Pinpointing why promising cathodes fail

Researchers at the US Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory have discovered why and how one of the more promising cathode materials in lithium ion batteries – single crystalline nickel-rich lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide – degrades with use.

Electroadhesion: Using electrons as glue

How would you stick a slice of banana to a sheet of copper? Until a few months ago, you couldn’t. But a new discovery called “hard-soft electroadhesion” enables chemists to stick almost any hydrogel to almost any metal, using only an electric current.