Latest Redox Stories
An international team, of scientists, led by a team at Monash University has found the key to the hydrogen economy could come from a very simple mineral, commonly seen as a black stain on rocks.Their findings, developed with the assistance of researchers at UC Davis in the USA and using the facilities at the Australian Synchrotron, was published in the journal Nature Chemistry yesterday 15 May 2011.Professor Leone Spiccia from the School of Chemistry at Monash University said the ultimate...
New method allows for more precise control over ATRP, a popular technique used for creating specialized plasticsScientists led by Carnegie Mellon University chemist Krzysztof Matyjaszewski are using electricity from a battery to drive atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP), a widely used method of creating industrial plastics. The environmentally friendly approach, reported in the April 1 issue of Science, represents a breakthrough in the level of control scientists can achieve over the...
Reducing the ability of certain bacteria to fix carbon dioxide can greatly increase their production of hydrogen gas that can be used as a biofuel. Researchers from the University of Washington, Seattle, report their findings in the current issue of online journal mBio®."Hydrogen gas is a promising transportation fuel that can be used in hydrogen fuel cells to generate an electric current with water as the only waste product," says Caroline Harwood, who conducted the study with...
Inexpensive hydrogen for automotive or jet fuel may be possible by mimicking photosynthesis, according to a Penn State materials chemist, but a number of problems need to be solved first."We are focused on the hardest way to make fuel," said Thomas Mallouk, Evan Pugh Professor of Materials Chemistry and Physics. "We are creating an artificial system that mimics photosynthesis, but it will be practical only when it is as cheap as gasoline or jet fuel."Splitting water into...
The Terminator. The Borg. The Six Million Dollar Man. Science fiction is ripe with biological beings armed with artificial capabilities. In reality, however, the clunky connections between living and non-living worlds often lack a clear channel for communication. Now, scientists with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have designed an electrical link to living cells engineered to shuttle electrons across a cell's membrane to an external acceptor along a well-defined...
The "mineral-breathing" bacteria found in many oxygen-free environments may be "carbon-breathing" as well.Oxygen-free, or anaerobic, environments contain microbes sometimes described as "mineral-breathing" because they use iron oxides and other minerals in the same way we use oxygen. According to a study published online May 23 in the journal Nature Geoscience, this bacterial respiration may be accelerated by solid organic compounds in the soil.Led by University...
Emory University chemists have developed the most potent homogeneous catalyst known for water oxidation, considered a crucial component for generating clean hydrogen fuel using only water and sunlight. The breakthrough, published March 11 in the journal Science, was made in collaboration with the Paris Institute of Molecular Chemistry.The fastest, carbon-free molecular water oxidation catalyst (WOC) to date "has really upped the standard from the other known homogeneous WOCs," said...
New insight into how nature handles some fundamental processes is guiding researchers in the design of tailor-made proteins for applications such as artificial photosynthetic centers, long-range electron transfers, and fuel-cell catalysts for energy conversion.From rusting iron to forest fires to the beating of a human heart, oxidation-reduction reactions, which transfer electrons from one atom to another, are at the heart of many chemical and biological processes. Each process requires a...
Dartmouth researchers link it to catalytic convertersDartmouth researchers have determined that the presence of the rare element osmium is on the rise globally. They trace this increase to the consumption of refined platinum, the primary ingredient in catalytic converters, the equipment commonly installed in cars to reduce smog. A volatile form of osmium is generated during platinum refinement and also during the normal operation of cars, and it gets dispersed globally through the...
A small-scale study found kiwifruit is among the highest in bioavailability compared to other anti-oxidant-rich fruits and berries, U.S. researchers said. Researchers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Arkansas Children's Nutrition Center in Little Rock performed a comparison of kiwifruit, red grapes and strawberries. The study, published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition, found that kiwifruit provided for an anti-oxidant intake score of 12.5, compared to grapes at...
