Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory developed a method to convert a commonly discarded hydrocarbon polymer into gasoline- and diesel-like fuels. The team has applied for a patent for the discovery, which treats polyethylene — the stuff of white cutting boards and shopping bags — with aluminum chloride-containing molten salts that serve as both solvent and catalyst. The results were published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Solid-state electrolytes are widely considered the "holy grail" for safer, more energy-dense batteries, promising to replace flammable liquid electrolytes in everything from smartphones to electric vehicles. However, a major hurdle remains: achieving high ionic conductivity—the ease with which lithium ions move—while maintaining long-term stability.

As the electric vehicle (EV) market surges, the biggest anxiety for owners and manufacturers remains the battery. How long will it last? Is it safe? Accurately predicting a battery's State of Health (SOH) is notoriously difficult under real-world driving conditions. Now, a research collaboration including Jilin University and major automaker China FAW Group has developed a novel deep learning model that cracks this code, achieving prediction errors of less than 1% even in dynamic environments.

As the global demand for sustainable energy solutions intensifies, the efficiency of devices like metal-air batteries and fuel cells hinges on a critical chemical process: the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Historically, platinum group metals have been the gold standard for catalyzing this reaction, but their scarcity and high cost remain significant barriers to widespread commercialization.