New lithium-ion batteries could last 20 years

Electronista: "Researchers at Japan's Eamex have discovered a technique that could dramatically extend the lifespan of lithium-ion batteries. The new approach keeps the tin inside the battery intact for much longer despite the strain caused by charging and recharging. By absorbing much of the stress through a new alloy in the tin-coated resin, the tin and the electrode structure are more stable and could last for as long as 20 years."

The figure is based on an assumption of about 10,000 complete recharges, or about 10 times more use many batteries today, including those for notebooks. Apple estimates that a MacBook or MacBook Pro battery can withstand about 1,000 cycles over about 5 years of constant use. Regular notebook batteries are estimated to last about 300 cycles.

Eamex plans to ship a battery with about 10,000W of power per kilogram (4,545W per pound) by the end of 2010 and expects the most use to come for vehicles like electric cars and scooters, where the need for a long-lasting battery is the most important. Such technology can scale down to smaller devices, however, and should be useful for storing energy from a home's solar power and could reach portable devices like notebooks. [via CrunchGear]

Niobium tin magnet could improve large hadron collider's efficiency

Factiva: "A quadrupole superconducting magnet, designed for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), has been tested by the Large Hadron Collider Accelerator Research Programme (LARP).

The programme comprises researchers from:

* the Brookhaven National Laboratory of Upton, New York, USA;

* the Fermi National Laboratory of Batavia, Illinois, USA;

* the Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory of Berkley, California, USA; and

* the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory of Menlo Park, California, USA.

The magnet is 4 m long, with a 90 mm aperture, and it is made of niobium tin. It possesses a gradient, or rate of increase in field strength, of 200 [T.m.sup.-1] and creates a magnetic field strong enough to focus intense proton beams in the interaction areas of the LHC. The magnet's ability to withstand quenches--sudden transitions to normal conductivity that result in increased heat--is also good."

Bronze Age wreck yields ancient trade secrets

Sunday Telegraph: "It is the first time tin ingots from this period have ever been found in Britain, a discovery which may support theories that the metal was being mined in southwestern England at this time. If the tin was not produced in Britain, it is likely it would have come from the Iberian Peninsula or from eastern Germany.

The wreck was found in between eight and 10 metres of water in a bay near Salcombe, south Devon, by a team of amateur marine archaeologists from the South West Maritime Archaeological Group. In total, 295 artifacts have so far been recovered, weighing a total of more than 84 kilograms."

One-dimensional modeling of a liquid tin anode solid oxide fuel cell

Scopus: "The integration of electronics into modern warfare has seen the creation of a niche market for portable power generators that run on military logistic fuel (JP-8). The 2 stage chemical/electrochemical reaction of the fuel on the anode side of the Liquid Tin Anode (LTA)-SOFC allows a range of carbonaceous fuels to be directly utilized at high efficiencies. However, the LTA-SOFC technology currently has a peak power density of 120mW cm-2 on JP-8. A better understanding of the anode side kinetics, thermodynamic, and transport properties would allow further optimization of this technology. A physics-based model of the LTA-SOFC was built. The model was initially developed for simple fuel before incorporation of heavy hydrocarbon fuels. This paper reports on the modeling efforts to date."

Recovery of tin and copper by recycling of printed circuit boards from obsolete computers

Scopus: "This paper presents the experimental results for the leaching of printed circuit boards (PCB) from obsolete computers for extracting and recovering tin and copper by means of leaching followed by precipitation. Printed circuit boards were dismantled, cut into small pieces, and fed into a cylinder mill. The powder obtained was leached by using the aqueous solutions 2.18N H 2SO4, 2.18N H2SO4 3.0N HCl, 3.0N HCl, and 3.0N HCl 1.0N HNO3. The lowest values for the percentage of metal extraction were obtained with 2.18N H2SO4 (2.7% for Sn and lower than 0.01% for Cu), while the 3.0N HCl 1.0N HNO3 leach system exhibited an extraction of 98% for Sn and 93% for Cu. Precipitates were obtained at different pH values by neutralizing the leach liquors using NaOH. The 3.0N HCl 1.0N HNO3 leach system presented the highest recovery values from the powder feed (84.1% for Sn and 31.9% for Cu), as well as from the leach liquor (85.8% for Sn and 34.3% for Cu)."

Platinum/tin oxide/carbon cathode catalyst for high temperature PEM fuel cell

Scopus: "The performance of high temperature polymer electrolyte fuel cell (HT-PEMFC) using platinum supported over tin oxide and Vulcan carbon (Pt/SnOx/C) as cathode catalyst was evaluated at 160-200 C and compared with Pt/C. This paper reports first time the Pt/SnOx/C preparation, fuel cell performance, and durability test up to 200 h. Pt/SnOx/C of varying SnO compositions were characterized using XRD, SEM, TEM, EDX and EIS. The face-centered cubic structure of nanosized Pt becomes evident from XRD data"

The race to replace tin-doped indium oxide: Which material will win?

