Automotive
As their company was swirling around the financial drain in the early 2000s, General Motors executives came up with an idea to counter its gas-guzzling image and point the way to transportation of the future: an electric ...
Feb 23, 2019
6
59
Energy & Green Tech
Transforming base materials into gold was one of the elusive goals of the alchemists of yore. Now Professor Raffaele Mezzenga from the Department of Health Sciences and Technology at ETH Zurich has accomplished something ...
Feb 29, 2024
0
173
Energy & Green Tech
A rechargeable battery technology developed at the University of Michigan could double the output of today's lithium ion cells—drastically extending electric vehicle ranges and time between cell phone charges—without ...
Aug 15, 2018
7
2066
Energy & Green Tech
With lithium prices over five times higher than they were a year ago, researchers from Skoltech and Lomonosov Moscow State University have developed a material for sodium-ion batteries that offer an alternative to the increasingly ...
Aug 1, 2022
2
688
Engineering
America's growing demand for electric vehicles has shed light on the significant challenge of sustainably sourcing the battery technology necessary for the broad shift to renewable electric and away from fossil fuels. In ...
Feb 10, 2022
1
2098
Energy & Green Tech
Like batteries, fuel cells produce energy through an electrochemical process. Unlike batteries, they don't run down or require recharging. However, the potential advantages of fuel cells are offset by challenges that include ...
Apr 5, 2023
0
1277
Energy & Green Tech
Lithium-carbon dioxide batteries are attractive energy storage systems because they have a specific energy density that is more than seven times greater than commonly used lithium-ion batteries. However, until now, scientists ...
Sep 26, 2019
0
3733
Robotics
When electronics need their own power sources, there are two basic options: batteries and harvesters. Batteries store energy internally, but are therefore heavy and have a limited supply. Harvesters, such as solar panels, ...
Apr 14, 2020
9
3830
Computer Sciences
A trio of researchers at Ghent University has combined a convolutional neural network with computational neuroscience to create a model that simulates human cochlear mechanics. In their paper published in Nature Machine Intelligence, ...
Energy & Green Tech
Researchers at Texas A&M University have discovered a 1,000% difference in the storage capacity of metal-free, water-based battery electrodes.
Apr 3, 2023
0
534
An ion is an atom or molecule where the total number of electrons is not equal to the total number of protons, giving it a net positive or negative electrical charge.
Since protons are positively charged and electrons are negatively charged, if there are more electrons than protons, the atom or molecule will be negatively charged. This is called an anion (pronounced /ˈænaɪən/; an-eye-on), from the Greek ἀνά (ana), meaning 'up'.
Conversely, if there are more protons than electrons, the atom or molecule will be positively charged. This is called a cation (pronounced /ˈkætaɪən/; cat-eye-on), from the Greek κατά (kata), meaning 'down'.
An ion consisting of a single atom is called a monatomic ion. If it consists of two or more atoms, it is called a polyatomic ion. Polyatomic ions containing oxygen, such as carbonate and sulfate, are called oxyanions.
When writing the chemical formula for an ion, its charge is written as a superscript '+' or '−' following a number indicating the difference between the number of protons and the number of electrons. The number is omitted if it is equal to 1. For example, the sodium cation is written as Na+, the '+' indicating that it has one less electron than it has protons. The sulfate anion is written as SO42−, the '2−' indicating that it has two more electrons than it has protons.
If an ion contains unpaired electrons, it is called a radical ion. Just like neutral radicals, radical ions are very reactive.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA
