetics and classical immune cells play an exclusive role, but several pathways, said Gilhar.
The journal editor commented that the study provides “compelling evidence that injection of ILC1-like cells induces alopecia in a mouse model grafted with human hair follicle-containing skin and will be of interest to immunologists, skin biologists, and scientists interested in autoimmune disorders” and eventually leading to better treatment of alopecia areata.
In October 2023, Professor Emeritus Avraham Shtub of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, will offer his course “New Product Development” as a Global Network online course for the ninth time. While the content is similar, the course has evolved over the years. In 2014, “New Product Development” was among the first small network online courses (SNOCs) offered through the Global Network for Advanced Management. In 2019, a version of the course was added to Coursera, and Shtub shifted to a “flipped classroom model” for the SNOC, assigning lectures on Coursera for homework, and then using the virtual class time for discussion. Then in 2021 and 2022, the course added an additional experiential component. Shtub assigned students to projects with early-stage startup founders with whom they collaborated, giving them hands-on experience in product development.
We asked Professor Shtub about his motivation for offering the course as a SNOC and what students can expect from the course.
What made you decide to teach this particular course as a SNOC? As the head of the project management research center at the Technion I was asked to develop a course focusing on the management of New Product Development (NPD) projects, as part of the new Startup MBA program at the Technion. Today I teach this course at several universities in Europe and the USA using zoom. During a meeting of GNAM universities in China I presented this course as part of the Technion presentation. Several universities – members of GNAM – were interested in the course. I agreed to teach it as a SNOC as it was a great opportunity to collaborate with other GNAM universities and to teach students how to manage international NPD projects.
Who should take this course? The course is designed for students who want to learn how to manage NPD projects and would like to apply this knowledge in the framework of an international team of GNAM students. Specifically, students who consider the idea of founding a new startup can use this course to simulate the development process, including the preparation of a project plan and its execution in a simulated environment.
What does the global virtual environment of a SNOC provide for students in terms of cross-cultural learning, and how can this also help you? Many NPD projects are performed by international teams. The concept of a Glocal product (Global product with a local adaptation) is based on the understanding of customers’ needs and expectations in different countries. Working with a team of GNAM students from different countries facilitates cross-cultural learning and helps in the development of ideas for Glocal products and services.
What do you hope students take away from your class that they can apply to their careers, regardless of the path they choose? I hope that the tools and techniques discussed and used in this course will help the students in focusing on the most important issues in the New Product Development process. The opportunity to work with a team of GNAM students from other countries will expose the participants to other cultures and a variety of decision-making processes.
Is there anything I haven’t asked you about that is worth considering or mentioning? A paper recently published:
Solan, D., & Shtub, A. (2023). Development and implementation of a new product development course combining experiential learning, simulation, and a flipped classroom in remote learning. The International Journal of Management Education, 21(2). Can help students understand the course content, structure and learning outcomes.
While the micro turbojet engine may be small – weighing only eight pounds – it remains a startling chunk of Inconel. The engine is a single, complete assembly, including all rotating and stationary components.
The turbojet was designed in Creo CAD software, using Inconel as the material and an EOS 3D metal printer as the production machine. “The engine is about the size of a basketball. It would probably be used for drones,” Steve Dertien, chief technology officer at PTC, said during a presentation.
The jet engine project was the brainchild of Ronen Ben Horin, a VP of technology at PTC and a senior research fellow at Technion – Israel Institute of Technology – and Beni Cukurel, an associate professor of aerospace at Technion. The two took their scientific research in jet propulsion and their engineering expertise and designed the engine for additive manufacturing.
When designing the engine, the researchers focused on:
A lightweight design: That required sophisticated lattice modeling and generative design for material and weight reduction while maintaining the appropriate strength and performance that could match designs with more material and heavier weight.
Self-supporting geometries for 3D Printing: That means the software had to optimize designs for printability. Creo needed to create self-supported formula-driven lattices that can be paired with printability checks and modifiers to adjust the design for printing efficiency.
3D printing equipment interoperability: Creo software is compatible with most 3D printing equipment for printing and post-processing. Creo provides a variety of formats, including 3MF, for sending 3D models to the market’s various printer technologies, while also allowing users to create associative models for machining operations. This micro-jet engine was printed with an EOS printer.
In a statement, Cukurel acknowledged that designing the engine with Horin was the culmination of many years of research that included staying on top of advancements in the supporting technology of 3D printing and design software. He noted that the design offers a viable way of producing micro turbojet engines.
While this machine is not the first 3D-printed jet engine — Monash University in Australia claimed that title in 2015, and GE claimed it in 2020 – Cukurel and Horin can probably claim bragging rights for doing it as one piece.
