Capillary forces cause the propellant to flow from the reservoir to the substrate tips. When a high voltage is applied between the tips and grid,
as they use the rare gas xenon as a propellant, which also needs pressurization for storage.
Accion propellant is a liquid salt material, similar in structure to common table salt, which can be made in large quantities.
With that novel propellant, and a simple design, Accion can batch-manufacture modules much like computer chips in quantities of around 200 at once.
Now, engineers from the University of Pennsylvania and Exxonmobil have teamed up to answer this question. With a vested interest in the chemistry and performance of lubricants, scientists at Exxonmobil worked with scientists at Penn
whose research focuses on nanoscale measurements of friction and lubrication. The team conducted research to probe nanoscale properties and mechanisms of lubricant films and ultimately uncovered the molecular mechanisms behind a common anti-wear additive.
Motor oil contains chemical additives that extend how long engines can run without failure, but, despite decades of ubiquity, how such additives actually work to prevent this damage have remained a mystery.
Now, engineers from the University of Pennsylvania and Exxonmobil have teamed up to answer this question. In their experiments, the tip of an atomic force microscope stands in for an individual point of roughness on engine surfaces.
while members of Carpick's lab. They collaborated with two researchers at Corporate Strategic Research, Exxonmobil Research and Engineering Company:
In their experiment, the researcher immersed the entire cantilever-tip apparatus in ZDDP-infused oil,
and sheared the ZDDP-containing oil between the tip and sample, the faster the films grew.
as they would otherwise quickly use up the small amount of ZDDP in the oil.""The tribofilm knows
"Ultimately we hope this will help us to rationally design even smarter engine oils; there's a lot of opportunity to improve fuel economy in vehicles,
but the scientific understanding of how all the additives work is still in development. So the challenge now is to put this new knowledge to good use
"Once developed fully, SNAS will lay the foundation for developing an entire new pipeline of drugs to treat a range of diseases, from psoriasis, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis to lymphoma, bladder cancer and prostate cancer."
the researchers flowed methane through a tube furnace at 1, 000 degrees C over a copper foil that catalyzed its decomposition into carbon and hydrogen.
and react to make a precursor compound that is deposited on a substrate by an argon carrier gas.
controllable stimuli have applications in various fields, from biomedical science to the oil industry. Now, A*STAR researchers have created a self-assembling polymeric material that changes its structure
The researchers anticipate that their smart material will have other potential applications in enhanced oil recovery and biomedical science n
which require a lot of fuel. With further R&d, future AUVS and other marine vehicles can adopt this mechanism to help it evade threats or track something fast stealthily underwater without the need for much energy.
#Engineers invent two-dimensional liquid (Nanowerk News) Where water and oil meet, a two-dimensional world exists.
Their soft nanoparticles stick to the plane where oil and water meet, but do not stick to one another.
"The researchers created a 2-D liquid consisting of nanoparticles at the interface between a drop of oil and the surrounding water.
By sucking the oil back into a pipette, they could infer some of the physical rules that govern this system.
The researchers created a 2-D liquid consisting of nanoparticles at the interface between a drop of oil and the surrounding water.
By sucking the oil back into a pipette, they could infer some of the physical rules that govern this system.
and an oil-loving tail, and the way they are attached to the central particle allows them to contort themselves so both sides are happy
the researchers dripped a particle-containing an oil droplet out of a pipette into water.
which point the researchers could change their packing density by sucking some of the oil back into the pipette.
Some rely on gas-filled chambers; others work only in narrow frequency bands, limiting their utility. Synthetic diamonds with nitrogen vacancies (NVS) defects that are extremely sensitive to magnetic fields have held long promise as the basis for efficient, portable magnetometers.
This work is a significant advance towards developing more efficient electrocatalysts for water-splitting reactions and fuel generation.
#Scientists a step closer to developing renewable propane (Nanowerk News) Researchers at The University of Manchester have made a significant breakthrough in the development of synthetic pathways that will enable renewable biosynthesis of the gas propane.
In this latest study, published in the journal Biotechnology for Biofuels("A microbial platform for renewable propane synthesis based on a fermentative butanol pathway"),scientists at the Universitys Manchester Institute of Biotechnology (MIB
working with colleagues at Imperial College and University of Turku, have created a synthetic pathway for biosynthesis of the gas propane.
