Category Chemistry/Nanotechnology

Artificial photosynthesis used to produce renewable molecular hydrogen for synthesizing carbon dioxide into methane. Credit: Berkeley Lab

Researchers using a bioinorganic hybrid approach to artificial photosynthesis have combined semiconducting nanowires with select microbes to create a system that produces renewable H2 and uses it to synthesize CO2 into methane, the primary constituent of natural gas.

“By generating renewable hydrogen and feeding it to microbes for the production of methane, we can now expect an electrical-to-chemical efficiency of better than 50% and a solar-to-chemical energy conversion efficiency of 10% if our system is coupled with state-of-art solar panel and electrolyzer.”

The concept in the 2 studies is essentially the same – a membrane of semiconductor nanowires t...

Transmission electron microscopy images of Cu nanoparticles (left), Cu2O nanoparticles (middle), and CuS nanoplates (right)… The biocomposites consist of copper and cystine, with either copper nanoparticles (CNPs) or copper sulfate contributing the metallic component. Credit: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00216-009-3203-0

1st time discovery of a new nanocomposite via copper and biological component self-assembly under physiological conditions could be used in targeted drug delivery for fighting diseases such as cancer.

The Louisiana Tech team has also discovered a way for this synthesis to be carried out in liquid form. This would allow for controlling the scale of the synthesis up or down, and to grow structures...

Graphene drives potential for Next-gen Green Fuel-Efficient Cars

>>converting heat into electricity. Graphene’s range of superlative properties and small size causes the transfer of heat through the material to slow leading to the desired lower operating temperatures. Harvesting heat produced by a car’s engine which would otherwise be wasted and using it to recharge the car’s batteries or powering the air-conditioning system could be a significant feature in the next generation of hybrid cars.

The average car currently loses around 70% of energy generated through fuel consumption to heat. Utilising that lost energy requires a thermoelectric material which can generate an electrical current from the application of heat...

This artist’s conception symbolically represents complex organic molecules, known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, seen in the early universe. These large molecules, comprised of carbon and hydrogen, are among the building blocks of life. NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope is the first telescope to see polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons so early–10 billion years further back in time than seen previously. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle (SSC)

DIBs  (diffuse interstellar bands) are a collection of about 400 absorption bands that show up in spectra of light that reaches the earth after traversing interstellar medium. Indications exist they may arise from the presence of large hydrocarbon molecules. Recent experiments lend novel credibility to this hypothesis.

Among the hydrocarbons that are p...