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Design

Career Ford Engineer Zhou Awarded SAE’s Medal of Honor

SAE International named a longtime Ford engineer with its Medal of Honor during its annual World Congress event.

Products

Energy

New Products

See the new products, including Littelfuse's TPSMB Asymmetrical Series TVS Diodes; Siemens' SICHARGE FLEX product family, its next-generation EV distributed charging system; Renesas Electronics Corporation's expansion of its software-defined vehicle solution offerings centered around the fifth generation (Gen 5) R-Car family; and much more.

Briefs

Energy

Building an Affordable Grid-Scale Alternative to Batteries

Researchers at Rice University have found a new way to improve a key element of thermophotovoltaic systems, which convert heat into electricity via light. Read on to learn more about it.

Podcasts

Energy

Sesame Solar's Nanogrid Tech Promises Major Gains in Drone Endurance

On this episode of the Aerospace & Defense Technology Podcast, Sesame Solar Co-founder and CEO Lauren Flanagan explains how the company’s new mobile hydrogen‑powered nanogrids are redefining what’s possible for long‑range drone operations. Listen now!

News

Automotive

Precast Concrete Bases Pave the Way for Rapid EV Charger Development

Precast concrete pads for EV chargers can speed design and installation for rapid growth.

Articles

Energy

The End of the Beginning: Why the EV Market Will Overcome the Loss of Tax Credits

Will EV sales in the U.S. double by the end of the decade, or more? Will the U.S. keep pace with China’s relentless iterative improvements on EV technology, or will China increasingly dominate the rapidly electrifying global transportation industry? Read on to learn more.

Briefs

Energy

Breakthrough Advances Sodium-Based Battery Design

Read on to learn about research that raises the benchmark for sodium-based all-solid-state batteries and demonstrates thick cathodes that retain performance at room temperature down to subzero conditions.

Briefs

Power

Breaking the Rules to Build a Better Battery

By flipping a foundational belief in battery design, Hailong Chen and his team found that charging zinc-ion batteries at higher currents can make them last longer. Read on to learn more about this surprising result.

Articles

Energy

Solving Fleet Electrification Bottlenecks with Battery-Integrated Charging Systems

Charging infrastructure has become the primary bottleneck to fleet electrification. Despite growing demand for electric trucks and increasing pressure to decarbonize logistics operations, many fleet operators face long delays for grid upgrades, transformer installations, and permitting, at times waiting more than a year to power vehicles that have already arrived. OptiGrid was formed in response to this growing gap between vehicle readiness and infrastructure availability. Read on to learn more.

Products

Power

New Products

See the new products, including Nexperia's ESD diodes designed to protect 48V automotive data communications networks against the destructive effects of electrostatic discharge events; Comau's collaboration with Intecells to optimize the use of cold plasma within industrial cell manufacturing processes; Carlo Gavazzi Automation's UWP-DLB Series, an advanced solution delivering intelligent dynamic load balancing for EV charging systems; and more.

Technology Report

Energy

EV Battery Safety: Advanced Coatings, Composite Solutions for Fire and Blast Protection

Thermal runaway in electric vehicle batteries is rare, but it can happen, producing smoke, fire, and explosions. This uncontrollable, self-heating state can transfer intense heat to adjacent cells and cause pressure buildups that exceed the mechanical limits of cell casings. Read on to learn how to avoid it.

INSIDER

Energy

Navy Completes 73-Hour Nonstop Flight of Solar-Powered UAS

The U.S. Navy, in partnership with Skydweller Aero, recently achieved continuous solar-powered uncrewed flight during a nonstop three-day test from Stennis, Mississippi.

Articles

Energy

Laying the Building Blocks for the EV Smart Grid

This article introduces the fundamental concepts behind EV load management, which allows fleet operators to fit more EV chargers on the utility service that they currently have. Read on to learn more.

Articles

Energy

Why Accurate SoC and SoH Estimation Is Critical for Battery Longevity and Business Success

The modern world runs on battery power. The world’s most critical industries are widely adopting battery-powered systems to achieve decarbonization goals, energy independence, and mobility. Still, like any technology, battery performance and business success depend on how well they’re managed. Read on to learn what this means.

Briefs

AR/AI

How Can We Optimize Solid-State Batteries? Try Asking AI

Researchers at Tohoku University developed a data-driven AI framework that points out potential solid-state electrolyte candidates that could be “the one” to create an ideal sustainable energy solution. Read on to learn more.