Their work brings scientists one step closer to the commercial production of renewable propane, a vital development as fossil fuels continue to dwindle.
Professor Nigel Scrutton, Director of the MIB, explains the significance of their work: The chemical industry is undergoing a major transformation as a consequence of unstable energy costs, limited natural resources and climate change.
Natural metabolic pathways for the renewable biosynthesis of propane do not exist but scientists at the University have developed an alternative microbial biosynthetic pathway to produce renewable propane.
The team led by Nigel Scrutton and Dr Patrik Jones from Imperial College, modified existing fermentative butanol pathways using an engineered enzyme variant to redirect the microbial pathway to produce propane as opposed to butanol.
The team was able to achieve propane biosynthesis creating a platform for next-generation microbial propane production.
Propane has very good physicochemical properties which allow it to be stored and transported in a compressed liquid form.
While under ambient conditions it is a clean-burning gas, with existing global markets and infrastructure for storage,
distribution and utilization in a wide range of applications ranging from heating to transport fuel.
Consequently, propane is an attractive target product in research aimed at developing new renewable alternatives to complement currently used petroleum-derived fuels.
Professor Scrutton comments: This study focused on the construction and evaluation of alternative microbial biosynthetic pathways for the production of renewable propane.
It also expands the metabolic toolbox for renewable propane production, providing new insight and understanding of the development of next-generation biofuels
which one day could lead to commercial production n
#Scientists use nanotechnology to visualize potential brain cancer treatments in real time (Nanowerk News) Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute scientists have developed new imaging techniques to watch dangerous brain tumor
Attempts to use polymers with benzene-like delocalised electron bonding alleviated issues around the thermal durability to a certain extent.
They used a fused ring system of molecules with benzene-like delocalised electron bonding so that the material would readily crystallise.
#'Parachuting'boron on benzene rings (Nanowerk News) Tuning the para position of benzene moieties is significant for creating biologically active compounds and optoelectronic materials.
Yet, attaching a functional handle specifically at the para position of benzene has been challenging due to multiple reactive sites on the ring.
Chemists at ITBM, Nagoya University have developed a novel iridium catalyst that enables highly para-selective borylation on benzene,
Itami and his coworkers have generated a new catalyst that uses steric interactions with the benzene substituent,
making it possible to conduct late stage diversification of core structures containing benzene. The study, published online on April 10, 2015 in the Journal of the American Chemical Society("para-CH Borylation of Benzene derivatives by a Bulky Iridium Catalyst),
The positions right next to the substituent on the benzene i e. the ortho-(2-or 6-)positions are blocked usually by the substituent during C-H borylation.
However, a mixture of meta-(3-or 5-)products and para-(4-)products are observed usually in a 2: 1 ratio upon C-H borylation of a monosubstituted benzene.
and materials science for creating benzene-containing functional molecules, I figured that para-selective C-H functionalization would be an extremely useful technique for the late-stage diversification of core structures.
Caramiphen, an anticholinergic agent used for the treatment of Parkinson's disease contains a monosubstituted benzene moiety along with ester and amine groups.
"More than 80 percent of our energy today comes from burning fossil fuels, which is both harmful to our environment and unsustainable as well.
#Nature-inspired nanotechnology mesh captures oil but lets water through (Nanowerk News) The unassuming piece of stainless steel mesh in a lab at The Ohio State university doesn't look like a very big deal,
but oil doesn't, thanks to a nearly invisible oil-repelling coating on its surface. In tests, researchers mixed water with oil and poured the mixture onto the mesh.
The water filtered through the mesh to land in a beaker below. The oil collected on top of the mesh
and rolled off easily into a separate beaker when the mesh was tilted. This mesh, which is covered in a coating invented at The Ohio State university, captures oil (red) while water (blue) passes through.
Photo by Jo Mcculty, courtesy of The Ohio State university. The mesh coating is among a suite of nature-inspired nanotechnologies under development at Ohio State
and described in two papers in the journal Nature Scientific Reports("Mechanically durable, superoleophobic coatings prepared by layer-by-layer technique for anti-smudge and oil-water separation"and"Nanomechanical behavior of Mos2 and WS2 multi-walled nanotubes and Carbon nanohorns").
