Daylight Savings: UTA Inquiry Magazine

Spring 2016

Inquiry Magazine Archive

Winter 2016: Energy Evolution

From carbon dioxide conversion to landfill mining, researchers at UTA are seeking viable alternative energy options.
Spring 2016: Premium Blend

Found in everything from space shuttles to dental fillings, composite materials have thoroughly infiltrated modern society. But their potential is still greatly untapped, offering researchers ample opportunity for discovery.
Fall 2015: Collision Course

Within the particle showers created at the Large Hadron Collider, answers to some of the universe’s mysteries are waiting.
Spring 2015: Almost Human

Model systems like pigeons can help illuminate our own evolutionary and genomic history.
Fall 2014: Small Wonder

UT Arlington's tiny windmills are bringing renewable energy to a whole new scale.
Winter 2014: Overdue for an Overhaul

The stability of our highways, pipelines, and even manholes is reaching a breaking point.
2012: Mystery solved?

Scientists believe they have discovered a subatomic particle that is crucial to understanding the universe.
2011: Boosting brain power

UT Arlington researchers unlock clues to the human body’s most mysterious and complex organ.
2010: Powered by genetics

UT Arlington researchers probe the hidden world of microbes in search of renewable energy sources.
2009: Winning the battle against pain

Wounded soldiers are benefiting from Robert Gatchel’s program that combines physical rehabilitation with treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder.
2007: Sensing a solution

Tiny sensors implanted in the body show promise in combating acid reflux disease, pain and other health problems.
2006:Semiconductors: The next generation
Nanotechnology researchers pursue hybrid silicon chips with life-saving potential.
2005: Imaging is everything
Biomedical engineers combat diseases with procedures that are painless to patients.

Daylight Savings

Engineers creating a way to store solar power even in darkness

An all-vanadium photo-electrochemical storage cell in operation

Solar energy without the sun? It's not as far-fetched as it sounds, thanks to a new energy cell developed by a team of UTA engineers.

Most solar energy systems rely on gathering sunlight and using its power immediately, while the sun is still out. But those systems are less efficient at night or in cloudy conditions. That's where Fuqiang Liu comes in. The associate professor and his team of engineers have developed an all-vanadium photo-electrochemical flow cell that could store large-scale solar energy even at night.

"This research has a chance to rewrite how we store and use solar power," says Dr. Liu. "As renewable energy becomes more prevalent, the ability to store solar energy and use it as a renewable alternative provides a sustainable solution to the problem of energy shortage. It can also effectively harness the inexhaustible energy of the sun."

As Dong Liu, lead author of the study, explains, "We have demonstrated simultaneously reversible storage of both solar energy and electrons in the cell. Releasing the stored electrons under dark conditions continues solar energy storage, thus allowing for unintermittent storage around the clock."

Dr. Liu, along with Liu and doctoral candidate Zi Wei, published their work in a recent edition of the American Chemical Society journal ACS Catalysis. The research was funded by a $400,000 Faculty Early Career Development grant from the National Science Foundation. The team is now working on building a larger prototype.

Spring 2016

Enlighten

Daylight Savings

Engineers creating a way to store solar power even in darkness

Explore
More articles from this issue

E.T.

Searching for Signs of Life

Shiny

Power Up

Inquiry Magazine Archive

Enlighten

Daylight Savings

Engineers creating a way to store solar power even in darkness

ExploreMore articles from this issue

Explore
More articles from this issue