Hybrid Materials on Nanostructured Templates to Improve Lithium-ion Batteries

By using hybrid materials assembled on a vertical brush-like nanostructured template, a university-industrial collaboration has developed novel anode materials for lithium-ion batteries with eight-fold improvement in storage capacity and five-fold improvement in charge-discharge rate.

Jun Li, professor of chemistry at Kansas State University, and Judy Wu, University Distinguished Professor of Physics at The University of Kansas, worked together to develop these materials with their collaborators at NASA Ames Center for Nanotechnology and Catalyst Power Techologies Inc. both in California.

Lithium-ion batteries are critical energy sources for portable electronics. Improving the energy capacity, the charge-discharge rate (i.e. power), and lifetime can significantly enhance these devices. It is particularly important for new renewable energy applications such as electric cars and storage of intermittent electrical energy generated by solar cells and wind turbines.

Silicon has been known as a good Lithium-ion anode material which can theoretically provide about 10 times higher Li storage capacity than the current commercial anode material (i.e. graphite). However, the pulverization caused by the large volume changes during charge-discharge cycles has limited its usable lifetime. Coating silicon as thin shells around vertically aligned carbon nanotubes allows it to freely expand and contract but remain in good electrical contact with the highly conductive and stable carbon core. The hybrid material has shown dramatically improved performance.

The core-shell hybrid nanostructure (see the TEM image at the center) allows the reversible volume change during cycling between the charged (right) and discharged (left) states.

Energy-Related Education Programs Benefit Kids and Scientists Alike

Informal science opportunities such as museum visits offer youth and their adult chaperons an opportunity to experience science in an engaging, hands-on manner that promotes interest and supports life-long learning. This is exactly why Teresa MacDonald, Director of Education, is offering up at the University of Kansas Natural History Museum.

Nanoscale and energy are two important areas of current science and engineering research that are well placed to make connections between research and everyday life. The collaboration between scientists and educators has given researchers in the Kansas NSF EPSCoR-funded project, Nanotechnology for Renewable Energy, the opportunity to enhance their knowledge of educational research and practices, specifically in informal science education.

Creating informative, engaging and challenging educational experiences are effective at enhancing science knowledge and understanding, as well as generating interest in science subjects and careers. The resources developed as part of this project have engaged youth, teachers and parents, as well as the broader general public with these important science ideas through hands-on programming and extensive online material. These experiences build capacity with everyone involved in terms of their content knowledge related to nanoscale, energy and related topics, and scientists’ understanding of informal science education.

The goals of creating these opportunities were to provide challenging and engaging science education experiences that introduce core ideas about nanoscale, matter and energy. The diverse activities developed to meet these goals have successfully reached out to both youth and adult participants, and their audience continues to grow.

How Small is Small explores size and scale, where 2nd through 6th graders discover what are the smallest things in the universe are and how small they are. The new Cartoon Guide to Energy hands-on program for elementary and middle school groups that use classic cartoon scenarios to explore how fundamental forces and properties of matter build a framework for thinking about energy across its different contexts. Science Shorts is a set of four mini animated videos about solar energy and electricity. It has now had more than 20,000 views (logo and screen shots above). Photon Invaders, an online game about solar cells is now available as an Android app. Another game that explores how electrical charges work has been created (Eddie’s Obstacle Course) and the app version was recently released (screen shots above).Quarked! Adventures in the Subatomic Universe (www.quarked.org) is a website that introduces kids ages 7 and up, and their families and teachers to the exciting world of particle physics. It continues to have visitors from more than 60 countries, with more than 72,000 unique visits in 2012.

For more information about these museum offerings please visit http://naturalhistory.ku.edu/education.

The museum has developed some awesome refrigerator magnets and temporary tatoos of these characters that are fun for all ages.

Contact the KNE office if you are interested in obtaining them at no cost: nsfepscor@ku.edu or (785) 864-3096.

Adaption Strategies for Grain Sorghum for a Varying Climate

Plant growth simulations developed by Kansas State University researchers have shown that by shifting planting dates earlier by three weeks and applying irrigation at appropriate times, farmers can mitigate sorghum yield losses due to increasing temperature and decreasing precipitation.

Management practice adjustments, especially planting date shifts and irrigation have the potential to counteract the effect of climate change on the yield of some crops. This research provides farmers with alternative strategies to adapt to the effects of climate change and decrease their yield loss.

Rapid change in temperature, precipitation and the concentration of carbon dioxide is a major concern. These climate variables directly and indirectly affect the agriculture sector, mainly by reducing productivity. Researchers can use highly detailed crop models to simulate the effects of different predicted climate scenarios. The results can allow them to suggest crop management strategies to farmers for adapting to a given scenario. An adaptation strategy such as shifting planting dates earlier allows a crop to grow in a comparatively favorable environment avoiding the detrimental effect of higher temperatures on growth. A focused irrigation strategy can also help to balance reduced soil moisture and leaf water, caused by lower precipitation and higher temperatures.

This research is being conducted at Kansas State University Department of Agronomy by Abhishes Lamsal, Aavudai Anandhi Swamy, M.B. Kirkham and PV. Vara Prasad. Photo credit: Milo Head (by Larry Schwarm, used by permission)