"Potential applications range from cleaning oil spills to tracking oil deposits underground.""If you scale this up,
you could potentially catch an oil spill with a net, "said Bharat Bhushan, Ohio Eminent Scholar and Howard D. Winbigler Professor of mechanical engineering at Ohio State.
The work was inspired partly by lotus leaves, whose bumpy surfaces naturally repel water but not oil.
To create a coating that did the opposite, Bhushan and postdoctoral researcher Philip Brown chose to cover a bumpy surface with a polymer embedded with molecules of surfactant--the stuff that gives cleaning power to soap and detergent.
"He explained that certain combinations of layers yield nanoparticles that bind to oil instead of repelling it.
Such particles could be used to detect oil underground or aid removal in the case of oil spills.
The shape of the nanostructures plays a role, as well. In another project, research assistant Dave Maharaj is investigating
which mix well with oil. The nanotubes are approximately a thousand times smaller than a human hair.
"Bhushan envisions that the molybdenum compound's compatibility with oil, coupled with its ability to reduce friction,
In addition, for micro-and nanoscale devices, commercial oils may be too sticky to allow for their efficient operation.
"To repel synthetic materials like oils, we need to bring in another level of chemistry that nature doesn't have access to
so that their ability to carry an electric current changes in the presence of a particular gas.
Pieter Elshout and fellow environmental scientists at Radboud University have demonstrated how long it takes for the advantages that biofuels offer over fossil fuels to earn a return on this initial emission On the global scale,
spatially-explicit overview of biogenic gas emission resulting from crops used to produce biofuels. In developing this model,
our calculations of the durations of payback times took account of the entire production chain for fossil fuels and biofuels with the accompanying greenhouse emissions.
The new Georgia Tech algorithm that fuels this system demonstrates the potential of easily controlling large teams of robots,
"said Magnus Egerstedt, Schlumberger Professor in Georgia Tech's School of Electrical and Computer engineering.""Instead, the operator controls an area that needs to be explored.
The scientists coat gold nanoparticles of a few thousand atoms each with an oil-like organic molecule that holds the gold particles together.
and convert carbon dioxide to make fuel Capture and convert--this is the motto of carbon dioxide reduction,
a liquid fuel and the focus of a recent study conducted at the U s. Department of energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory("Carbon dioxide Conversion to Methanol over Size-Selected Cu4 Clusters at Low pressures").
But compressing gas into a high-pressure mixture takes a lot of energy. The benefit of enhanced binding is that the new catalyst requires lower pressure
and burned for fuel. Of course the catalyst still has a long journey ahead from the lab to industry.
and also shows the strongest methane signature ever detected on an alien planet, which should yield additional clues as to how the planet formed.
whereas others are around 700 C and features the strongest atmospheric methane signal on record.
Previous Jupiter-like exoplanets have shown only faint traces of methane, far different from the heavy methane atmospheres of the gas giants in our solar system.
"In the atmospheres of the cold giant planets of our solar system carbon is found as methane,
Since the atmosphere of 51 Eridani is also methane rich, it signifies that this planet is well on its way to becoming a cousin of our own familiar Jupiter,
#Black phosphorus surges ahead of graphene A Korean team of scientists tune BP's band gap to form a superior conductor,
affiliated with the Institute for Basic Science's (IBS) Center for Artificial Low Dimensional Electronic systems (CALDES), reported a tunable band gap in BP,
Like graphene, BP is a semiconductor and also cheap to mass produce. The one big difference between the two is BP's natural band gap
allowing the material to switch its electrical current on and off. The research team tested on few layers of BP called phosphorene
which is an allotrope of phosphorus. Keun Su Kim, an amiable professor stationed at POSTECH speaks in rapid bursts when detailing the experiment,
therefore we tuned BP's band gap to resemble the natural state of graphene, a unique state of matter that is different from conventional semiconductors."
pockets of water vapor or gas accumulate in them by underwater evaporation or effervescence, just like a drop of water evaporates without having to boil it.