Scopus: "The search for materials that can replace tin-doped indium oxide (ITO) as the leading transparent conductive electrode (TCE) has intensified significantly in the past few years, motivated by the ever-increasing price of indium. Materials such as carbon nanotube (CNT) films, graphene films, metal nanowire gratings, and random networks have been at the forefront of research in this direction. A paper by Wu et al. in this issue discusses the use of solution-processed graphene as the TCE in organic light-emitting devices. Advantages such as large-scale fabrication at relatively less expense, compatibility with flexible substrates, and improving performance have significantly contributed to their case as potential candidates for TCEs. Demonstrations of various display and photovoltaic devices using TCEs made of these materials, with performances rivaling those employing ITO, have provided the research community with encouragement to explore new materials and to address the associated scientific and technological challenges"

Tin dioxide/carbon nanotube composites with high uniform SnO2 loading as anode materials for lithium ion batteries

Scopus: "SnO2/multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) composites were prepared by the solvothermal method and subsequent heat treatment at 360 C. The samples were characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Results on the higher SnO2 content composite sample indicate that a uniform layer of SnO2 nanocrystals with crystal size around 5 nm was deposited on the surface of the carbon nanotubes. The composite demonstrates a reversible lithium storage capacity of 709.9 mAh g-1 at the first cycle and excellent cyclic retention up to 100 cycles as anode for lithium ion batteries"

Melting properties of tin nanoparticles by molecular dynamics simulation

Scopus: "Molecular dynamics calculations have been performed to study the melting properties of tin (Sn) nanoparticles with different number of atoms. The modified analytic embedded atom method (MAEAM) interatomic potentials are used to describe the interaction between Sn atoms. The temperature dependent of atomic diffusion in nanoparticles and the heat of fusion as a function of reciprocal of nanoparticle diameter have obtained. The structural properties such as radial distribution functions and static structure factors have computed at different temperatures. Both particle size dependent melting temperature and latent heat of fusion have been determined. It has been shown that the melting point of tin nanoparticles depends nonlinearly on the particle radius. Dynamical properties of tin nanoparticles such as the diffusion coefficient (D), mean square displacement (MSD) and velocity autocorrelation function (VACF) have also calculated"

Sn-based composite materials as negative electrode for Li-ion accumulators

Factiva: "A comparative study of two Sn-based composite materials as negative electrode for Li-ion accumulators is presented. The former SnB0.6P0.4O2.9 obtained by in-situ dispersion of SnO in an oxide matrix is shown to be an amorphous tin composite oxide (ATCO).'

'The latter Sn-0.72[BPO4](0.28) obtained by ex-situ dispersion of Sri in a borophosphate matrix consists of Sri particles embedded in a crystalline BPO4 matrix. The electrochemical responses of ATCO and Sn-0.72.[BPO4](0.28) composite in galvanostatic mode show reversible capacities of about 450 and 530 mAhg(-1), respectively, with different irreversible capacities (60% and 29%). Analysis of these composite materials by Sn-119 Mossbauer spectroscopy in transmission (TMS) and emission (CEMS) modes confirms that ATCO is an amorphous Sn-II composite oxide and shows that in the case of Sn-0.72[BPO4](0.28), the Surface of the tin clusters is mainly formed by Sn-II in an amorphous interface whereas the bulk of the clusters is mainly formed by Sn-0. The determination of the recoilless free fractions f (Lamb-Mossbauer factors) leads to the effective fraction of both Sn-0 and Sn-II species in such composites. The influence of chemical composition and especially of the surface-to-bulk tin species ratio oil the electrochemical behaviour has been analysed for several Sn-x[BPO4](1-x) composite materials (0.17 < x< 0.91),' wrote D.E. Conte and colleagues, University of Montpellier."

IBM Sets World Record by Creating High-Efficiency Solar Cell Made from Earth-Abundant Materials

Factiva: "IBM (NYSE:IBM) announced it has built a solar cell -- where the key layer that absorbs most of the light for conversion into electricity, is made entirely of readily-available elements -- that set a new world record for efficiency and holds potential for enabling solar cell technology to produce more energy at a lower cost. Comprised of copper (Cu), tin (Sn), zinc (Zn), sulfur (S), and/or selenium (Se), the cell's power conversion demonstrates an efficiency of 9.6 percent -- 40 percent higher than the value previously attained for this set of materials. In order to achieve progress in solar cell research, IBM is leveraging its world-class expertise in microprocessor technology, materials and manufacturing."

