Tag Archives: capacity

Memory Chips Just 10 Atoms Thick Could Boost Capacity Significantly

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Current silicon chips are highly compact, but using ultrathin 2D materials could enhance their density even further.

Wu Kailiang/Alamy

A memory chip with a thickness of just 10 atoms could revolutionize the storage capacity of electronic gadgets like smartphones.

Despite decades of scaling down, modern computer chips often have very few components yet integrate tens of billions of transistors into an area comparable to a fingernail. Although the size of silicon components has significantly decreased, the thickness of the silicon wafers remains considerable, imposing limitations on increasing a chip’s complexity through stacking layers.

Researchers have been exploring the potential of thinner chips made from 2D materials like graphene. Graphene consists of a single layer of carbon atoms and represents the thinnest known material. However, until recently, only basic chip designs could be implemented with these materials, complicating their connection to traditional processors and integration into electrical devices.

Recently, Liu Chunsen and his team from Fudan University in Shanghai successfully integrated a 2D chip only 10 atoms thick with a CMOS chip currently utilized in computers. The manufacturing method for these chips yields a rough surface, making it challenging to layer a 2D sheet on top. The researchers addressed this issue by placing a glass layer between the 2D and CMOS chips, although this step is not yet part of the industrial process and requires further development for mass production.

The prototype memory module the team created achieved over 93% accuracy during testing. While this falls short of the reliability needed for consumer-grade devices, it serves as an encouraging proof of concept.

“This technology holds significant promise, but there’s still a considerable journey ahead before it can be commercialized,” says Steve Furber from the University of Manchester, UK.

Kai Shu, a researcher at King’s College London, mentions that further reducing current chip designs without utilizing 2D materials poses challenges due to signal leakage associated with traditional components made at very narrow widths. Thinner layers might mitigate this issue. Consequently, achieving greater thinness may facilitate additional reductions in width.

“Silicon is encountering hurdles,” said Xu. “2D materials might provide solutions. With their minimal thickness, gate control becomes more uniform and comprehensive, resulting in reduced leakage.”

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Source: www.newscientist.com

It Could Have Up to 90% Less Carbon Storage Capacity Than You Realize

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Icelandic geothermal power facilities engaged in the underground injection of carbon dioxide for extended storage

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Recent studies indicate that the planet may exhaust its capacity for storing captured carbon dioxide within the next 200 years, revealing that our ability to retain CO.2 underground is significantly less than previously believed.

Government and industry advocates promote the underground storage of carbon dioxide as a viable solution to achieving net-zero emissions while still utilizing fossil fuels.

Previously estimated industry figures suggested a global geological storage capacity of about 14,000 Gigatonnes of CO.2. However, as noted by Jori Rogelj from Imperial College London, UK, this capacity was thought to be effectively limitless.

Through comprehensive analysis, Rogelj and his team discovered that the actual available storage space might be considerably lower. By assessing stable geological formations while excluding areas with significant risk factors, such as proximity to major urban centers, sensitive ecosystems, or regions prone to earthquakes, they concluded that only 1460 Gigatonnes of geological storage capacity is viable worldwide.

“From a situation where storage options appeared virtually boundless, we’ve transformed our perspective,” Rogelj explains. “The storage potential we can depend on requires careful management and represents a crucial asset,” he continues, emphasizing that the potential is now ten times more valuable than previously recognized.

Most climate projections indicate that adequate underground carbon storage is essential for the world to attain net-zero emissions. The extent of this storage relies fundamentally on reducing fossil fuel consumption. Researchers caution that if we continue to depend on geological storage to isolate significant emissions post-net zero, we could deplete carbon storage entirely by the year 2200.

Rogelj asserts that his findings suggest underground carbon storage should only be utilized as a last resort when all other options have been exhausted. He recommends relying on zero-emissions solutions whenever feasible, rather than capturing and storing emissions from fossil fuel power stations.

This strategy would preserve underground storage capacity for CO2 that could be utilized with technologies such as direct air capture (DAC), which extracts excess CO2 directly from the atmosphere. DACs, along with other “negative emissions” technologies, can potentially help the world achieve net negative emissions beyond reaching net zero, opening up pathways to effectively reverse climate change.

According to Rogelj and his colleagues, the 1460 Gigatonnes of accessible underground CO2 storage capacity could allow the world to counteract warming by as much as 0.7°C.