These gas pockets deflect water, keeping the surface dry, "he said. In a study published today (Aug 18) by the journal Scientific Reports("Sustaining dry surfaces under water),
where dissolved gas was removed from the ambient liquid, and they also remained dry.""It was amazing and
allowing gas to be retained between the hairs.""These gas-retaining insects have surface properties consistent with our predictions,
allowing them to stay dry for a long time, "said Paul R. Jones, the study's first author.
nearly 70-percent of the electricity generated in this country continues to come from fossil fuels. Low-cost alternatives to todays photovoltaic solar panels are needed for the immense advantages of solar power to be realized fully.
It is believed this new process will have significant environmental benefits by improving the yield of biodiesel in a sustainable way that doesn't require the use of additional fossil fuels
By 2020, the EU aims to have 10 per cent of the transport fuel of every EU country come from renewable sources such as biofuels.
Fuel suppliers are required also to reduce the greenhouse gas intensity of the EU fuel mix by 6 per cent by 2020 in comparison to 2010.
At present, biodiesel is produced by combining fats and oils with methanol, which is derived usually from fossil fuels.
A waste product from this process is crude glycerol which is formed on a large scale and contains many impurities that make it costly to purify
"Biodiesel manufacture is a growing part of the EU fuel pool, with statutory amounts being required to be added to diesel that is derived from fossil fuels."
"We've provided unprecedented chemistry that highlights the potential to manufacture biodiesel in a much more environmentally friendly,
and seriously improve the quality of life by reducing carbon emissions from fossil fuels and encourage efficient use of resources."
They specifically concentrated on the electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide on metal electrodes ecause of the current interest in this process for sustainable production of fuels and value added chemicals,
used in everything from fire extinguishers to oil recovery to carbonated beverages, but it is also a major greenhouse gas.
such as reducing carbon dioxide to convert it into a usable fuel, Surendranath says. This could reduce emissions of a principal greenhouse gas that fosters climate change,
and transform it into a useful, renewable fuel. The initial finding described in this paper is ust one piece of
and electricity at a low cost from fuel found in water. Both heating generators and generators for electricity could be developed within a few years,
using high efficiency solar cells to power water electrolysis("A 24.4%solar to hydrogen energy conversion efficiency by combining concentrator photovoltaic modules and electrochemical cells").
"This is a significant step toward the substitution of fossil fuels with solar hydrogen. Increased demand for hydrogen as a clean fuel for vehicles and other applications is anticipated,
but it is produced currently from fossil fuel. In order to increase Japan use of renewable energy at a substantial fraction in the total energy demand, it is vital to develop technologies for the high efficiency
and low cost production of hydrogen using solar energy. Conventional approaches to solar hydrogen production using photocatalysts achieved a solar-to-hydrogen energy conversion efficiency of less than 10,
%requiring improvements for real-world applications. The research group of Associate professor Masakazu Sugiyama and Project Professor Katsushi Fujii (Graduate school of Engineering
%The researchers also reduced energy loss by improving the connection between the CPV modules and electrolyzers, resulting in a solar-to-hydrogen energy conversion efficiency above 24%.
which blocks fire's access to its fuel source--the polymer. The synergistic combination of both these processes makes polydopamine an attractive and powerful flame retardant.
alerting the wearer by turning on an LED light("Ultrasensitive and Highly Selective Graphene-Based Single Yarn for Use in Wearable Gas Sensor").
a pollutant gas commonly found in vehicle exhaust that also results from fossil fuel combustion. Prolonged exposure to nitrogen dioxide can be dangerous to human health,
and filter harmful gas from air. his sensor can bring a significant change to our daily life
unlike the gas sensors invariably developed with the existing solid substrates, says Dr. Hyung-Kun Lee,
This technique flows a mixture of methane, hydrogen and argon gases into a tube furnace.
