Category Technology/Electronics

This is a magnified image of liquid crystals confined to spherical tactoids. Credit: Georgia Tech

A material used for coloring food items ranging from corn chips to ice creams could potentially have uses far beyond food dyes. The Georgia Institute of Technology researchers described how a class of water soluble liquid crystals, called lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals, exhibited unexpected characteristics that could be harnessed for use in sensors and other potential applications. “We were seeking to understand the aggregation and phase behavior of these plank-like molecules as a function of temperature and concentration,” said Karthik Nayani, a former Georgia Tech student who worked on the problem...

1. Scientists at Rice University and the University of Houston created a catalyst from three elements – iron, manganese and phosphorus – and then coated it evenly onto an array of titanium dioxide nanorods to create a highly efficient photoanode for artificial photosynthesis. Click on the image for a larger version. Courtesy of the Whitmire Research Group. 2. (inset) Array of titanium dioxide nanorods with an even coating of an iron, manganese and phosphorus catalyst. The combination developed by scientists at Rice University and the University of Houston is a highly efficient photoanode for artificial photosynthesis.

Lab turns transition metals into practical catalyst for solar, other applications...

Brookhaven scientists identified how a zinc/copper (Zn/Cu) catalyst transforms carbon dioxide (two red and one grey balls) and hydrogen (two white balls) to methanol (one grey, one red, and four white balls), a potential fuel. Under reaction conditions, Zn/Cu transforms to ZnO/Cu, where the interface between the ZnO and Cu provides the active sites that allow the formation of methanol.

Results will guide design of improved catalysts for transforming pollutant to useful chemicals. Capturing CO2 and converting it to useful chemicals such as methanol could reduce both pollution and our dependence on petroleum products. So scientists are intensely interested in the catalysts that facilitate such chemical conversions...

Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a technique that uses light to get flat, plastic sheets to curve into shapes such as spheres, tubes or bowls. Credit: Amber Hubbard

Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a technique that uses light to get two-dimensional plastic sheets to curve into three-dimensional (3D) structures. The advance builds on earlier work by the same team, which focused on self-folding 3D structures. The key advance here is that rather than having the plastic fold along sharp lines – into polygonal shapes such as cubes or pyramids – the plastics bend and curve.

Researchers Michael Dickey and Prof. Jan Genzer f NC State, were early leaders in the field of self-folding 3D structures...