"In a given hour, more energy from sunlight strikes the earth than the entire planet consumes in a year, but solar cells currently contribute less than 0.1 percent of electricity supply -- primarily as a result of cost," said Dr. David Mitzi, who leads the team at IBM Research that developed the solar cell. "The quest to develop a solar technology that can compare on a cost per watt basis with the conventional electricity generation, and also offer the ability to deploy at the terawatt level, has become a major challenge that our research is moving us closer to overcoming."

The IBM researchers describe their achievement of the thin-film photovoltaic technology in a paper published in Advanced Materials this week, highlighting the solar cell's potential to accomplish the goal of producing low-cost energy that can be used widely and commercially.

The solar cell development also sets itself apart from its predecessors as it was created using a combination of solution and nanoparticle-based approaches, rather than the popular, but expensive vacuum-based technique. The production change is expected to enable much lower fabrication costs, as it is consistent with high-throughput and high materials utilization based deposition techniques including printing, dip and spray coating and slit casting.

Currently available thin film solar cell modules based upon compound semiconductors operate at 9 to 11 percent efficiency levels, and are primarily made from two costly compounds -- copper indium gallium selenide or cadmium telluride. Attempts to create affordable, earth abundant solar cells from related compounds that are free of indium, gallium or cadmium have not exceeded 6.7 percent, compared to IBM's new 9.6 efficiency rating.

Over the past several years, IBM researchers have pioneered several breakthroughs related to creating inexpensive, efficient solar cells. IBM does not plan to manufacture solar technologies, but is open to partnering with solar cell manufacturers to demonstrate the technology.

For additional insight regarding the announcement, visit: http://asmarterplanet.com/

Lithium polyacrylate as a binder for tin-cobalt-carbon negative electrodes in lithium-ion batteries

Scopus: "A lithium polyacrylate (Li-PAA) binder has been developed by 3M Company that is useful with electrodes comprising alloy anode materials. This binder was used to prepare electrodes made with Sn30Co30C40 material prepared by mechanical attrition. The electrochemical performance of electrodes using Li-PAA binder was characterized and compared to those using sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) and polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) binders. The Sn30Co30C40 electrodes using Li-PAA and CMC binders show much smaller irreversible capacity than the ones using PVDF binder. Poor capacity retention is observed when PVDF binder is used. By contrast, the electrodes using Li-PAA binder show excellent capacity retention for Sn30Co30C40 materials and a specific capacity of 450 mAh/g is achieved for at least 100 cycles. The results suggest that Li-PAA is a promising binder for electrodes made from large-volume change alloy materials"

Electrochemical performance of a tin electrodeposit with a multi-layered structure for Li-ion batteries

Scopus: "The electrochemical performance of a tin electrode synthesized on copper foil by electrodeposition in a pyrophosphate-based bath is examined by modifying its morphology via controlling the cathodic current density. As this current density increases, the morphology of the tin electrodeposit changes from a smooth and compact structure to a microscopically multi-layered structure with open spaces between adjacent layers.

The porosity of the multi-layered tin electrode is more than 60% of its volume. The cycle performance and coulombic efficiency of the multi-layered tin electrode are higher than those of the smooth tin electrode, primarily due to the buffering effects of the open spaces between the layers against the volume expansion of the tin anode during cycling"

EIU's quarterly tin outlook

Factiva: "A year ago, world demand for tin was in freefall following the deepest downturn in the world economy since the 1930s. The Economist Intelligence Unit provisionally estimates that world tin consumption fell by more than 9% to a five-year low of 316,200 tonnes in 2009. Demand was already recovering in the second half of the year and we expect global tin consumption to rise by about 6% in 2010, supported by some recovery in consumer spending and industrial investment, which should be positive for solder demand (the main end-use) in the electronics production. This recovery is expected to accelerate in 2011, although world tin consumption is still likely to run below the 2007 peak."

Japan, US and China to become largest PV markets, says Neo Solar

EMSNow: "As Germany will reduce feed-in tariffs for domestic PV system installations while Japan has resumed subsidies, Japan stands a good chance of surpassing Germany to become the world's largest PV market, and will then the leading status may shift to the US and then China, according to Quincy Lin, chairman of Taiwan-based crystalline silicon solar cell maker Neo Solar Power.

PV installation demand in Germany will grow steadily the reduction in subsidization, but demand in Japan is expected to increase rapidly from about 500MWp in 2009 to 1GWp in 2011, Lin pointed out"