Pavithra Sindhu LCE

An illustration of the electrolyte solution used in the new study, on the atomic scale. The fluoride ion (pink) is surrounded by a liquid of BTFE molecules. Credit: Brett Savoie/Purdue University Imagine not having to charge your phone or laptop for weeks. That is the dream of researchers looking into alternative batteries that go beyond the current lithium-ion versions popular today. Now, in a new study appearing in the journal  Science , chemists at several institutions, including Caltech and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed by Caltech for NASA, as well as the Honda Research Institute and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, have hit on a new way of making rechargeable batteries based on fluoride, the negatively charged form, or anion, of the element fluorine. "Fluoride batteries can have a higher energy density, which means that they may last longer -- up to eight times longer than batteries in use today," says study co-author Robert Gru...

Hydrogen Finally Mega-Evolved As reported back in September,  two studies , each with a different approach, were attempting to created metallic hydrogen, and now, more than 80 years after it was predicted to be possible, the  Harvard University  team has finally managed to produce the elusive state. Physicists Isaac Silvera, who has been working on this problem for 45 years, and Ranga Dias published their study’s results this week in the journal  Science . To develop metallic hydrogen, Silvera’s team squeezed two opposing heavy-duty diamonds together to compress gaseous hydrogen, and then they transitioned it into its liquid state by lowering the temperature [hydrogen liquifies at a temperature of -252°C (-423°F)]. They then gradually increased the applied pressure on the solid hydrogen by twisting a steel screw to exert force on the diamond anvil. It was then that changes were noticed. At about 2 million atmospheres (or 200 gigapascal), the hydrogen st...