Israel’s ophthalmologists are getting a boost from innovators developing solutions for eye diseases and eye health.
“I think we can see how this industry has matured in Israel, both on the management side, and in the sense of understanding what to develop, and how to develop it,” says Dr. Barak Azmon, a pioneering entrepreneur in the country’s ophthalmology industry.
Azmon is chair of the ophthalmology session at next week’s annual Biomed Conference in Tel Aviv, which showcases the latest developments in healthcare, and will be exhibiting some of these new ocular technologies.
Israel’s ophthalmologists are getting a boost from innovators developing solutions for eye diseases and eye health. (Courtesy Maksim Goncharenok/ Pexels)
“In Israel, there are around 70 startups in the ophthalmologic space. It’s probably more than in the Silicon Valley or any other region alone,” says Azmon.
“As we will show in this conference, we have a unique year where nine companies in the ophthalmology space have already launched new products or are expected to do so by the end of the year.”
NoCamels takes a look at some of the most innovative solutions in the field of eye health in Israel:
Orasis: Eyedrops For Better Vision
Many people over the age of 45 who have always had 20/20 vision find themselves suddenly needing reading glasses as their eyes age – a chronic inconvenience whose long-term solution is an invasive medical procedure.
But now new eyedrops developed by Orasis will be able to correct farsightedness (presbyopia) – albeit for a few hours.
Orasis’ eye drops will enable people with farsightedness to see clearly without reading glasses for several hours at a time. (Courtesy Yaroslav Shuraev / Pexels)
“We aspire to make near vision clear again for people with presbyopia by empowering them with an unparalleled solution, an eye drop that will provide them with comfort and control of their near vision,” said Elad Kedar, CEO of Orasis.
The eyedrop improves patients’ vision by constricting the pupil, resulting in a “pinhole effect” and increasing their depth of field and ability to focus on nearby objects.
Presbyopia is a result of the natural aging process, and there are almost two billion people living with it globally. They experience blurred vision when performing daily tasks like reading a book, a restaurant menu or messages on a smartphone.
Existing treatment options for farsightedness include invasive treatments like LASIK eye surgery, pictured. (Courtesy Senior Airman Brian Ferguson/ Wikimedia Commons)
It cannot be prevented or reversed, and it continues to progress gradually. All existing treatment options are either inconvenient, like reading glasses and contact lenses, or invasive, like refractive surgery that changes the shape of your cornea and lens implants, which replace the lens in each eye with a synthetic one.
Orasis’ eye drops will be sold in the US by the end of the year.
CorNeat Vision: Synthetic Sight
Over two million people lose their vision every year due to a group of eye diseases known as corneal blindness.
The only effective treatment available is a cornea transplant – the clear, front part of the eye that absorbs light, which is later translated by the retina into the images that we see.
Problem is, there’s a shortage of cornea donors worldwide. In China, for example, there are five million patients with corneal blindness, but only 5,000 possible transplants a year.
An animation showing CorNeat Vision’s synthetic lenses. (Courtesy)
Furthermore, artificial corneas are not effective for more than a few months as the immune system sees them as something foreign that needs to be dissolved or expelled.
But startup CorNeat Vision says it has developed a synthetic cornea that can fully rehabilitate corneal blind patients and integrate into their eye tissue.
The “skirt”, or rim of the lens, is made of a patented plastic that stimulates the cells to accept it and incorporate it into the eye tissue.
“There’s no other material that seamlessly embeds itself with live human tissue for life,” says Almog Aley-Raz, CEO.
“When you implant anything, it triggers a foreign body response, and our immune system will work to degrade and eventually absorb it or, in case it is non-degradable, it will encapsulate it with a granuloma (a cluster of white blood cells and other tissue), isolating it from the body.”
The CorNeat KPro. Courtesy
It uses the electrospinning technique – an existing method of creating tiny polymers and metals – to fabricate a rim for an artificial lens, which until now has been seen as an engineering challenge.
The CorNeat KPro is currently undergoing clinical trials, and is expected to be approved for marketing late in 2024.
NovaSight: New Way of Testing
We are all familiar with the ubiquitous eye chart to test our vision, and while it may be effective for adults and adolescents, that isn’t the case for children.
They often don’t cooperate or are simply incapable of taking the test because they’re too young.
NovaSight has developed an eye exam that tracks the position and gaze of the eye to assess their vision.
All the patient needs to do is watch a video on a tablet that is mounted with an inconspicuous eye tracker called the EyeSwift.
