For years, researchers have worked to repurpose excess atmospheric carbon dioxide into new chemicals, fuels and other products traditionally made from hydrocarbons harvested from fossil fuels. The recent push to mitigate the climactic effects of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has chemists on their toes to find the most efficient means possible. A new study introduces an electrochemical reaction, enhanced by polymers, to improve CO2-to-ethylene conversion efficiency over previous attempts.
Credit: Daria Sokol/MIPT Press Office
Russian researchers have proposed a new method for synthesizing high-quality graphene nanoribbons a material with potential for applications in flexible electronics, solar cells, LEDs, lasers, and more. Presented in
The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, the original approach to chemical vapor deposition, offers a higher yield at a lower cost, compared with the currently used nanoribbon self-assembly on noble metal substrates.
Silicon-based electronics are steadily approaching their limits, and one wonders which material could give our devices the next big push. Graphene, the 2D sheet of carbon atoms, comes to mind but for all its celebrated electronic properties, it does not have what it takes: Unlike silicon, graphene does not have the ability to switch between a conductive and a nonconductive state. This defining characteristic of semiconductors like silicon is crucial for creating transistors, which underlie all of electronics.
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2, has a superconducting transition at 8K, a relatively high temperature for an HEA. The team s approach may be applied to discovering new superconducting materials with specific desirable properties.
It s been over a hundred years since the discovery of
superconductivity, where certain materials were found to suddenly show minimal resistance to electrical currents below a transition temperature. As we explore ways to eliminate power waste, a way to dramatically reduce losses in power transmission is a fascinating prospect. But the widespread use of superconductivity is held back by the demands of existing superconductors, particularly the low temperatures required. Scientists need a way to discover new superconducting materials without brute-force trial and error, and tune key properties.
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IMAGE: False-colour electron microscope image of the sample, the green layers are graphene on top of the grey superconductor. The blue metal electrodes are used to extract the entangled electrons view more
Credit: Aalto University
A joint group of scientists from Finland, Russia, China and the USA have demonstrated that temperature difference can be used to entangle pairs of electrons in superconducting structures. The experimental discovery, published in
Nature Communications, promises powerful applications in quantum devices, bringing us one step closer towards applications of the second quantum revolution.
The team, led by Professor Pertti Hakonen from Aalto University, has shown that the thermoelectric effect provides a new method for producing entangled electrons in a new device. Quantum entanglement is the cornerstone of the novel quantum technologies. This concept, however, has puzzled many physicists over the years, including Albert Einstein who worr
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IMAGE: Adding antioxidants can push the resolution limit of polymer electron microscopy to reveal a structure smaller in scale (blue) compared to the structure previously observed (pink) in this false-color image.. view more
Credit: Brooke Kuei, Penn State
Reactive molecules, such as free radicals, can be produced in the body after exposure to certain environments or substances and go on to cause cell damage. Antioxidants can minimize this damage by interacting with the radicals before they affect cells.
Led by Enrique Gomez, professor of chemical engineering and materials science and engineering, Penn State researchers have applied this concept to prevent imaging damage to conducting polymers that comprise soft electronic devices, such as organic solar cells, organic transistors, bioelectronic devices and flexible electronics. The researchers published their findings in