Mar
31
Using Protein and Bacteria to Make Renewable Petroleum
March 31, 2011 | 1 Comment
University of Minnesota researchers, with a breakthrough from graduate student Janice Frias of figuring out how to use a protein to transform fatty acids produced by bacteria into ketones that can be cracked to make hydrocarbon fuels has the university filing patents on the process. The ink is barely dry. U of M researchers have […]
Mar
30
A Nano Crystal Idea for Fuel Cells
March 30, 2011 | 2 Comments
Researchers at TU Delft have identified a new huge potential of nanocrystals in fuel cells. The Delft researchers are the first to document the idea accurately with their second article on the subject. The latest paper was published in the scientific journal, Advanced Functional Materials. The addition of the extremely small nanocrystals to a solid […]
Mar
29
Half of Artificial Photosynthesis Invented
March 29, 2011 | 11 Comments
The American Chemical Society press release headline runs, “Debut of the first practical “artificial leaf””, which is a little more than some extra on what has happened. The prolific and wide ranging skills of Dr. Daniel Nocera have come up with an “artificial leaf” of sorts. By that they mean Dr. Nocera has built a […]
Mar
28
The Lithium Air Battery Makes Progress
March 28, 2011 | Leave a Comment
The research team at Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) can show heat-treated metal-free graphene nanosheets (GNS) have much more stable cycling performance in a Lithium-air battery. This might be important and does show a research lead, because of lithium air’s capacity of 5-10 times that of standard Lithium-ion batteries. That […]
Mar
25
Competition for Platinum Catalysts in Fuel Cells
March 25, 2011 | 3 Comments
Liming Dai, a professor of chemical engineering and research associates Shuangyin Wang and Dingshan Yu at Case Western Reserve University found that by simply soaking carbon nanotubes in a water solution of the polymer polydiallyldimethylammoniumn chloride for a couple of hours, the polymer coats the nanotube surface and pulls an electron partially from the carbon, […]