At high temperatures, methane decomposes into carbon atoms that settle onto the germanium's surface to form a uniform graphene sheet.
including water, oil, highly corrosive media, biological fluids containing bacteria and blood. Not only did the material repel all the liquid
Potentially, hydrogen could be transported to other locations and burned as fuel.""In theory, this should be a self-sustaining energy source,
and you do need not a large amount to capture enough sunlight to carry out fuel generation
#Ultrasensitive sensors made from boron-doped graphene Ultrasensitive gas sensors based on the infusion of boron atoms into graphene--a tightly bound matrix of carbon atoms--may soon be possible, according to an international team of researchers
from six countries. Graphene is known for its remarkable strength and ability to transport electrons at high speed,
but it is also a highly sensitive gas sensor. With the addition of boron atoms, the boron graphene sensors were able to detect noxious gas molecules at extremely low concentrations, parts per billion in the case of nitrogen oxides and parts per million for ammonia
the two gases tested to date. This translates to a 27 times greater sensitivity to nitrogen oxides
reported today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences("Ultrasensitive gas detection of large-area boron-doped graphene),
Once fabricated, the researchers sent boron graphene samples to researchers at the Honda Research Institute USA Inc.,Columbus, Ohio, who tested the samples against their own highly sensitive gas sensors.
"This multidisciplinary research paves a new avenue for further exploration of ultrasensitive gas sensors, "said Avetik Harutyunyan,
just like checking oil levels in a car. The dipstick is already available and can save lives,
#ipstickin the brain could predict damage just in time TO CHECK a car oil levels, use a dipstick.
Although fracking has unlocked new fuel sources and slashed energy prices, there is a risk that toxic compounds in the fracking fluid can get into shallow aquifers via fractures in the bedrock.
Instead of chemical fuel, which is heavy and inefficient, they use an ionic liquid, made entirely of positively or negatively charged ions.
it is safer and simpler to take it into space than a plasma or gas.
using up all the fuel without corroding the spacecraft. his is one of the other show stoppers we had at the beginning:
Liquid fuel and a liquid oxidizer combine within a combustion chamber and ignite. Ultimately its this combustion that thrusts the rocket forward.
However, feeding the propellants into the chamber is complicated a process, requiring separate turbopumps to transport the liquids at super-high speeds into a high-pressure area.
requiring extra hardware and additional fuel. But with Rutherford, the engines turbopumps get a much more condensed energy source.
Instead of running on liquid propellant, the pumps are powered by electric motors with lithium polymer batteries. This eliminates the need for extra spaghetti tubes and valves,
versus the 60 percent efficiency of the gas motor. The idea of electric propulsion is nothing new;
Using the sun instead of fossil fuels to power a desalination plant isn't a totally new idea.
but the design is written broadly enough that it can potentially protect everything from ships to submarines, offshore platforms, ground vehicles, buildings,
"including the insertion of the aluminum"fuel"(b) and movement/fusion of gallium alloy droplets (e). Tsinghua University scientists led by Jing Liu,
the aluminum reacts with the sodium hydroxide to release hydrogen gas, while placing the aluminum in the liquid metal drop's rear creates differences in electrical charges across the liquid metal.
The ability of liquid metal with its own embedded power source could even one day be the basis to build self repairing armor on tanks and changing aircraft fuselages for fuel efficiency and speed.
Liu hopes that his invention would one day be used to build shapeshifting robots to repair pipelines and delivery medicine inside blood vessels.
Morocco environment minister, Hakima el-Haite, believes that solar energy could have the same impact on the region this century that oil production had in the last.
she said. e are not an oil producer. We import 94%of our energy as fossil fuels from abroad
and that has big consequences for our state budget, el-Haite told the Guardian. e also used to subsidise fossil fuels
which have a heavy cost, so when we heard about the potential of solar energy, we thought;
and focussed on a steel pipeline carrying a eat transfer solution (HTF) that is warmed to 393c as it snakes along the trough before coiling into a heat engine.
The HTF is made up of a synthetic thermal oil solution that is pumped towards a heat tank containing molten sands that can store heat energy for three hours
take down scaffolding and wrap rockwool insulation around steel pipelines. They bustle past in yellow and orange bibs,
This technique flows a mixture of methane, hydrogen, and argon gases into a tube furnace.
At high temperatures, methane decomposes into carbon atoms that settle onto the germanium's surface to form a uniform graphene sheet.
Already envisaged scenarios include its use as fuel for vehicles or for producing carbon-based energy carriers.
useful in applications ranging from medical imaging of soft tissue to oil prospecting. The most sensitive commercial magnetic sensors require a single SQUID kept at 4. 2 Kn incredibly chilly temperature that is usually maintained with expensive and difficult to handle liquid helium.
