Category Chemistry/Nanotechnology

Namib Desert beetle. Credit: © Rafael Ben-Ari / Fotolia

In a discovery that may lead to ways to prevent frost on airplane parts, condenser coils, and even windshields, a team of researchers led by Virginia Tech has used chemical micropatterns to control the growth of frost caused by condensation. They used photolithography to pattern chemical arrays that attract water over top of a surface that repels water, thereby controlling or preventing the spread of frost.

The inspiration for the work came from an unlikely source — the Namib Desert Beetle, which makes headlines because it lives in one of the hottest places in the world, yet it still collects airborne water...

Illustration depicting semiconductor nanocrystal to molecule triplet energy transfer and established subsequent reactions. Credit: Image generated by Dr. Cedric Mongin

It extends the lifetime of originally prepared excited state by 6 orders of magnitude. This has implications for solar energy conversion to photochemical synthesis to optoelectronics to light therapy for cancer Rx. Excitons are the electron/hole pairs formed in semiconductor nanocrystals upon absorption of light, temporarily storing it as chemical energy. In solar cells, for example, excitons transport energy through the material so that it can be collected and converted into electricity.

In terms of photochemistry, the major drawback to using most semiconductor nanocrystals as photosensitizers lies in their short excited st...

This image shows an all-climate battery that rapidly self-heats battery materials and electrochemical interfaces in cold environments. Credit: Chao-Yang Wang, Penn State

A Li ion battery that self heats if <32F temp has multiple applications, but may have the most impact on relieving winter ‘range anxiety’ for electric vehicle owners. “It is a long standing problem that batteries do not perform well at subzero temperatures,” said Prof. Chao-Yang Wang. “This may not be an issue for phones and laptops, but is a huge barrier for electric vehicles, drones, outdoor robots and space applications.”

Conventional batteries at below freezing temperatures suffer severe power loss, which leads to slow charging in cold weather, restricted regenerative breaking and reduction of vehicle cruise range by a...

Instead of reacting together on the surface of the catalyst (the palladium cluster), the hydrogen atoms dissociate into their components — protons and electrons. The protons enter the surrounding solution of water and methanol, while the electrons flow through the palladium itself into oxygen molecules. Credit: American Chemical Society

It paves the way to design improved catalysts to produce H2O2 to use in place of harmful chlorine, regardless of the scale of the production facility. From the polyurethane that makes our car seats to the paper made from bleached wood pulp, chlorine can be found in a variety of large-scale manufacturing processes...