Revolutionary Solar Cells Double as Lasers

Revolutionary solar cells double as lasers

Commercial silicon-based solar cells - such as those seen on the roofs of houses across the country - operate at about 20% efficiency for converting the Sun’s rays into electrical energy. It’s taken over 20 years to achieve that rate of efficiency.

A relatively new type of solar cell based on a perovskite material - named for scientist Lev Perovski, who first discovered materials with this structure in the Ural Mountains in the 19th century - was recently pioneered by an Oxford research team led by Professor Henry Snaith. 

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Robotic Arm Probes Chemistry of 3-D Objects by Mass Spectrometry

Robotic Arm Probes Chemistry of 3-D Objects by Mass Spectrometry

When life on Earth was first getting started, simple molecules bonded together into the precursors of modern genetic material. 

A catalyst would have been needed, but enzymes had not yet evolved. 

One theory is that the catalytic minerals on a meteorite’s surface could have jump-started life’s first chemical reactions. 

But scientists need a way to directly analyze these rough, irregularly shaped surfaces. 

A new robotic system at Georgia Tech’s Center for Chemical Evolution could soon let scientists better simulate and analyze the chemical reactions of early Earth on the surface of real rocks to further test this theory.

Nanotube Coating Helps Shrink Mass Spectrometers

Nanotube coating helps shrink mass spectrometers

Nanotechnology is advancing tools likened to Star Trek's "tricorder" that perform on-the-spot chemical analysis for a range of applications including medical testing, explosives detection and food safety.

Researchers found that when paper used to collect a sample was coated with carbon nanotubes, the voltage required was 1,000 times reduced, the signal was sharpened and the equipment was able to capture far more delicate molecules.

A carbon nanotube-coated paper triangle placed on an ionization source charged by a small battery is held in front of a mass spectrometer. Researchers at Purdue University and the Indian Institute of Technology Madras studied the use of carbon nanotubes to advance ambient ionization techniques. (Purdue University photo/Courtesy of Thalappil Pradeep)

WORLD WATER DAY

Water and energy are closely interlinked and interdependent. Energy generation and transmission requires utilization of water resources, particularly for hydroelectric, nuclear, and thermal energy sources. Conversely, about 8% of the global energy generation is used for pumping, treating and transporting water to various consumers.

Credit: http://www.unwater.org

New Technique Makes LEDs Brighter, More Resilient

New Technique Makes LEDs Brighter, More Resilient

 “By coating polar GaN with a self-assembling layer of phosphonic groups, we were able to increase luminescence without increasing energy input,” says Stewart Wilkins, a Ph.D. student at NC State and lead author of a paper describing the work. “The phosphonic groups also improve stability, making the GaN less likely to degrade in solution.

Scientists open a new window into quantum physics with superconductivity in LEDs

A team of University of Toronto physicists led by Alex Hayat has proposed a novel and efficient way to leverage the strange quantum physics phenomenon known as entanglement. 

The approach would involve combining light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with a superconductor to generate entangled photons and could open up a rich spectrum of new physics as well as devices for quantum technologies, including quantum computers and quantum communication. 

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Toward ‘Vanishing’ Electronics and Unlocking Nanomaterials’ Power Potential

Brain sensors and electronic tags that dissolve. Boosting the potential of renewable energy sources. These are examples of the latest research from two pioneering scientists selected as this year’s Kavli lecturers at the 247^th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world’s largest scientific society.

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Biodegradable materials from Rogers’ lab could one day transform electronics for consumer and medical devices, as illustrated here in a dissolvable RFID tag prototype.

Credit: John Rogers

High-tech Materials Purify Water with Sunlight

Sunlight plus a common titanium pigment might be the secret recipe for ridding pharmaceuticals, pesticides and other potentially harmful pollutants from drinking water. 

Scientists combined several high-tech components to make an easy-to-use water purifier that could work with the world’s most basic form of energy, sunlight, in a boon for water purification in rural areas or developing countries.

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Graphene (above), along with sunlight and titanium dioxide, can purify drinking water.

 Credit: Tyndall National Institute

Recovering Metals and Minerals from Waste

Scarcity of clean water is one of the most serious global challenges. In its spearhead programme, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland developed energy-efficient methods for reuse of water in industrial processes and means for recovering valuable minerals and materials from waste for recycling. 

Rapid tools were also developed for identification of environmental pollutants. 

When water and wastewater systems are developed in a comprehensive manner, it is possible to recover valuable metals and other materials and secure availability of clean water. 

Cleaning and treatment processes can also be linked to energy production, and the processes and urban structures designed in such a manner that wastewater treatment does not consume energy or cause extra costs. 

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Credit: Prof. Mona Arnold, et al.

