Category Chemistry/Nanotechnology

Topology of the zeolite frameworks and Auger spectra of their silver clusters.

Researchers have discovered a new phosphor that could make next-generation fluorescent and LED lighting even cheaper and more efficient. The team used highly luminescent clusters of silver atoms and the porous framework of minerals known as zeolites. Silver clusters consist of just a few silver atoms and have remarkable optical properties. However, current applications are limited, because the clusters tend to aggregate into larger particles, thus losing the interesting optical properties.

Phosphor is the luminescent material critical to many lighting applications, especially LEDs. Most white LEDs are in fact blue LEDs with a phosphor coating.

Prof Hofkens and his team have now found a way to keep the silver clu...

Scientists have come up with a way to turn the most common form of plastic into liquid fuel.

A new way of recycling millions of tons of plastic garbage into liquid fuel has been devised by researchers from the University of California, Irvine and the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry (SIOC) in China. “Synthetic plastics are a fundamental part of modern life, but our use of them in large volume has created serious environmental problems,” said UCI chemist Zhibin Guan. “Our goal through this research was to address the issue of plastic pollution as well as achieving a beneficial outcome of creating a new source of liquid fuel.”

Guan and Zheng Huang, his collaborator at SIOC et al have figured out how to break down the strong bonds of polyethylene, the most common commercially available...

Researchers determined that using integrated circuits, including one shown right of the US quarter and below the label ‘CHIP1’ in an electronic nose will make the device more affordable. Credit: UT Dallas

Researchers at Texas Analog Center of Excellence (TxACE) at UT Dallas are working to develop an affordable electronic nose that can be used in breath analysis for a wide range of health diagnosis. While devices that can conduct breath analysis using compound semiconductors exist, they are bulky and too costly for commercial use. The researchers determined that using CMOS integrated circuits technology will make the electronic nose more affordable.

CMOS is the integrated circuits technology used to manufacture the bulk of electronics that have made smartphones, tablets and other devices po...

Diagram showing a solar water heating system using nanoparticles. (b) Application of condensed light from a solar simulator to water with dispersed TiN nanoparticles. Note that rising water vapor can be seen even before the water temperature increases. Credit: Copyright NIMS

A research team in Japan discovered through numerical calculations that nanoparticles of transition metal nitrides and carbides absorb sunlight very efficiently, and confirmed experimentally that nitride nanoparticles, when dispersed in water, quickly raise water temperature. These nanoparticles may be applied for heating and distillation of water through efficient sunlight use.

The examples of sunlight use are power generation using solar cells and water heating through photothermal conversion, a process in which abso...