Chemists add color to chemical reactions

Chemists have come up with an innovative new way to visualize and monitor chemical reactions.

20-May-2016 - Members of the Maye Research Group in the Department of Chemistry have designed a nanomaterial that changes color when it interacts with ions and other small molecules during a chemical reaction. Their discovery enables researchers to monitor reactions qualitatively with the naked eye and ...

New research introduces 'pause button' for boiling

25-Feb-2016 - Gather your patience and put the old "a watched pot never boils" saying to the test. The experience might rival watching paint dry, but of course the water will eventually begin to boil. When it does, you'll see a flurry of bubbles form and quickly rise to the surface of the water. Once it kicks ...

Researchers work to fingerprint hydrofracking water quality

11-Dec-2015 - Mary Beth Jones of Apalachin, N.Y., lives near "ground zero" of the hotly contested hydrofracking debate swirling across New York State. Her land sits above the gas-rich Marcellus Shale, and like many of her neighbors, Jones is concerned about risks of groundwater contamination associated with ...

Novel algorithm simulates water evaporation at the nanoscale

20-Oct-2015 - We are all familiar with boiling a pot of water - flame from a stove heats the base of a metal pot, the metal transfers the heat to the water, and the temperature goes up and up until the water boils. Professor Shalabh Maroo and graduate student Sumith YD are looking closer - much closer. They ...

Fueling aviation with hardwoods

A multi-university study highlights an alternative biofuel which may be utizlized by the transportation industry

12-May-2014 - A key challenge in the biofuels landscape is to get more advanced biofuels—fuels other than corn ethanol and vegetable oil-based biodiesel—into the transportation pool. Utilization of advanced biofuels is stipulated by the Energy Independence and Security Act; however, current production levels ...

Research shows potential for quasicrystals

Article outlines new optics research opportunities, including smaller optical circuits

22-Mar-2013 - Ever since their discovery in 1984, the burgeoning area of research looking at quasiperiodic structures has revealed astonishing opportunities in a number of areas of fundamental and applied research, including applications in lasing and sensing. Quasiperiodic structures, or quasicrystals, ...