New synthetic cored nanoparticle could decontaminate tainted water and then be cleared with a magnet

17-05-2013

Among its many talents, silver is an antibiotic. Titanium dioxide is known to glom on to certain heavy metals and pollutants. Yet other materials do the same for salt. In recent years, environmental engineers have sought to disinfect, depollute, and desalinate contaminated water using ...

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25-04-2013

“When designing next generation solar energy conversion systems, we must first develop ways to more efficiently utilize the solar spectrum,” explained Lane Martin, whose research group has done just that. “This is a fundamentally new way of approaching these matters,” said Martin, who is an ...

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04-06-2012

Scientists are reporting development of a new paper-based device that can warn workers that they are being exposed to potentially unhealthy levels of airborne metals almost immediately, instead of the weeks required with current technology. The report on the device, which costs about one cent ...

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Palladium core protects precious platinum

23-11-2010

Stop-and-go driving can wear on your nerves, but it really does a number on the precious platinum that drives reactions in automotive fuel cells. Before large fleets of fuel-cell-powered vehicles can hit the road, scientists will have to find a way to protect the platinum, the most expensive ...

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Rice researchers find metallacarboranes may meet DOE storage goals

04-10-2010

New research by Rice University scientists suggests that a class of material known as metallacarborane could store hydrogen at or better than benchmarks set by the United States Department of Energy (DOE) Hydrogen Program for 2015. The work could receive wide attention as hydrogen comes into ...

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17-09-2010

The development of new organic batteries—lightweight energy storage devices that work without the need for toxic heavy metals—has a brighter future now that chemists have discovered a new way to pass electrons back and forth between two molecules. The research is also a necessary step toward ...

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Paraffin and surfactant oleic acid improve synthesis of lithium manganese phosphate electrodes

17-08-2010

A little wax and soap can help build electrodes for cheaper lithium ion batteries, according to a study in August 11 issue of Nano Letters. The one-step method will allow battery developers to explore lower-priced alternatives to the lithium ion-metal oxide batteries currently on the ...

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09-08-2010

Circuits that can perform logic operations at the push of a button are a dime-a-dozen these days, but a breakthrough by researchers in the USA has meant they can be smaller and simpler than ever before. Using a single material as both the button and the circuit for the first time, scientists ...

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Material that shows melting while cooling could lead to applications in solar cells, other devices

06-08-2010

Like an ice cube on a warm day, most materials melt — that is, change from a solid to a liquid state — as they get warmer. But a few oddball materials do the reverse: They melt as they get cooler. Now a team of researchers at MIT has found that silicon, the most widely used material for ...

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Rice researchers show environmentally friendly ways to make it in bulk, break it down

27-07-2010

"We can make you and we can break you." If Rice University scientists wrote country songs, their ode to graphene oxide would start something like that. But this song wouldn't break anybody's heart. A new paper from the lab of Rice chemist James Tour demonstrates an environmentally friendly ...

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