Researchers obtain promising results against capacity loss in vanadium batteries

A computational study conducted in Brazil could help extend the working lives of these batteries, which are widely used by utilities and manufacturers

23-Nov-2023 - An article by researchers at theCenter for Development of Functional Materials(CDMF)in Brazil describes a successful strategy to mitigate charge capacity loss in vanadium redox flow batteries, which are used by electric power utilities among other industries and can accumulate large amounts of ...

Novel technique developed to obtain key chemical industry input without emitting CO₂

Researchers make peroxide from oxygen, using photocatalysis to control the process

01-Feb-2023 - A study published inACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, a journal of the American Chemical Society, describes a novel method of producing hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) without emitting carbon dioxide (CO2), one of the main greenhouse gases and one of the world’s most widely produced ...

Brazilian scientists reveal method of converting methane gas into liquid methanol

The conversion took place under ambient temperature and pressure conditions, which could enable methane, a potent greenhouse gas, to be used to produce fuel

08-Aug-2022 - A group of researchers has succeeded in converting methane into methanol using light and dispersed transition metals such as copper in a process known as photo-oxidation. The reaction was the best obtained to date for conversion of methane gas into liquid fuel under ambient conditions of ...

“Green” solvent and natural pigment to produce bioplastic

01-Mar-2022 - Scientists based in Brazil and Portugal have developed an environmentally sustainable process to produce biodegradable plastic using pigment extracted from yeast by “green” solvents. In an articlepublishedin the journalGreen Chemistry, they show that this biodegradable plastic could in future ...

A combination of agrochemicals shortens the life of bees

A nonlethal dose of insecticide clothianidin can reduce honeybees' life span by half

03-Jun-2019 - A new study by Brazilian biologists suggests that the effect of pesticides on bees could be worse than previously thought. Even when used at a level considered nonlethal, an insecticide curtailed the lives of bees by up to 50%. The researchers also found that a fungicide deemed safe for bees ...

Key enzyme for production of second-generation ethanol discovered in Brazilian Amazon

17-May-2018 - Second-generation ethanol (also called cellulosic ethanol) open perspectives for optimizing alcohol production. Since 2G ethanol is obtained from from sugarcane straw and bagasse, it basically makes it possible converting waste into energy. Holder of the world's best biomass and boasting the ...

Thermoelectric nanodevice based on Majorana fermions proposed

10-Apr-2018 - In March 1938, the young Italian physicist Ettore Majorana disappeared mysteriously, leaving his country's scientific community shaken. The episode remains unexplained, despite Leonardo Scascia's attempt to unravel the enigma in his book The Disappearance of Majorana (1975). Majorana, whom Enrico ...

Model predicts scenarios for energy generation using nuclear fusion

31-Jan-2018 - Nuclear fusion, for the controlled and regular generation of electric power by converting hydrogen into helium and reproducing on a small scale what happens in our Sun (as well as other stars), is one of the foremost technological promises for the decades ahead. Designed to reach parameters ...

Experiment confirms fundamental symmetry in nature

24-Sep-2015 - Scientists working with ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment), a heavy-ion detector on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) ring, have made precise measurements of particle mass and electric charge that confirm the existence of a fundamental symmetry in nature. The investigators include Brazilian ...