UC Berkeley is not just one of the best research universities in the world, but also a unique place for entrepreneurs, students and alumni to grow and build their own innovative startups. Many of the ideas are based on issues young entrepreneurs first encountered in Berkeley classes or labs. Two College of Chemistry startups presented among 23 young companies last week at Berkeley SkyDeck’s annual Demo Day, where entrepreneurs pitched new devices, apps or inventions that, they hope, will provide big, bold fixes to the world’s problems, from climate change to disease.
The need for negative emissions technologies to address our climate crisis has become increasingly clear. At the rate that our planet is emitting carbon dioxide – adding about 50 gigatons every year – we will have to remove carbon dioxide at the gigaton scale by 2050 in order to achieve “net zero” emissions.
Figure: The “shadow effect” observed in a graphite electrode after fast (1 hour) intercalation to a state of charge (SOC) of 100%. Lithium plating on the graphite is shown in turquoise and the black region underneath shows where the SOC is less than 30%. Image courtesy Balsara Lab.
Guosong Zeng, a postdoctoral scholar, and Francesca Toma, a staff scientist, both in Berkeley Lab’s Chemical Sciences Division, test an artificial photosynthesis device made of gallium nitride. Toma and Zeng discovered that the device, rather than degrading over time, improves with use. (Credit: Thor...
The urgent threat of climate change, driven by the burning of carbon fuels, requires bold and drastic action on a global scale. Communities in high-risk areas that are increasingly subject to natural disasters, such as recent wildfires in California and flooding in Texas, must adapt and relocate. Food supply chains are struggling as increased drought or volatile weather...
(l to r) Coreshell Technologies' Roger Basu (B.S. '06, Chem; M.S. '08, Materials Sci Eng), Jose Rodriguez, intern (B.A. '20, Phys) and Jonathan Tan (B.S. '06, ChemE) are seen at one of the company's labs in Richmond, California. Courtesy Coreshell...
Researchers at Berkeley Lab and Carnegie Mellon University have designed new solid electrolytes that light the path to wider electrification of transportation. (Image courtesy of Jinsoo Kim)
In the pursuit of a rechargeable battery that can power electric vehicles (EVs) for hundreds of miles on a single charge, scientists have endeavored to replace...
Berkeley start-up hopes to extinguish the danger in lithium-ion batteries
Kwabena Bediako and colleagues