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Category: sustainability

Homes in the fire zone: Why wildland-urban blazes create significantly more air pollution

A research team led by the U.S. National Science Foundation National Center for Atmospheric Research (NSF NCAR) has published a foundational inventory of emissions produced by structures destroyed by fires in the wildland-urban interface (WUI). Previously, researchers suspected that fires in WUI areas—spaces where human development and undeveloped wildland meet—produce emissions that are likely more harmful than those produced by forest or grass fires. However, the amount of emissions had not been quantified.

This new study, published in Nature Communications, provides the first inventory of emissions from structure fires in WUI areas. The results definitively reveal structure fires as a major source of air pollution.

WUI fires are becoming increasingly more common in the U.S. and have destroyed more than 100,000 homes since 2005. Because these events are intensely concentrated both in time and space, they can produce exceptionally high local pollution, which has important implications for the air quality and public health of nearby urban areas.

New electrolyzer turns plastic-waste syngas into ethylene with less energy

For every ton of ethylene created, one ton of carbon dioxide is produced. With more than 300 million tons of ethylene produced each year, the production system has a huge carbon footprint that scientists and engineers are eager to reduce and eventually eliminate. A new device developed in Ted Sargent’s lab at Northwestern takes a step toward breaking that cycle.

The device, an electrolyzer, has three innovations. It uses electricity to create ethylene from syngas, a waste gas produced from plastic. It uses a novel material to help catalyze the reaction. And it does so in an efficient way, reducing the overall energy needed for the system.

The results, published Feb. 17 in Nature Energy, can be used with renewable energy sources to help pave the way for a greener ethylene supply chain.

Chitosan-nickel biomaterial becomes stronger when wet, and could replace plastics

A new study led by the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) has unveiled the first biomaterial that is not only waterproof but actually becomes stronger in contact with water. The material is produced by the incorporation of nickel into the structure of chitosan, a chitinous polymer obtained from discarded shrimp shells. The development of this new biomaterial marks a departure from the plastic-age mindset of making materials that must isolate from their environment to perform well. Instead, it shows how sustainable materials can connect and leverage their environment, using their surrounding water to achieve mechanical performance that surpasses common plastics.

Plastics have become an integral part of modern society thanks to their durability and resistance to water. However, precisely these properties turn them into persistent disruptors of ecological cycles. As a result, unrecovered plastic is accumulating across ecosystems and becoming an increasingly ubiquitous component of global food chains, raising growing concerns about potential impacts on human health.

In an effort to address this challenge, the use of biomaterials as substitutes for conventional plastics has long been explored. However, their widespread adoption has been limited by a fundamental drawback: Most biological materials weaken when exposed to water. Traditionally, this vulnerability has forced engineers to rely on chemical modifications or protective coatings, thereby undermining the sustainability benefits of biomaterial-based solutions.

New additive helps solar cells retain 93% power-conversion efficiency

A study conducted by Penn State University researchers has revealed that organic solar cells could be strengthened by adding a chemical additive, making them suitable for large-scale deployment and manufacturing. The study was reported on the official university website on February 16.

Assistant Professor Nutifafa Doumon and doctoral candidate Souk Yoon “John” Kim, both from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, led this experiment.

Physicists explain the exceptional energy-harvesting efficiency of perovskites

Despite being riddled with impurities and defects, solution-processed lead-halide perovskites are surprisingly efficient at converting solar energy into electricity. Their efficiency is approaching that of silicon-based solar cells, the industry standard. In a new study published in Nature Communications, physicists at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) present a comprehensive explanation of the mechanism behind perovskite efficiency that has long perplexed researchers.

How can a device assembled with minimal sophistication rival state-of-the-art technology perfected over decades? Over the past 15 years, materials research has witnessed the rise of lead-halide-based perovskites as prospective next-generation solar-cell materials. The puzzle is that despite similar performance, perovskite solar cells are fabricated using inexpensive solution-based techniques, while the industry-standard silicon cells require ultra-pure single-crystal wafers.

Now, postdoc Dmytro Rak and assistant professor Zhanybek Alpichshev at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) have uncovered the mechanism behind the unique photovoltaic properties of perovskites. Their key finding is that while silicon-based technology relies on the absence of impurities, the opposite is true in perovskites: It is the natural network of structural defects in these materials that enables the long-range charge transport necessary for efficient photovoltaic energy harvesting.

New nanohole-based microscopy monitors electrochemical reactions millisecond by millisecond

Many technological applications, such as sensors and batteries, greatly rely on electrochemical reactions. Improving these technologies depends on understanding how electrochemical reactions work. However, most current methods cannot look at electrochemical reactions in detail.

Scientists at Utrecht University have now developed a new method that overcomes this limitation. This provides a powerful new way to study and improve electrochemical processes. The study is published in PNAS.

Hydrogen production by water electrolysis is one example where electrochemical reactions at electrodes matter for sustainable technology. But the decisive steps happen within just a few nanometers of the electrode surface, which is too small for most conventional methods to resolve.

3D-weaving tech that uses body-scan data from shoppers could mean a better fit, fewer returns, and a zero-waste future for fashion

3D-printed designs and 3D-woven clothing by tech startup Unspun hints at what the fashion industry’s sustainable, zero-waste future could look like.

Elon Musk reveals his most ambitious (and detailed) plan for Mars: 1,000 spacecraft, 20 years of launches, and a self-sustaining city of one million inhabitants on Mars by 2050

At the entrance to Starbase in south Texas, a glowing sign now welcomes visitors with the words “Gateway to Mars.” The display sits in front of SpaceX facilities where giant Starship rockets are being assembled with one bold purpose in mind: Elon Musk wants to build a self-sustaining city on Mars.

In recent years he has begun to put numbers on that dream. Musk has repeatedly said that building the first sustainable city on Mars would require around 1,000 Starship rockets and roughly 20 years of launch campaigns, moving up to 100,000 people per favorable Earth-Mars alignment and eventually reaching about one million settlers plus millions of tons of cargo.

It sounds like science fiction with a project plan. Yet the language he uses, “sustainable city,” is very familiar to climate and energy experts here on Earth. So what does sustainability really mean on a frozen, air-thin world and how does that huge effort interact with the environmental crisis on our own planet?

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