and water Whenever there is a major spill of oil into water the two tend to mix into a suspension of tiny droplets called an emulsion that is extremely hard to separate and that can cause severe damage to ecosystems.
and could process large quantities of the finely mixed materials back into pure oil and water.
In addition to its possible role in cleaning up spills the new method could also be used for routine drilling such as in the deep ocean as well as on land where water is injected into wells to help force oil out of deep rock formations.
and water that s extracted is put in large tanks to allow separation by gravity; the oil gradually floats to the top where it can be skimmed off.
That works well when the oil and water are already large globs of stuff already partly separated Varanasi says.
what is called an emulsion with very tiny droplets of oil stabilized in a water background or water in an oil background.
but people know it s hidden in the water in these fine emulsions. In the case of land-based drilling where so-called produced water from wells contains fine emulsions of oil companies sometimes simply dilute the water until it meets regulatory standards for being discharged into waterways.
It s a problem that s very challenging to the industry Varanasi says both in terms of recovering the oil
and more importantly not discharging the produced water into the environment. Tiny droplets of water colored blue are suspended in oil on top of a membrane developed by the MIT team.
Thanks to the membrane's tiny pores with a special coating that attracts water and repels oil the droplets shrink as they pass through the membrane ultimately leaving just pure oil behind.
A similar membrane with a different coating can do the reverse allowing oil droplets to pass
while blocking water. Video courtesy of the researchers The new approach developed by Varanasi s group uses membranes with hierarchical pore structures.
and repel water or vice versa. This allows one material to pass while blocking the other with little flow resistance Varanasi says.
or repel oil and water. The skin layer thickness can be optimized further using polymeric pore formers to enhance throughput.
Microscopy images show the membrane in operation with dye added to the water to make the droplets more obvious.
Within seconds an oil-water mixture that is heavily clouded becomes perfectly clear as the water passes through the membrane leaving pure oil behind.
Oil-water nanoemulsions are ubiquitous in a number of industries and these membranes could enable rapid separation of those emulsions with high purity and efficiency.
Leaks in water pipes can waste up to half the water in a system; oil-pipeline leaks can lead to toxic spills and prolonged, expensive cleanup operations.
and should be effective in gas, water, and oil pipes. MIT mechanical engineering professor Kamal Youcef-Toumi, a co-author of the research papers,
Think of the electricity as water being transferred via bucket from a full tank to an empty tank
In that analogy, the bucket is the adapter that collects the water (electricity) from a full tank (outlet) and dumps it into an empty tank (laptop battery.
say, a gallon of water per minute from the full tank to the empty tank,
Sagneri says. ee delivering that same amount of water, in that same time frame, but 1, 000 times faster.
But it s essential that you put the kettle on the stove before pouring the water into the cup.
and uses it to heat water for homes. The two other audience choice awards went to REECYCLE,
and allow reuse of about 25 percent of their water. It could also eliminate 10 trucks of wastewater shipping per day for Lagunitas.
and reusing water easier and more affordable, as America dependence on water increases, along with water pollution. lmost every product we make has a water footprint,
Silver says. s our economy grows, water tables are dropping and wastewater pollution is rising, causing many companies to consider water risk in their overall strategy.
The need for more cost-effective solutions is increasingly acute in the developed world and also critical in the developing world.
We are leveraging biotechnology to provide the highest return on investment for managing water. To that end, Cambrian is working on other projects that leverage exoelectrogenic microbes to treat wastewater.
One project, called Biovolt, is powered a self water treatment system for U s army forward operating bases that treats wastewater
for the agricultural industry. arth as a spaceshipecovolt is valuable today as a solution to Earth water issues.
and they provide their own power source and water distribution. Strano and the paper lead author, postdoc and plant biologist Juan Pablo Giraldo, envision turning plants into self-powered, photonic devices such as detectors for explosives or chemical weapons.
A new version of the fish that should be able to swim continuously for around 30 minutes will use pumped water instead of carbon dioxide to inflate the channels
#Researchers find that going with the flow makes bacteria Stick in a surprising new finding researchers have discovered that bacterial movement is impeded in flowing water enhancing the likelihood that the microbes will attach to surfaces.
