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    Category Chemistry/Nanotechnology

    Lab Turns Trash into Valuable Graphene in a Flash

    January 29, 2020, Categories  Chemistry/Nanotechnology

    Rice University scientists are turning waste into turbostratic graphene via a process they say can be scaled up to produce industrial-scale quantities. Illustration by Rouzbeh Shahsavari

    ‘Green’ process promises pristine graphene in bulk using waste food, plastic and other materials. Scientists are using high-energy pulses of electricity to turn any source of carbon into turbostratic graphene in an instant. The process promises environmental benefits by turning waste into valuable graphene that can then strengthen concrete and other composite materials.

    That banana peel, turned into graphene, can help facilitate a massive reduction of the environmental impact of concrete and other building materials. While you’re at it, toss in those plastic empties.

    A new process introduced by...

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    Less may be more in Next-Gen Batteries

    January 24, 2020, Categories  Chemistry/Nanotechnology

    Rice University engineers built lithium-ion batteries with silicon anodes and an alumina layer to protect cathodes from degrading. Illustration courtesy of the Biswal Lab

    Lab tests cells with silicon anodes, aluminum coatings that protect cathodes. Engineers build full lithium-ion batteries with silicon anodes and an alumina layer to protect cathodes from degrading. By limiting their energy density, the batteries promise excellent stability for transportation and grid storage use.

    The process of developing better rechargeable batteries may be cloudy, but there’s an alumina lining.

    A slim layer of the metal oxide applied to common cathodes by engineers at Rice University’s Brown School of Engineering revealed new phenomena that could lead to batteries that are better geared towa...

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    The Salt of the Comet

    January 22, 2020, Categories  Astronomy/Space, Chemistry/Nanotechnology

    A plume of dust from Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, seen by the OSIRIS Wide Angle Camera on ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft on 3 July 2016. The shadow of the plume is cast across the basin, which is in the Imhotep region. Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

    More than 30 years ago, the European comet mission Giotto flew past Halley’s comet. The Bernese ion mass spectrometer IMS, led by Prof. em. Hans Balsiger, was on board. A key finding from the measurements taken by this instrument was that there appeared to be a lack of nitrogen in Halley’s coma – the nebulous covering of comets which forms when a comet passes close to the sun...

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    Well-designed Substrates make Large Single Crystal Bi-/Tri-Layer Graphene Possible

    January 22, 2020, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics, Chemistry/Nanotechnology

    Figure 1. Preparation and characterization of Cu/Ni(111) foils.
    Preparation and characterization of Cu/Ni(111) foils. (a) Schematic of the preparation of the Cu/Ni(111) foils shows that Ni films are electroplated on both sides of a Cu(111) foil, which is followed by heating in a chemical vapor deposition chamber at 1050 oC for 5-7 hours to obtain the Cu/Ni(111) foil. By controlling the concentration of nickel (Ni), IBS researchers could obtain bilayer and trilayer graphene with the desired stacking order and large area. (b) A photograph of a piece of Cu/Ni(111) alloy foil (3 cm × 5 cm in size). (c) X-ray pattern taken from different regions across the whole sample (3 cm × 5 cm). (d) Electron backscatter diffraction map indicating the uniform (111) orientation of the prepared Cu foils.

    IBS researchers fabricate single crystal copper nickel alloy...

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