Category Physics

Instead of expensive platinum etc, a metal-free alternative catalyst for fuel cells may be at hand. A team of chemists from University of Wisconsin-Madison introduces a new approach that uses a molecular catalyst system instead of solid catalysts. Although molecular catalysts have been explored before, earlier examples were much less efficient than the traditional platinum catalyst.

A fuel cell converts chemical energy into electricity by reacting H2 and O2 at 2 different electrodes. A catalyst makes the reaction more efficient.
Prof Stahl and scientist Gerken took...

Read More

 

First time wavelike behavior of room-temp polariton condensate has been demonstrated in the lab on a macroscopic length scale: a significant development in understanding and manipulation of quantum objects.

Quantum mechanics tells us objects have both particle and wavelike behaviour with a wavelength inversely proportional to the object’s velocity…at atomic length scales, except with bosons, particles of a particular type that can be combined in large numbers in the same quantum state, it is possible to form macroscopic-scale quantum objects, called Bose-Einstein condensates. These are at the root of quantum physics’ superfluidity and superconductivity...

Read More

Combining Titanium and Gold to make 1st itinerant antiferromagnet: TiAu. This is not the kind of magnet one would stick to a refrigerator. Magnetic order only appears in TiAu when the metal is cooled to 36K = -395F. “Magnetization is a function of temperature,” said lead author Eteri Svanidze. “The magnet’s ordering temperature appears as an anomaly in the smooth curve we see in such magnetization measurements.” For common magnets, it is generally 100s of degs F, way hotter than any kitchen...

Read More

Fast-moving magnetic waves emanating from a distant supermassive black hole undulate like a whip whose handle is being shaken by a giant hand, according to a new study using National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s Very Long Baseline Array. Scientists used this instrument to explore the galaxy/black hole system known as BL Lacertae (BL Lac) in high resolution.
The findings help researchers understand how black holes produce jets.

“The waves are excited by a shaking motion of the jet at its base,” said David Meier. It’s the 1st time Alfven waves have been identified in a black hole system. They are generated when magnetic field lines, such as those from the sun or a disk around a black hole, interact with ions, and become twisted or coiled into a helical shape...

Read More