Popular Science – orizontchem

This Year in Science 2016

Nano-spike catalysts convert carbon dioxide directly into ethanol

Date: October 12, 2016 Source: Oak Ridge National Laboratory Summary: In a new twist to waste-to-fuel technology, scientists have developed an electrochemical process that uses tiny spikes of carbon and copper to turn carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, into ethanol. In a new twist to waste-to-fuel technology, scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed …

Clean Energy from Water

Date: October 30, 2015 Source: University of Chicago Summary: An inexpensive method for generating clean fuel is the modern-day equivalent of the philosopher’s stone. One compelling idea is to use solar energy to split water into its constituent hydrogen and oxygen and then harvest the hydrogen for use as fuel. But splitting water efficiently turns out to be not …

Artificial leaf harnesses sunlight for efficient fuel production

Date: August 28, 2015 Source: California Institute of Technology Summary: A new solar fuel generation system, or artificial leaf, safely creates fuel from sunlight and water with record-setting efficiency and stability. Generating and storing renewable energy, such as solar or wind power, is a key barrier to a clean-energy economy. When the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP) was …

Ultrafast aluminum battery

Date: April 6, 2015 Source: Stanford University Summary: Scientists have invented the first high-performance aluminum battery that’s fast-charging, long-lasting and inexpensive. Researchers say the new technology could replace many lithium-ion and alkaline batteries in wide use today. Sanford University scientists have invented the first high-performance aluminum battery that’s fast-charging, long-lasting and inexpensive. Researchers say the new technology offers a safe …

Molecule-making machine

Date: March 12, 2015 Source: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Summary: A new molecule-making machine could do for chemistry what 3-D printing did for engineering: Make it fast, flexible and accessible to anyone. Chemists built the machine to assemble complex small molecules at the click of a mouse, like a 3-D printer at the molecular level. The automated process has …

Is natural gas a ‘bridge’ to a hotter future?

Date: December 8, 2014 Source: Carnegie Institution Summary: Natural gas power plants produce substantial amounts of gases that lead to global warming. Replacing old coal-fired power plants with new natural gas plants could cause climate damage to increase over the next decades, unless their methane leakage rates are very low and the new power plants are very efficient. These are …

Self-cleaning metals

Laser-generated surface structures create extremely water-repellent, self-cleaning metals Date: January 20, 2015 Source: University of Rochester Summary: Scientists have used lasers to transform metals into extremely water repellent, or super-hydrophobic, materials without the need for temporary coatings. University of Rochester ‘s Professor Chunlei Guo has developed a technique that uses lasers to render materials hydrophobic, illustrated in this image of …

Rice-sized laser

Rice-sized laser, powered one electron at a time, bodes well for quantum computing Date: January 15, 2015 Source: Princeton University Researchers have built a rice grain-sized microwave laser, or ‘maser,’ powered by single electrons that demonstrates the fundamental interactions between light and moving electrons. It is a major step toward building quantum-computing systems out of semiconductor materials. The device demonstrates …

Quantum Teleportation

A new distance record has been set in the strange world of quantum teleportation. In a recent experiment, the quantum state (the direction it was spinning) of a light particle instantly traveled 15.5 miles (25 kilometers) across an optical fiber, becoming the farthest successful quantum teleportation feat yet. Advances in quantum teleportation could lead to better Internet and communication security, …