#A better way to pack natural gas into fuel tanks A new and innovative way to store methane could speed the development of natural gas-powered cars that don require the high pressures
or cold temperatures of today compressed or liquefied natural gas vehicles. Natural gas is cleaner-burning than gasoline,
and today there are more than 150,000 compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles on the road in the U s, . most of them trucks and buses. But until manufacturers can find a way to pack more methane into a tank at lower pressures and temperatures,
allowing for a greater driving range and less hassle at the pump, passenger cars are unlikely to adopt natural gas as a fuel.
UC Berkeley chemists have developed now a porous and flexible material so-called metal-organic framework (MOF) or storing methane that addresses these problems.
The flexible MOF collapses when the methane is extracted to run the engine, but expands when the methane is pumped in at only moderate pressure,
within the range produced by a home compressor. ou could potentially fill up at home, said Jeffrey Long,
a UC Berkeley professor of chemistry who led the project. The flexible MOF can be loaded with methane
the main ingredient of natural gas, at 35 to 65 times atmospheric pressure (500 to 900 psi),
whereas compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles compress natural gas into an empty tank under 250 atmospheres (3, 600 psi).
Liquefied natural gas (LNG) vehicles operate at lower pressures but require significant insulation in the tank system to maintain the natural gas at minus-162 degrees Celsius (minus-260 degrees Fahrenheit)
so that it remains liquid. Next-gen NG vehicles Long said that next-generation natural gas vehicles will require a material that binds the methane and packs it more densely into the fuel tank, providing a larger driving range.
One of the major problems has been finding a material that absorbs the methane at a relatively low pressure,
such as 35 atmospheres, but gives it all up at a pressure where the engine can operate,
between 5 and 6 atmospheres. MOFS, which have a lot of internal surface area to adsorb gaseshat is,
for gas molecules to stick to the internal surfaces of the poresnd store them at high density,
are one of the most promising materials for adsorbed natural gas (ANG) storage. his is a big advance both in terms of capacity and thermal management,
Long said. ith these new flexible MOFS, you can get to capacities beyond what was thought possible with rigid MOFS.
is that they do not heat up as much as other methane absorbers, so there is less cooling of the fuel required. f you fill a tank that has adsorbent, such as activated charcoal,
when the methane binds it releases heat, he said. ith our material, some of that heat goes into changing the structure of the material,
so you have less heat to dissipate, less heat to manage. You don have to have as much cooling technology associated with filling your tank.
The flexible MOF material could perhaps even be placed inside a balloon-like bag that stretches to accommodate the expanding MOF as methane is pumped in
Improving onboard natural-gas storage Natural gas from oil wells is one of the cheapest and cleanest fossil fuels today,
however, because of the expensive and large onboard compressed fuel tanks. In addition, gasoline packs over three times the energy density per volume as natural gas
even when compressed to 3, 600 psi, which results in natural gas vehicles with a shorter driving range per fill up.
In order to advance onboard natural gas storage, Ford motor company teamed up with UC Berkeley on this project, with funding from the Advanced Research Projects Agencynergy (ARPA-E) of the U s. Dept of energy.
Ford is a leader in CNG/propane-prepped vehicles with more than 57,000 sold in the U s. since 2009, more than all other major U s. automakers combined.
station compressors and fuel along with serving to increase natural gas-powered vehicle driving range within the limited cargo space. atural gas storage in porous materials provides the key advantage of being able to store significant amounts of natural gas at low pressures
than compressed gas at the same conditions, said Veenstra, the principal investigator of this ARPA-E project. he advantage of low pressure is the benefit it provides both onboard the vehicle and off-board at the station.
In addition the low-pressure application facilitates novel concepts such as tanks with reduced wall thicknesses along with conformable concepts
Long has been exploring MOFS as gas adsorbers for a decade, hoping to use them to capture carbon dioxide emitted from power plants or store hydrogen in hydrogen-fueled vehicles,
or to catalyze gas reactions for industry. Last year, however, a study by UC Berkeley Berend Smit found that rigid MOFS have limited a capacity to store methane.
Long and graduate student and first author Jarad Mason instead turned to flexible MOFS noting that they behave better
when methane is pumped in and out. The flexible MOFS they tested are based on cobalt and iron atoms dispersed throughout the structure, with links of benzenedipyrazolate (bdp).
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