Children are often incapable of taking a traditional eye exam because they’re too young. (Courtesy National Library of Medicine – History of Medicine / Wikimedia Commons)
The video shows dots that are constantly moving across the screen, and its resolution gradually reduces over time, becoming more and more foggy.
The company’s algorithms then determine the patient’s level of eyesight once their eyes can no longer follow the target. Its creators say it is simple, accurate and more accessible for both children and adults than traditional eye exams.
“We see when the kid or the adult is not able to track this moving target anymore, just by looking at their eyes,” says Ran Yam, CEO of NovaSight. “We know exactly what their threshold vision is without asking them anything, and without them saying anything.”
Until now, eye tracking has mostly been used for gaming or in expensive medical devices such as those used for people living with ALS (an incurable disease of the nervous system) and not in eye care.
NovaSight will be releasing its treatment for lazy eye, which is also powered by the EyeSwift, later this year. (Courtesy)
“The technology became more affordable over time, so we took that opportunity in order to integrate it into medical devices for vision care,” Yam explains.
The EyeSwift also offers a variety of vision tests, including for color blindness, reading performance, stereoacuity (a person’s ability to detect differences in distance) and more. The same technology also powers the company’s treatment for lazy eye.
NovaSight is this month launching a commercial pilot with Opticana, one of Israel’s leading optical chains.
Notal Vision: Speedy Home Diagnosis
Worsening eyesight is an unfortunate part of aging. For 200 million people worldwide, it comes in the form of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a treatable but recurring disease where the central part of a person’s vision becomes blurred or distorted over a period of days or weeks.
If the condition worsens, the person may struggle to see anything in the center of their field of vision, and a lack of regular oversight by a physician could mean that their eyesight has irreparably deteriorated.
A simulation that shows what a grocery store aisle looks like to someone with age-related macular degeneration. (Courtesy National Eye Institute, NIH / Wikimedia Commons)
Notal Vision provides these patients with a daily home monitoring device using artificial intelligence that within three minutes identifies the onset or reactivation of AMD, thereby offering better, faster and more personalized care.
“The patient puts their head into a viewer where they watch stimuli, and use a computer mouse to click on a location where they spot distortions,” explains Dr. Kester Nahen, CEO of Notal Vision.
“After our AI algorithm analyzes the data, their physician is notified through our monitoring center that provides the service, and a decision can be made to bring the patient into the office for further imaging.”
A patient using the HomeOCT device, which will be available in the US later this year. (Courtesy)
Notal Vision says a study showed that 81 percent of patients whose AMD progressed and were using their ForeseeHome device maintained 20/40 (or better) vision, compared to only 32 percent of patients whose diagnosis was at a routine eye exam or a medical consultation triggered by symptoms.
The company’s new device, the Home OCT system, will help physicians monitor the symptoms and progression of patients with wet AMD, a more serious form of the disease, and offer personalized treatment. It is expected to be in use in the United States by the end of the year.
The Technion – Israel Institute of Technology is teaming up with Toronto University on the use of artificial intelligence in the field of medicine.
The collaboration sees the faculty and students from Technion’s Artificial Intelligence Hub (Tech.AI) and the Canadian university’s Center for AI in Medicine (T-CAIREM) teaming up to develop working practices for “the medicine of the future,” based on commonly shared challenges.
The new partnership was inaugurated this week in a joint tree-day workshop in Ein Gedi in southern Israel, which was attended by dozens of scientists and research students from the two schools. On the agenda were existing capabilities in the field of AI medicine, avenues for growth, advancing education on the subject and joint projects.
The partnership was welcomed by the two institutions.
“The Temerty Centre for Artificial Intelligence Research and Education in Medicine (T-CAIREM) of the University of Toronto is very excited to work with the excellent clinicians and researchers from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology on this highly collaborative and interdisciplinary initiative,” said Prof. Muhammad Mamdani, director of T-CAIREM.
“Our goal is to advance innovative research in AI in medicine that will serve as the foundation for transforming medicine and delivering the best possible care for the patients we serve.”
Prof. Shai Shen-Orr of the Technion said: “We are laying down another broad foundation for the Tech.AI.BioMed activity that promotes the use of AI in medicine. We are certain that this collaboration will add depth and richness to our toolbox for creating new responses that will shape the medicine of the future.”
The President and Faculty of the Technion together with our Honorary President, Chairman, Trustees and Staff of Technion
UK, deeply mourn the passing of Sir Michael Heller.
A Guardian and Hon Doctor of the Technion, Sir Michael was Co-Chairman of Technion UK for over 20 years and was always ready to lead, guide and advise.
The Sir Michael and Lady Morven Heller Charitable Trust is passionate in strengthening the State of Israel through the education of Technion students and supporting Technion research and technology that benefits people all over the world.