Researchers Describe Oxygen’s Different Shapes

Oxygen-16, one of the key elements of life on earth, is produced by a series of reactions inside of red giant stars. 

Now a team of physicists, including one from North Carolina State University, has revealed how the element’s nuclear shape changes depending on its state, even though other attributes such as spin and parity don’t appear to differ. 

Their findings may shed light on how oxygen is produced.

Carbon and oxygen are formed when helium burns inside of red giant stars. 

Carbon-12 forms when three helium-4 nuclei combine in a very specific way (called the triple alpha process), and oxygen-16 is the combination of a carbon-12 and another helium-4 nucleus.

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The shape of oxygen-16 in its ground and first excited state. Credit: Dean Lee et al.

 

Scientists Discover a Better Way to Make Unnatural Amino Acids

Chemists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have devised a greatly improved technique for making amino acids not found in nature. 

These “unnatural” amino acids traditionally have been very difficult to synthesize, but are sought after by the pharmaceutical industry for their potential medical uses.

 

“This new technique offers a very quick way to prepare unnatural amino acids, many of which are drug candidates or building blocks for peptide drugs,” said Jin-Quan Yu, a professor in TSRI’s Department of Chemistry.

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Four new human-made ozone depleting gases found in the atmosphere

Scientists at the University of East Anglia have identified four new man-made gases in the atmosphere – all of which are contributing to the destruction of the ozone layer.

New research published today in the journal Nature Geoscience reveals that more than 74,000 tonnes of three new chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and one new hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC) have been released into the atmosphere.

 

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Newly Discovered Catalyst Could Lead to the Low-Cost, Clean Production of Methanol

An international research team has discovered a potentially clean, low-cost way to convert carbon dioxide into methanol, a key ingredient in the production of plastics, adhesives and solvents, and a promising fuel for transportation.

Scientists from Stanford University, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and the Technical University of Denmark combined theory and experimentation to identify a new nickel-gallium catalyst that converts hydrogen and carbon dioxide into methanol with fewer side-products than the conventional catalyst. The results are published in the March 2 online edition of the journal Nature Chemistry.

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Artist's rendering of the nickel-gallium  active site, which synthesizes hydrogen and carbon dioxide into methanol. Nickel atoms are light grey, gallium atoms are dark grey, and oxygen atoms are red. (Credit: Jens Hummelshoj/SLAC)

 

Boron, Discovered in 1808, Gets a Nano Refresh

The National Nanotechnology Initiative defines nanotechnology as the understanding and control of matter at the nanoscale, at dimensions of approximately 1 and 100 nanometers, where unique phenomena enable novel applications. Nanotechnology is taking the world by storm, revolutionizing the materials and devices used in many applications and products. That’s why a finding announced by Xiang-Feng Zhou and Artem R. Oganov, Group of Theoretical Crystallography in the Department of Geosciences, are so significant. 

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Projections of 2 × 2 × 1 supercell of Pmmn-boron structure along [001] and [100] directions.

Neutralising heparin without complications | Chemistry World

Neutralising Heparin Without Complications | Chemistry World

The self-assembled multivalent complexes (blue) can induce blood clotting by binding to heparin (green)

A sharp Eye for Molecular Fingerprints

MPQ-scientists record broad absorption spectra on a microsecond scale with two laser frequency combs.

A team of scientists around Dr. Nathalie Picqué and Prof. Theodor W. Hänsch at the Laser Spectroscopy Division of the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics (Garching), in a collaboration with the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich and the Institut des Sciences Moléculaires d’Orsay (France) now reports on a new method of real-time identification and quantification of molecular species (Nature Communications 5, 3375 – Feb. 27, 2014).

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Portion of a dual-comb real-time absorption spectrum of acetylene in the near-infrared region. While the spectrum without the adaptive sampling (blind sampling) is strongly distorted, the adaptive spectrum accurately reveals the molecular profiles. (Graphic: MPQ, Laser Spectroscopy Division)

A Molecular Ballet under the X-ray Laser

An international team of researchers has used the world’s most powerful X-ray laser to take snapshots of free molecules. 

The research team headed by Prof. Jochen Küpper of the Hamburg Center for Free-Electron Laser Science (CFEL) choreographed a kind of molecular ballet in the X-ray beam. 

With this work, the researchers have cleared important hurdles on the way to X-ray images of individual molecules, as they explain in the scientific journal Physical Review Letters. 

CFEL is a cooperation of DESY, the University of Hamburg, and the Max Planck Society.

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The molecules (green stream) enter the test chamber with random orientation and are forced to all take up the same pose by an optical laser (red). A bright X-ray flash (blue) produces a diffraction image (upper right) that contains structural information about the molecule. Credit: Stephan Stern/CFEL