The semimetal—one part cerium, four parts ruthenium, and six parts tin—seems to be naturally quantum critical, meaning it sits at the edge of multiple phases of matter
Chemical Reactions on Nanoparticle Surface are More Complex than Thought
Written by AZoNanoMay 24 2021
A majority of commercially available chemicals are created with the help of catalysts. Generally, such catalysts contain very small metal nanoparticles that are positioned on an oxidic support.
(a) Modern catalysts consist of nanoparticles. (b) A Rhodium tip as a model for a nanoparticle. (c) Tracing a chemical reaction in real time with a field emission microscope. (d) At low temperatures, different facets oscillate in sync. (e) At higher temperatures, synchronicity is broken. Image Credit: Vienna University of Technology.
A catalytic nanoparticle is analogous to a cut diamond, the surface of which contains varied facets that are oriented in various directions. Besides this, the nanoparticle has crystallographically different facets and such facets can have varied chemical characteristics.
Real ivory on the left, 3D-printed Digory material on the right. Photo Credit: Vienna University of Technology
Most of us love the look and feel of ivory, but we hate the source: the tusks (traditionally elephants’) and teeth of animals, which has led to widespread animal slaughter over the centuries.
And while the ivory trade was banned internationally in 1989 to protect elephant populations, there is still a demand for the hard, white material, both to restore ivory parts of old art objects and also to create new objects with the same look and feel. Substitute materials such as bones, shells and plastic have all be used, but the results vary.
Public Domain Mark/Wellcome Collection
Marie Curie was a physicist and chemist who became the first woman to win a Nobel prize. Along with her husband Pierre, she discovered two elements: polonium and radium. She also carried out pioneering research into radioactivity. At the time no one knew about the effects of radioactivity on the body, so they handled the elements they used in their research without any of the precautions or protective clothing we would use today. Curie even kept vials of what she was working on in her pockets or her desk drawers. More than 100 years after their discoveries, the couple’s notebooks are still so radioactive they have to be kept in lead-lined boxes and handled only while wearing protective clothing.
New Catalyst for Lower CO2 Emissions Details
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If the CO2 content of the atmosphere is not to increase any further, carbon dioxide must be converted into something else.
If the CO2 content of the atmosphere is not to increase any further, carbon dioxide must be converted into something else. However, as CO2 is a very stable molecule, this can only be done with the help of special catalysts. The main problem with such catalysts has so far been their lack of stability: after a certain time, many materials lose their catalytic properties.
At TU Wien, research is being conducted on a special class of minerals - the perovskites, which have so far been used for solar cells, as anode materials or electronic components rather than for their catalytic properties. Now scientists at TU Wien have succeeded in producing a special perovskite that is excellently suited as a catalyst for converting CO2 into other useful substances, such as synthetic fuels. T