Defects are usually considered flaws in materials—but what if a tiny disruption could unlock the door to the quantum future? That’s the promise of organic color centers (OCCs), also known as quantum defects, in carbon nanotubes. Introduced as chemical defects, OCCs transform these nanostructures into powerful quantum platforms that trap excitons and convert them into quantum light—one photon at a time. These nanoscale emitters work at room temperature, shine in the near-infrared (including telecommunications) bands, and can be tailored with organic chemistry. Sitting at the intersection of chemistry, physics, and engineering, OCCs open doors to quantum communication, sensing, and bioimaging—and light the way toward a bright quantum future.

Lithium-ion batteries are a shining example of our community’s contribution to the world. While the pre-lithium-ion world was dominated by aqueous batteries such as lead-acid, alkaline zinc, and nickel–metal hydride (i.e., Aqueous Batteries 1.0), the switch to nonaqueous electrolytes was critical to expanding the voltage stability window, and in turn, enabling high energy density lithium-ion batteries. Such a leap in energy density was instrumental to new technologies like passenger electric vehicles, smartphones, and powerful laptops. The prominence of lithium-ion research and development over the past decades has (somewhat rightly) lured us away from aqueous batteries. However, in recent years, interest in aqueous batteries has renewed—as a viable technology for storing energy on the grid for long durations—and multiple chemistries such as iron-air and quinone-based flow batteries are being explored (Aqueous Batteries 2.0). At this juncture, an important question for our community is whether we should dedicate sizeable efforts to enabling a new generation of aqueous batteries as opposed to our ongoing pursuit of energy-dense beyond–lithium-ion batteries for hard-to-electrify transportation modes such as aviation.

With the growth of renewable energy sources, hydrogen is attracting significant attention worldwide as an effective medium for energy storage. “Green hydrogen” is currently produced primarily by water electrolysis in which water is split into hydrogen and oxygen using power from low-carbon energy sources such as wind, solar, and nuclear. Among the low temperature water electrolysis technologies, anion exchange membrane water electrolyzers (AEMWEs) have recently emerged as a promising competitor to traditional alkaline water electrolyzers (AWEs) and proton exchange membrane electrolyzers (PEMELs) due to their potential stack cost reduction in various cell components. Favorable aspects of AEMWEs include the use of PGM-free electrocatalysts as well as low-cost membranes, bipolar plates (BPs), and porous transport layers while offering high voltage efficiency and durability.

Battery cycling data contain rich information about battery performance and degradation and have been extensively explored for a variety of critical battery management tasks, including state-of-charge (SOC) estimation, state-of-health (SOH) monitoring, anomaly detection, fault diagnosis, and lifetime prediction. Among these, battery-life prediction is becoming particularly vital as lithium-ion batteries become increasingly indispensable in electric vehicles, grid-scale energy storage, and portable electronics. Accurate prediction of battery life improves battery management system (BMS) efficiency, reduces operational costs and safety risks, and accelerates the development of new battery chemistries and management strategies. Therefore, this article explicitly emphasizes battery-life prediction—one of the most fundamental yet challenging tasks—examining the associated traditional methods as well as emerging transformer inspired AI modeling frameworks.

ECS is proud to announce the new members for January, February, and March 2025.

IIn this installment of the “Looking at Patent Law” series, we present a case study of the prosecution events of U.S. Patent No. 12,065,379; “Decarbonized Cement Blends.” The subject invention aligns with an important focus of The Electrochemical Society (ECS) on sustainability and the technical interests of several divisions including Energy Technology (ETD), Industrial Electrochemistry and Electrochemical Engineering (IE&EE), and Physical and Analytical Electrochemistry (PAE). Additionally, the case introduces ECS members to an emerging technology of interest to industry. The case study begins with a brief synopsis of the background of the invention followed by 1) summary of several drawings and the specification of the invention, 2) inventor assignment and power of attorney designations, 3) march-in rights for government sponsored research, 4) submission of the Invention Disclosure Statement (IDS) and associated Duty of Candor, 5) summary of the non-final office action rejecting the patent application for obviousness, and 6) applicant response and allowance of the patent application. The case study illustrates the use of adding limitations from a dependent claim to the independent claim to overcome an obviousness rejection. In addition, the case illustrates an applicant-initiated request for prioritized examination for patent applications addressing environmental issues. With this case study, we hope to de-mystify the patent prosecution process and better prepare electrochemical and solid-state scientists, engineers and technologists to interact with their patent counsel regarding their inventions.

2024 ECS Edward G. Weston Research Fellowship – Summary Report

ECS is proud to announce the new members for July, August, and September 2024

The Winter 2024 People News includes news of awards received by EJ Taylor and Christopher L. Alexander, and remembrances of Shimshon Gottesfeld and Howard Huff