Briefs

Energy

Smoothing Over Rough Edges in Batteries

Battery performance suffers over time, like when a phone needs to be charged more frequently after years of use. A thin film that forms on the metal anode when the battery is charging and discharging plays a part in that issue. This film has benefits, but its roughness gradually wears the battery down. Researchers have discovered a temporary version of this film that appears at rapid discharge speeds and dissolves back into the battery when the process finishes. Read on to learn more.

Briefs

Energy

Thermoelectric Generators Could Convert Waste Heat to Clean Energy in Jet Engines and Spacecraft

Thermoelectric generators that can convert waste heat to clean energy could soon be as efficient as other renewable energy sources, like solar, according to a team led by Penn State scientists. Using high-entropy materials, the researchers created more efficient thermoelectric materials than previously possible, an advancement that they said could even help make long-distance space exploration possible. Read on to learn more.

Articles

Energy

Crafting Safe, Long-Cyclable Lithium Metal Batteries for High Temperatures

A research team led by Professor Dong-Myeong Shin of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Hong Kong has developed a new generation of lithium metal batteries, representing a significant advancement in the field. Here, an interview with Shin to learn more about the technology.

Briefs

Energy

Researchers Discover a Surprising Way to Jump-Start Battery Performance

In a study published in Joule, researchers at the SLAC-Stanford Battery Center report that giving batteries a first charge at unusually high currents increased their average lifespan by 50 percent while decreasing the initial charging time from 10 hours to just 20 minutes. Read on to learn more.

Briefs

Energy

New Battery Cathode Material Could Revolutionize EV Market and Energy Storage

A multi-institutional research team led by Hailong Chen has developed a new, low-cost cathode that could radically improve lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) — potentially transforming the electric vehicle (EV) market and large-scale energy storage systems. Read on to learn more.

Briefs

Energy

Dormant Capacity Reserve in Lithium-Ion Batteries Detected

Using transmission electron microscopes, Researchers at Graz University of Technology were able to systematically track lithium ions as they traveled through battery material, map their arrangement in the crystal lattice of an iron phosphate cathode with unprecedented resolution, and precisely quantify their distribution in the crystal. Read on to learn more.

Articles

Energy

Battery Progress, But What’s the Holdup in Adoption?

There’s no shortage of alternatives to lithium-ion EV batteries in development. From lithium-iron phosphate to sodium-ion to multiple solid-state chemistries, companies are racing to perfect these technologies and figure out how to manufacture them at scale. Read on to find out what the holdup is.

Briefs

Energy

Cheaper and Safer Battery Storage

Researchers have developed a new technique to solve the problem of how to increase the capacity of sodium-ion batteries. Read on to learn more about it.

Briefs

Energy

Algorithms to Enhance Reliability of Electric Vehicle Charging

American drivers have long been accustomed to quickly filling up at a gas station with plenty of fuel available, and electric vehicle drivers want their pit stops to mimic this experience. Researchers are working to make EV charging more resilient. Read on to learn more about it.

Briefs

Energy

A New Way to Enhance Durability of Lithium Batteries

Researchers have been developing batteries with higher energy storage density, and thus, longer driving range. Other goals include shorter charging times, greater tolerance to low temperatures, and safer operation. One of the more promising such batteries has a lithium-containing cathode supplemented with nickel, manganese, and cobalt (NMC). Read on to learn more.

Products

Energy

New Products

See the new products, including Webasto's traction batteries, which are increasing from 35 to 40 kilowatt hours; Avery Dennison's pressure-sensitive adhesive tape solutions for EV battery cell wrapping applications; Thermo Fisher Scientific's Thermo Scientific™ LInspector™ Edge In-line Mass Profilometer; and more.

Articles

Power

Batteries and Recycling: The Next Frontier

Recycling EV batteries has been a goal of the auto industry for many years, but the infrastructure to make that a widespread reality is still in the early stages. As the amount of used lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery cells coming from EVs increases, the industry is getting ready to turn them into fresh packs. Read on to learn more.

Briefs

Physical Sciences

Enhancing the Performance of All-Solid-State Batteries

A research team from Pohang University has successfully enhanced the performance and durability of all-solid-state batteries. This breakthrough was made possible through the implementation of a novel approach known as bottom electrodeposition. Read on to learn more.

Briefs

Green Design & Manufacturing

Carbon-Capture Batteries Developed to Store Renewable Energy, Help Climate

A new battery formulation captures carbon dioxide from industrial emissions and converts it into a solid form that has the potential to be used in other products. Read on to learn more.