Category Chemistry/Nanotechnology

Energy landscapes of a molecule during a light-driven chemical reaction. Like a golf ball rolling on a curved putting green, the molecule can follow reaction paths on these surfaces. Credit: Greg Stewart/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

An extremely fast “electron camera” at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory has produced the most detailed atomic movie of the decisive point where molecules hit by light can either stay intact or break apart. The results could lead to a better understanding of how molecules respond to light in processes that are crucial for life, like photosynthesis and vision, or that are potentially harmful, such as DNA damage from ultraviolet light.

In the study, researchers looked at a gas whose molecules have 5 atoms each...

Screenshot of video showing hybrid catalyst for water splitting (see video at: https://youtu.be/nkouqCFaqAk). Credit: Image courtesy of University of Houston

Catalyst uses inexpensive elements and could be scaled up for commercial use. Researchers from the University of Houston and the California Institute of Technology have reported an inexpensive hybrid catalyst capable of splitting water to produce hydrogen, suitable for large-scale commercialization.

Most systems to split water into its components – hydrogen and oxygen – require two catalysts, one to spur a reaction to separate the hydrogen and a second to produce oxygen. The new catalyst, made of iron and dinickel phosphides on commercially available nickel foam, performs both functions.

Researchers said it has the potential to dramat...

An illustration of the structure of a greasy carbon molecule, set against an image of the galactic centre, where this material has been detected. Carbon is represented as grey spheres and hydrogen as white spheres. Credit: D. Young (2011), The Galactic Center. Flickr – CreativeCommons

Astronomers at the University of New South Wales in Sydney (UNSW), and Ege University in Turkey used a laboratory to manufacture material with the same properties as interstellar dust and used their results to estimate the amount of ‘space grease’ found in the Milky Way. Their results appear in a paper in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Organic matter of different kinds contains carbon, an element considered essential for life...

a) This is a photograph of the spherical colloidal crystals containing 0.20 wt% carbon black (CB). The size of the fine silica particles ranges from 200 to 300 nm, and 11 different sizes were used. b) This is a picture of a weevil drawn using spherical colloidal crystals prepared using monodispersed silica particles with various particle sizes and CB. The surroundings of the weevils are drawn with spherical colloidal crystals that do not contain CB and change with the color of the background. Credit: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Researchers at Nagoya University develop a composite material that, by adjusting its composition and exposing it to different types of light, can mimic animals’ changes in color...