Nonetheless, Stuart Haszeldine from the University of Edinburgh warns that the actual usable geological storage capacity might be less than the industry’s 14,000 Gigatonnes estimate and suggests that these revised lower figures could still be overly optimistic.

He argues that the team’s approach to evaluating risk factors is “quite conservative,” pointing out that certain seismic regions, such as the North Sea, have been excluded from consideration but remain suitable for carbon isolation. “We understand enough about carbon storage and oil reserves. An oil field filled with oil, gas, or carbon dioxide can withstand quakes of magnitude 6 without any issues,” Haszeldine states.

He emphasizes that most analysts foresee carbon sequestration as an integral part of the transition away from fossil fuels. Therefore, he predicts that the volume of carbon injected underground yearly should diminish once net-zero emissions are achieved.

“[Carbon capture and storage] encompasses a wide range of climate pessimism and challenges, which have often been overlooked, explaining why we don’t really require a tremendous amount of joint CO2 storage capacity,” Haszeldine concludes.

Topics:

  • Climate change/
  • Carbon capture

Source: www.newscientist.com

Microplastics Could Impair the Ocean’s Carbon Capture Capacity

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Free divers surrounded by plastic pollution

Sebnem Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Microplastics are not merely present on the ocean’s surface. A comprehensive study on small particles has shown their widespread presence throughout the water column, potentially impacting the ocean’s capacity to sequester carbon from the atmosphere.

“There are countless entities like this all across the ocean’s interior,” states Tracy Mincer from Florida Atlantic University.

Mincer and his team analyzed microplastic data collected over the last decade from nearly 2,000 global locations. While many assessments concentrate on shallow ocean surfaces, their dataset incorporated samples from various depths, including some of the ocean’s deepest regions.

The researchers found microplastics documented precisely where research efforts were focused. This includes the Mariana Trench, where more than 13,000 microplastic particles were recorded, nearly 7 kilometers per cubic meter.

They were taken aback by the uniform distribution of the smallest particles throughout the water column. “While we anticipated finding plastics at both the ocean’s surface and its depths, they were unexpectedly widespread,” remarked Aron Stubbins from Northeastern University, Massachusetts.

Additionally, these plastic polymers contribute significantly to the carbon particles present in the water. At a depth of 2,000 meters, an area less biologically active than the surface, they account for 5% of the carbon content.

The ecological ramifications of these findings are not yet fully understood. One major concern is that buoyant plastics consumed by plankton may decrease the amount of carbon that is effectively transported to deeper layers through fecal pellets and carcasses. This could impede the ocean’s biological carbon pumps, says Stubbins. However, he emphasizes that quantifying the impact of this phenomenon remains a challenge. “We are uncovering a variety of plastics throughout the ocean,” he notes.

“We can no longer afford to overlook the insights of chemists and biologists in understanding how vast ocean systems operate,” stated Douglas McCauley from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He believes this research will clarify the discrepancies between estimates of millions of tons of plastic entering the oceans and the actually measured quantities. “Sadly, it’s not vanishing. Instead, it has dispersed throughout the water as microplastics,” he adds.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Enhanced Energy Storage Capacity of Hybrid Supercapacitor Electrodes

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A breakthrough in hybrid supercapacitors was achieved by increasing the active material in the electrodes by a new method involving β-Ni(OH)2 and NH4F. This innovation leads to more efficient energy storage and opens new possibilities for advanced energy systems. Credit: SciTechDaily.com

New research enhances hybrid supercapacitors by creating more efficient electrodes, marking a major advance in energy storage technology.

Like batteries, supercapacitors are a type of energy storage device. However, whereas batteries store energy electrochemically, supercapacitors store energy electrostatically by storing charge on the electrode surface.

Hybrid supercapacitors (HSCs) combine the advantages of both systems by incorporating battery-type electrodes and capacitor-type electrodes. Despite synthetic techniques that allow the active components of HSC electrodes to be grown directly on conductive substrates without the addition of binders (“self-supporting” electrodes), the proportion of active material in these electrodes remains subject to commercial requirements. remains too low.

Now, researchers have discovered a clever way to increase activity ratios and achieve dramatic improvements in key measures.

Schematic diagram of the device. Credit: Vinod Panwar and Pankaj Singh Chauhan

A breakthrough in supercapacitor electrode efficiency

“Hybrid supercapacitors integrate the advantages of high energy and power density, long cycle life, and safety, and are emerging as a promising frontier in electrochemical energy storage,” said the study’s lead author, a Chinese said Wei Guo, a scientist at Northwestern University of Science and Technology.

