Thermally Regenerable Redox Flow Battery.

The efficient production of energy from low-temperature heat sources (below 100 °C) would open the doors to the exploitation of a huge amount of heat sources such as solar, geothermal, and industrial waste heat. Thermal regenerable redox-flow batteries (TRBs) are flow batteries that store energy in concentration cells that can be recharged by distillation at temperature <100 °C, exploiting low-temperature heat sources. Using a single membrane cell setup and a suitable redox couple (LiBr/Br ), a TRB has been developed that is able to store a maximum volumetric energy of 25.

Hybrid Interface in Sepiolite Rubber Nanocomposites: Role of Self-Assembled Nanostructure in Controlling Dissipative Phenomena.

Sepiolite (Sep)⁻styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) nanocomposites were prepared by using nano-sized sepiolite (NS-SepS9) fibers, obtained by applying a controlled surface acid treatment, also in the presence of a silane coupling agent (NS-SilSepS9). Sep/SBR nanocomposites were used as a model to study the influence of the modified sepiolite filler on the formation of immobilized rubber at the clay-rubber interface and the role of a self-assembled nanostructure in tuning the mechanical properties. A detailed investigation at the macro and nanoscale of such self-assembled structures was performed in terms of the organization and networking of Sep fibers in the rubber matrix, the nature of both the filler⁻filler and filler⁻rubber interactions, and the impact of these features on the reduced dissipative phenomena.

A Green Approach for Preparing High-Loaded Sepiolite/Polymer Biocomposites.

Global industry is showing a great interest in the field of sustainability owing to the increased attention for ecological safety and utilization of renewable materials. For the scientific community, the challenge lies in the identification of greener synthetic approaches for reducing the environmental impact. In this context, we propose the preparation of novel biocomposites consisting of natural rubber latex (NRL) and sepiolite (Sep) fibers through the latex compounding technique (LCT), an ecofriendly approach where the filler is directly mixed with a stable elastomer colloid.