The effect of flowing water on bacterial swimming was a complete surprise Stocker says. My own earlier predictions of what would happen
when microbes swim in flowing water had been: Nothing too interesting he adds. It was only when Roberto
Nonliving particles of similar size and shape show no such effect the team found nor do nonmotile bacteria that are swept along passively by the water.
and online access in an area where most people lack electricity or piped water. There students and monks will be able to learn from materials such as lectures on MIT s Opencourseware (with added Tibetan subtitles.
when youe near water or worrying about components getting lost or broken or stolen. So there are some important practical considerations as well.
The device can also now be submerged in water for maritime use. ialing in the specs has been a continual process,
The MIT team found that they could create novel sensors by coating the nanotubes with specifically designed amphiphilic polymers polymers that are drawn to both oil and water, like soap.
#Droplets break a theoretical time barrier on bouncing Those who study hydrophobic materials water-shedding surfaces such as those found in nature
and created in the laboratory are familiar with a theoretical limit on the time it takes for a water droplet to bounce away from such a surface.
the conventional wisdom holds, is to minimize interaction between the water and the surface, such as by creating low-adhesion superhydrophobic surfaces.
limiting the likelihood that water will spread out over the wings and curtail their aerodynamic properties a clear survival advantage.
if water builds up on their surfaces. f you can make the blades stay dry longer,
recent MIT Phd recipient Hyuk-Min Kwon and former MIT postdoc J. C. Bird, was to find a way to increase the temperature at which water droplets start bouncing.
When they sprayed water on their micro-nano surfaces at 400 C the highest temperature their experimental setup could provide the droplets quickly wet the surfaces and boiled.
sprouts a thicket of polymers that attract water, creating an impenetrable barrier for microbes. Its chemical makeup also mimics that of cells important to homeostasis,
The researchers also used their new system to monitor human embryonic kidney cells as pure water was added to their environment a shock that forces the cells to absorb water
The process involves combining oil with water under such high pressures and temperatures that they mix together, molecule by molecule,
and the role played by the water in breaking apart the heavy oil compounds and shifting the sulfur into easily removable gases.
and water to promote the desired reactions critical guidance for the design of commercial-scale reactors.
One approach calls for using water rather than natural gas as the source of the hydrogen molecules needed for key chemical reactions in the refining process.
Ordinarily, oil and water won mix, so the molecules can eeone another and chemically react.
at pressures and temperatures above 220 atm and 375 degrees Celsius water goes into a supercritical state in
Add oil to supercritical water (SCW) and stir, and the two will mix together perfectly,
In one, they heated hexyl sulfide without adding water; in the other, they mixed the hexyl sulfide with SCW.
Since water is the only source of oxygen in the mixture, it must be reacting with the carbon compounds.
In the absence of water, that highly reactive sulfur-bearing molecule would join with others like itself to form a long chain
But in the presence of water, it reacts with the water, and the products ultimately include lighter hydrocarbons that are converted readily into valuable light fuels.
Those results define for the first time the key roles played by water in the SCW system. e confirmed that the hydrogen atoms needed to convert the sulfur to hydrogen sulfide can be provided by water rather than by hydrogen gas,
The oil enters the cross section at the top and water at the bottom. As the spinning vortices form, the oil is driven downward near the center of the pipe,
and the water is driven upward along the walls. In the first cross section, the interface layer between the oil
and extract a variety of contaminants from soil and water. Ferdinand Brandl and Nicolas Bertrand
When they learned that UV light was used to disinfect water in certain treatment plants, they began to ask a different question. e thought
or hormones from water, because we saw that the particles aggregate once you irradiate them with UV light. trap for ater-fearingpollutionthe researchers synthesized polymers from polyethylene glycol,
and dispersed evenly in water. But when exposed to UV light, the stabilizing outer shell of the particles is shed,
The preparation of such polymer vesicles with water-soluble host receptors was done by using a mixture of two different block copolymers.
because they are synthesized by adding the tin alkoxide precursor into boiling water followed by heat treatment Pol said.
