Feb
16
Discovering How Platinum Catalysts Work
February 16, 2021 | Leave a Comment
Brookhaven National Laboratory, Stony Brook University (SBU), and other collaborating institutions’ scientists have uncovered dynamic, atomic-level details of how an important platinum-based catalyst works in the water gas shift reaction. The experiments provide definitive evidence that only certain platinum atoms play an important role in the chemical conversion, and could therefore guide the design of […]
Jul
27
Since the transistor replaced the vacuum tube about sixty years ago an ever-growing avalanche of electronics has enriched lives. While the thought about one’s power blocks and power supplies doesn’t seem like much in a home, everyone plus the support in businesses, governments and the data centers of the internet and cloud sum up to […]
Oct
14
Perhaps the First Molecular Filter Arrives
October 14, 2011 | 2 Comments
At the University of Minnesota a research team has designed a specialized type of molecular sieve that could make the production of gasoline, plastics and various chemicals more cost effective and energy efficient. After more than a decade of research, the team devised a means for developing freestanding, ultra-thin zeolite nanosheets that as thin films […]
Jun
29
Magnet Power Climbs Again
June 29, 2011 | Leave a Comment
This time the team at Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf set a new world record for magnetic fields with 91.4 teslas. Sergei Zherlitsyn and his colleagues at the High Magnetic Field Laboratory Dresden (HLD) developed and used an electromagnetic coil weighing about 200 kilograms in which electric current created the giant magnetic field – for a period of […]
Mar
1
Now Metal Bottles and Other Blown Metal Shapes
March 1, 2011 | 2 Comments
A Yale University team led by Jan Schroers, a materials scientist, are showing that some recently developed bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) that are metal alloys with randomly arranged atoms instead of the orderly, crystalline structure found in ordinary metals – can be blow molded like plastics into complex shapes that can’t be achieved using regular […]