“In our paper, we propose a new mechanism to create a versatile two-dimensional superstructure family that overcomes the low active mass ratio of conventional free-standing electrodes.”

New methodology and findings

Here, the researchers studied β-Ni(OH)2, a type of nickel hydroxide. Addition of NH4F into the reaction solution replaces one hydroxide ion with a fluoride ion. The resulting Ni-F-OH plates were grown to a thickness of 700 nm and had a high mass loading (active mass per cm2) 29.8 mg cm-2– Up to 72% of electrode mass.

Advanced Light Source (ALS) Many theoretical and An experimental analysis was performed. It is used to understand the mechanisms underlying the new morphology.

As a result, adding F gives us– Ions tune the surface energy of the plates (a key factor in nanocrystal growth), while NH4+ Ions consume excess local OH–suppressing undesired β-Ni(OH)2 reformation. Additionally, based on the same methodology, researchers can produce other bimetallic superstructures and their derivatives, emerging a versatile new family of metal-based hydroxides for new energy storage systems to meet future demands. showed signs of.

Reference: “New layered hydroxide plates of record thickness to enhance high mass-load energy storage” Wei Guo, Chaochao Dun, Matthew A. Marcus, Victor Venturi, Zack Gainsforth, Feipen Yang, Xuefei Feng, Venkatasubramanian Viswanathan, Jeffrey J. Urban, Chang Yu, Qiuyu Zhang, Jinghua Guo, Jieshan Qiu, February 18, 2023. advanced materials.
DOI: 10.1002/adma.202211603

Source: scitechdaily.com

Revealing the Ocean’s Secret Carbon Storage Capacity

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New research published in Nature It has been suggested that the ocean’s capacity to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is 20% higher than previously thought, at 15 gigatonnes per year. This study focused on the role of plankton in carbon transport to the ocean floor. Credit: SciTechDaily.com

Research has revealed that the ocean is storing 20% ​​more carbon dioxide than previously estimated, primarily due to plankton transporting carbon to the ocean floor. However, this new understanding will not have much of an impact on his current CO2 emissions crisis.

The ocean’s capacity to store atmospheric carbon dioxide is about 20% greater than estimates included in the latest IPCC report.[1] These are the research results published in the journal Nature Led by an international team including biologists from the CNRS, it took place on December 6, 2023.[2] Scientists investigated the role plankton plays in the natural transport of carbon from surface waters to the ocean floor.

Plankton absorb carbon dioxide and convert it into organic tissue as they grow. photosynthesis. When plankton dies, some of it turns into particles known as “marine snow.” Because these particles are denser than seawater, they sink to the ocean floor, where they store carbon and provide essential nutrients to a wide range of deep-sea organisms, from tiny bacteria to deep-sea fish.

Global distribution of organic carbon flux from the surface layer of the open ocean. Credit: © Wang et al., 2023, Nature.

By analyzing banks of data collected from around the world by ocean research vessels since the 1970s, a team of seven scientists was able to digitally map the flux of organic matter across the world’s oceans. The resulting new estimate of carbon storage capacity is 15 gigatonnes per year, an increase of about 20% compared to a previous study published by the IPCC in its 2021 report (11 gigatonnes per year).

This reassessment of the ocean’s storage capacity represents a significant advance in our understanding of carbon exchange between the atmosphere and ocean at the global level. The research team emphasizes that this absorption process takes place over tens of thousands of years and is therefore not sufficient to offset the exponential growth of CO.2 Despite emissions caused by industrial activity around the world since 1750, this study highlights the importance of marine ecosystems as a key player in the long-term control of Earth’s climate.

Note

  1. IPCC Climate Change 2021 Report, Fundamentals of the Physical Sciences, Chapter 5, Figure 5.12: Figure AR6 WG1 | Climate Change 2021: Fundamentals of the Physical Sciences (ipcc.ch)
  2. From Marine Environmental Science Research Institute (CNRS/UBO/IFREMER/IRD)

Reference: “Estimating biological carbon pumps based on decades of hydrographic data” Wei-Lei Wang, Weiwei Fu, Frédéric AC Le Moigne, Robert T. Letscher, Yi Liu, Jin-Ming Tang, François W. Primeau , December 6, 2023, Nature.
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06772-4

Source: scitechdaily.com