This is very straightforward rapid'cooking'of a metal-organic precursor in boiling water. The precursor compound is a solid tin alkoxide a material analogous to cost-efficient and broadly available titanium alkoxides.
Peidong Yang Bin Liu and colleagues note that harnessing sunlight to split water and harvest hydrogen is one of the most intriguing ways to achieve clean energy.
which only emit water when driven. But making hydrogen which mostly comes from natural gas requires electricity from conventional carbon dioxide-emitting power plants.
Producing hydrogen at low cost from water using the clean energy from the sun would make this form of energy
when immersed in water and exposed to sunlight produces hydrogen gas. The scientists say that the technique could allow their technology to be scaled up at low cost.
thus be practical both in medical research as well as for diagnosis. The conversion of hydrogen peroxide to water,
The second is the dispersion of alkaline nanoparticles in either short chain alcohols or water for the ph control of movable works of art such as paper parchment and leather.
We also came up with nanostructured cleaning fluids such as oil-in-water microemulsions for the removal of dirt and unwanted coatings on works of art.
Finally we developed containers such as chemical gels for the delivery and controlled release of the cleaning fluids on water-sensitive surfaces such as paper parchment and leather.
It is well known that in the presence of light and water, these particles can form dangerous, highly reactive chemicals called free radicals that can damage DNA.
Cao's team has developed a technique that takes advantage of the Mos2's physical properties to transfer the thin film using only room-temperature water a tissue and a pair of tweezers.
Mos2 is hydrophobic-it repels water. But the sapphire substrate the thin film is grown on is hydrophilic-it attracts water.
Cao's new transfer technique works by applying a drop of water to the thin film
and then poking the edge of the film with tweezers or a scalpel so that the water can begin to penetrate between the Mos2 and the sapphire.
Once it has begun to penetrate the water pushes into the gap floating the thin film on top.
The researchers use a tissue to soak up the water and then lift the thin film with tweezers and place it on a flexible substrate.
The whole process takes a couple of minutes. Chemical etching takes hours. The water breaks the adhesion between the substrate
and the thin film-but it's important to remove the water before moving the film Cao says.
Otherwise capillary action would case the film to buckle or fold when you pick it up.
or desalinization because it remains stable in water without breaking up or dissolving. In addition because the material is extremely flexible it can be rolled into a tube
Both drugs are hydrophobic meaning they dislike water and shy away from it. PEG though is hydrophilic:
When exposed to water it stretches out to maximize contact while the T-shaped joints that hold the CPT tug in the opposite direction and fold inward.
A liquid like water is about as viscous for these devices as honey or even tar is for us.
These have characteristics that distinguish them from water. Most bodily fluids have the property that their viscosity changes depending on the speed of movement says Fischer.
but previous studies determined the material's edges are highly efficient catalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) a process used in fuel cells to pull hydrogen from water.
It catalyzes the separation of hydrogen from water when exposed to a current. Its performance as a HER generator is as good as any molybdenum disulfide structure that has ever been seen
This geometry now determines the efficiency nanoparticle use as a chemical sensor in sensing minute quantities of chemicals in air and water.
#Team reveals molecular structure of water at gold electrodes When a solid material is immersed in a liquid the liquid immediately next to its surface differs from that of the bulk liquid at the molecular level.
Now for the first time researchers at the US Department of energy's (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have observed the molecular structure of liquid water at a gold surface under different charging conditions.
With gold as a chemically inert electrode and slightly-saline water as an electrolyte Salmeron and colleagues used a new twist on x-ray absorption spectroscopy XAS) to probe the interface
or a tenth of a micrometer) x-ray transparent window with a thin coating of gold (20nm) on a sealed liquid sample holder the Berkeley Lab team was able to expose water molecules in the liquid to x-rays
Upon absorbing an x-ray photon the excited water molecule can spew (emit) either charged particles (electrons) or light (photons.
because electrons emitted from x-ray excited water molecules travel only nanometer distances through matter. The electrons arriving at the gold electrode surface can be detected as an electrical current traveling through a wire attached to it.
These experiments result in absorption vs. x-ray energy curves (spectra) that reflect how water molecules within nanometers of the gold surface absorb the x-rays.