Sir Michael and Lady Morven were exemplary in attending the Technion’s annual International Board of Governor’s Meeting in Haifa and took particular delight in visiting and regularly upgrading their major projects, including the Simon and Nettie Heller Student Dormitory and Computer Centre, and the Sir Michael and Lady Morven Heller Theatre.
Our deepest and sincerest condolences are extended to Morven, John, Andrew and Nicola.
The increased demand for sustainable energy sources prompted research groups to focus on battery research in order to store large-scale grid energy in a manageable and reliable manner. In addition, the rising demand of the electric vehicle industry, which mainly relies on current Li-ion battery technology, is expected to strain the current lithium production and divert it from more widespread use as portable consumer electronics. Currently, no technology has proven to be competitive enough to displace Li-ion Batteries.
Now, a team of researchers from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology has developed a proof-of-concept for a novel rechargeable silicon (Si) battery, as well as its design and architecture that enables Si to be reversibly discharged and charged.
The research was led by Professor Yair Ein-Eli of the Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering. The team proved via systematic experimental works of the graduate student Alon Epstein and theoretical studies of Dr. Igor Baskin that silicon is dissolved during the battery discharge process, and elemental silicon is deposited upon charging. Several discharge-charge cycles were achieved, utilizing heavy doped n-type Si wafer anodes and specially designed hybrid-based ionic liquid electrolytes, tailored with halides (Bromine and Iodine), functioning as conversion cathodes.
This breakthrough could pave the way towards the enrichment of the battery technologies available in the energy storage market, with the technology potentially easing stress on the ever-growing market and serving the increasing demand for rechargeable batteries.
Silicon, as the second most abundant element on earth’s crust, was left relatively unexplored despite a high energy density of 8.4 kWh kg-1 on par with metallic Li 11.2 kWh kg-1. Silicon possesses stable surface passivation and low conductivity (dependent on the doping levels). Until now, no established rechargeable cell chemistry comprising elemental Si as an active anode has been reported outside LIB alloying anode.
In the past decade, several publications reported the incorporation of active silicon anodes in primary, non-rechargeable air-battery designs. Thus despite its high abundance and ease of production, the possibility of using Si as an active multivalent rechargeable anode was never explored until the team’s recent breakthrough.
A team of researchers from the Technion–Israel Institute of Technology has developed a proof-of-concept for a novel rechargeable silicon (Si) battery, as well as its design and architecture that enables Si to be reversibly discharged and charged.
Led by Professor Yair Ein-Eli of the Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering, the team proved via systematic experimental works of the graduate student, Alon Epstein and theoretical studies of Dr. Igor Baskin, that Si is dissolved during the battery discharge process, and upon charging, elemental Si is deposited. Several discharge-charge cycles were achieved, utilizing heavy doped n-type Si wafer anodes and specially designed hybrid based ionic liquid electrolytes, tailored with halides (Bromine and Iodine), functioning as conversion cathodes.
This breakthrough could pave the way towards an enrichment of the battery technologies available on the energy storage “super-market” technology, providing an ease on the ever-growing market and demand for rechargeable batteries.
Developments leading to this breakthrough
The increased demand for sustainable energy sources prompted the scientific community to focus on battery research capable of storing large scale grid energy in a manageable and reliable manner. Moreover, the rising demand of the EV industry, which mainly relies on current Li-ion batteries (LIBs) technology is expected to strain current Li production and divert it from more widespread use as portable consumer electronics. Currently, no technology has proven to be competitive enough to displace LIBs. Metals and elements capable of delivering multi-electrons during their oxidation process have been the focus of the research community for a long time due to their associated high specific energy densities.
Magnesium, calcium, aluminum and zinc received much attention as potential anode materials with varied levels of progress; yet none has managed to revolutionize the energy storage industry beyond LIBs, as all of these systems suffer from poor kinetic performance to lack of cell stability, and therefore, much is left to be explored. Silicon (Si), as the second most abundant element on earth’s crust (after oxygen) was left relatively unexplored despite a high energy density of 8.4 kWh kg-1 on par with metallic Li 11.2 kWh kg-1; Si possesses a stable surface passivation, low conductivity (dependent on the doping levels) and until now no established rechargeable cell chemistry comprising elemental Si as an active anode has been reported, outside LIB alloying anode.
In the past decade several publications (initiated originally in 2009 by Prof. Ein-Eli) reported the incorporation of active Si anodes in primary, non-rechargeable air-battery designs. Thus, despite its high abundance and ease of production, the possibility of using Si as an active multivalent rechargeable anode was never explored, until the team’s recent breakthrough.
