Category Chemistry/Nanotechnology

Nanofiber mat electrode (John Russell / Vanderbilt)

The project is part of a $13 million Department of Energy program to advance fuel cell performance and durability and hydrogen storage technologies announced last month. The $4.5 million collaboration is based on a new nanofiber mat technology developed by Peter Pintauro, the H. Eugene McBrayer Professor of Chemical Engineering at Vanderbilt, that replaces the conventional electrodes used in fuel cells. The nanofiber electrodes boost the power output of fuel cells by 30% while being less expensive and more durable than conventional catalyst layers...

Individual crystals of synthetic zhemchuzhnikovite, prepared by Igor Huski?, McGill University. Credit: Igor Huski?, Friš?i? Research Group, McGill University

A surprising discovery reveals that MOFs also exist in nature – albeit in the form of rare minerals found so far only in Siberian coal mines. Metal-organic frameworks are human-made materials introduced in the 1990s, and researchers are working on ways to use them as molecular sponges for applications such as H storage, C sequestration, or photovoltaics.

The finding “completely changes the normal view of these highly popular materials as solely artificial, ‘designer’ solids,” says Tomislav Friščić, an associate professor of chemistry at McGill University in Montreal...

A 32-face 3-D truncated icosahedron mesh was created to test the simulation’s ability to precisely construct complex geometries. The SEM image of the final experimental product (left) was highly consistent with the structure predicted by the virtual SEM image (center) and the simulated design model (right). (hi-res image)

Focused electron beam induced deposition, or FEBID can essentially 3D print at the nanoscale. FEBID uses an electron beam from a scanning electron microscope to condense gaseous precursor molecules into a solid deposit on a surface. Previously, this method was laborious, prone to errors and impractical for creating complex structures larger than a few nanometers...

This is a blue whirl over water in a swirl generator. Credit: Photo: University of Maryland

Findings could lead to better oil spill cleanup. Fire tornados, or ‘fire whirls,’ pose a powerful and essentially uncontrollable threat to life, property, and the surrounding environment in large urban and wildland fires. But now, a team of researchers in the University of Maryland’s A. James Clark School of Engineering say their discovery of a type of fire tornado they call a ‘blue whirl’ could lead to beneficial new approaches for reducing carbon emissions and improving oil spill cleanup. This previously unobserved flame phenomenon burns nearly soot-free.

“Blue whirls evolve from traditional yellow fire whirls...