's National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) he conducted large molecular dynamics simulations of the gold-water interface
It turns out that for a neutral gold surface a significant number of water molecules (H2o) next to the gold surface orient with hydrogen (H) atoms pointing toward the gold.
Water molecules are bound together by so-called hydrogen bonds which orient the slightly positively charged H atoms in each molecule towards the slightly negatively charged oxygen (O) atoms of neighboring molecules.
what holds water molecules together to make a liquid under conditions of temperature and pressure that we consider comfortable as humans.
It is perhaps surprising that the inert gold surface can induce significant numbers of water molecules not to hydrogen-bond to each other
Furthermore positively charged gold ions cause water molecules to orient their H atoms away from the gold
how many water molecules are tilted one way or another and if their hydrogen bonds are broken or not concludes Salmeron.
Water next to the electrode has a different molecular structure than it would in the absence of the electrode.
The second is that in the calculations the change in the structure of water is limited to the first two molecular layers above the surface
This study which is reported in Science in a paper titled The structure of interfacial water on gold electrodes studied by x-ray absorption spectroscopy marks the first time that the scientific community has shown such high sensitivity in an in-situ environment under working electrode conditions s
The most widely used thermal fluids are water, ethylene glycol, thermal oils and molten salts. One characteristic that is common to all of them, according to Juliá, is"their low thermal conductivity,
Into that we load a water based solution and introduce an additive which allows us to tune the buoyant density of the solution itself he explains.
It turns out that carbon nanomaterials are hydrophobic so water will roll right off of them he says.
and water said Shengyan (Sandy) Liu a Phd candidate at Waterloo's Faculty of engineering who led the team of researchers from the Department of Chemical engineering and the Centre for Contact lens Research.
and measured their concentrations in the water soil and living organisms during the course of a year.
They also know that water can be split into oxygen and hydrogen by combining these proteins with titanium dioxide
On the macroscale adding fluorine atoms to carbon-based materials makes for water-repellant nonstick surfaces such as Teflon.
so understanding and manipulating surface properties friction adhesion interactions with water catalysis are major ongoing areas of scientific research.
This protein concentration is similar to one drop of milk dissolved in a hundred tons of water.
Professor Li has invented a cost-effective and scalable way to split graphite into microscopic graphene sheets and dissolve them in water.
Now we have a rational way of controlling this assembly in a water-based system he says.
Our group discovered a way to use sphere packing to get all sorts of materials to behave themselves in a water solution before they are sprayed onto surfaces in thin layers and assembled into a module.
because we use water instead of dangerous solvents in the process he adds. For photovoltaics Venkataraman points out The next thing is to make devices with other polymers coming along to increase power conversion efficiency
and produce roll-to-roll manufactured materials with water. We expect to actually get much greater efficiency.
which produces only water as a byproduct, "says Ying. The nanorods were examined as catalysts for this reaction using the model substrates p-toluene sulphonamide and benzyl alcohol."
If graphene oxide device has water in it and it is heated up the water can actually burn the graphene oxide and produce carbon dioxide.
It's a pitfall that could be important to understand in the development of long-lasting solar cells where sun could provide risky heat into the equation.
Any biodegradable mechanism intended to release a drug over a long time period must be sturdy enough to limit hydrolysis a process by which the body's water breaks down the bonds in a drug molecule.
Water between the two layers was removed by heating the layer structure once again. Part of the incoming light passes right through the material.
The team already knew that tiny propellers moved well through water, but to test if they could move through living organisms,
the researchers showed the textured surface repelled water, mimicking a lotus leaf. Although the anti-glare roughening protects the nano-size glass teeth
The metal nanoparticle-decorated polymer nanocapsules exhibit the following properties in water: high stability for up to 6 months;
which has high stability in environmentally preferable solvents such as water.""The research results demonstrated that this new technology shows high stability, dispersibility, catalytic activity,
and reusability in water, which other existing metal nanoparticles on solid supports have not been able to do,
These nanocarriers hold the guest molecules within the confines of their water-insoluble interior and use their water-soluble exterior to travel through an aqueous environment.
otherwise be insoluble in water across a liquid environment. Once inside a living cell the particles mix
#Smart gating nanochannels for confined water developed Confined water exists widely and plays important roles in natural environments, particularly inside biological nanochannels.
entitled"Construction of biomimetic smart nanochannels for confined water",was published in National Science Review. Nature has inspired always greatly technology, engineering and significant inventions.
and freely on the water surface via the special micro-and nanostructure on their legs.
Similarly, there are numerous functional units that can interact with water molecules in organisms. The protein-based ion channels are the good examples for these functional units
Jiang's group has achieved great research results in water related sciences including two dimensional interfaces with wetting, dewetting and superwetting properties.
From this they developed self-cleaning surfaces under water with inspiration coming from fish skin. Recently, Jiang's group focused on the confined water in one dimensional nanostructure materials.
The study examined the confined water on the outer surfaces of one dimensional nano-structured materials including spider silk and cactus thorn,
which can be used to collect water in air. They also studied confined water existing in nanochannel,
which included the construction and application of bio-inspired nanochannels. In this review Prof. Jiang expatiated the confined water that exists in one-dimensional micro/nano composite structures in detail, particularly inside biological nanochannels.
Using these nanochannels as inspiration, they provided a strategy for the design and construction of biomimetic smart nanochannels.
Importantly, they have applied the abiotic analogs to energy conversion systems. The confined water, that is water confined in micro-or mesopores,
not only plays an important role in maintaining the existence and development of living organisms, but also concerns the sustainable development of human society.
and cactus thorn showed the confined water collection on these one dimensional nanostructures was helpful in solving the shortage of freshwater resources.
which were mixed then with water and concentrated by centrifugation into a thick slurry. The slurry was then spread by bar coatingomething like a squeegeecross a large plate.
#New method stabilizes common semiconductors for solar fuels generation Researchers around the world are trying to develop solar-driven generators that can split water yielding hydrogen gas that could be used as clean fuel.
and hold sunlight to drive the chemical reactions involved in water splitting. Semiconductors like silicon and gallium arsenide are excellent light absorberss is clear from their widespread use in solar panels.
when submerged in the type of water solutions found in such systems. Now Caltech researchers at the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP) have devised a method for protecting these common semiconductors from corrosion even as the materials continue to absorb light efficiently.
In the type of integrated solar fuel generator that JCAP is striving to produce two half-reactions must take placene involving the oxidation of water to produce oxygen gas;
the other involving the reduction of water yielding hydrogen gas. Each half-reaction requires both a light-absorbing material to serve as the photoelectrode
On top of the Tio2 the researchers deposited 100-nanometer-thick islands of an abundant inexpensive nickel oxide material that successfully catalyzed the oxidation of water to form molecular oxygen.
The work appears to now make a slew of choices available as possible light-absorbing materials for the oxidation side of the water-splitting equation.
Water-splitting photocatalyst that is abundant and inexpensive with low toxicity discovered More information: Amorphous Tio2 coatings stabilize Si Gaas and Gap photoanodes for efficient water oxidationn by S. Hu et al.
Science 2014: www. sciencemag. org/lookup/doi/1126/science. 125142 2
#Using gold nanoprobes to unlock your genetic profile A fast and cost-effective genetic test to determine the correct dosage of blood thinning drugs for the treatment of stroke,
and avoid water. The group hypothesized that the same types of forces could be used to attach a contrast agent to the surface of a type of nanoparticle called a liposome
and identical plastic containers filled with air water or a clay material.##The technique developed as part of a grant from the Office of Naval Research was presented yesterday at the American Society of Mechanical engineers Dynamic Systems and Control Conference o
And of course the water going down the drain in your shower is nice and toasty; you could use it to preheat the incoming cold water a
when we think about the movement of the underlying water said Bamber. This lubricates the ice sheet
The light enters the water it hands off part of its energy to the medium and inside it exists as light
Most water-repelling treatments still allow for surface friction so particles of mud soot oil or wine stick right where they land.
Water blocks off the ear canal which has a unique anatomy so over time wax builds up into
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