Nataliyamalikite: You Did Not Know: Now You Do

Summit of the Avacha volcano, Kamchatka, Far
East Russia. Yellow sulphur
deposits rim the frozen lava lake. The high temperature
fumaroles, white smoke,
deposit unusual minerals, including, Nataliyamalikite.
Image: Joël Brugger
|| July 04: 2017:
Monash
University
News || ά.
In the harshest of environments in far-east Russia, Monash
scientists have played a leading role in the discovery of a
new mineral, which could revolutionise the future of the
mining industry. The mineral, Nataliyamalikite, is new
and did not exist before, explains Professor Joël Brugger,
the Lead Author in a recently published paper in American
Mineralogist.
It contains thallium, a rare heavy metal most famous for its
qualities as a poison. “The discovery of this new mineral
means we will be able to better understand how metals are
extracted from deep-seated sources within our planet, and
concentrated at shallow levels to form economic ore
deposits.” Professor Brugger said. “This will give us a
unique insight into the processes responsible for the
geochemical evolution of our planet.
“And this understanding is required to sustain mining, a key
to Australia’s ongoing economic prosperity.” Professor
Brugger said. A significant part of the recently published
paper is about the formal description and naming of the new
mineral, a process overseen by the International
Mineralogical Association.
“Our Russian colleague was the first to see the mineral
under the electron microscope.” Professor Brugger said.
“However, Monash was key to making the naming of the new
mineral possible: we combined state-of-the-art sample
preparation at our Monash Centre for Electronic Microscopy
facility, along with the unique capabilities of the
Australian Synchrotron, to obtain the crystal structure of
the mineral.
“Understanding the crystal structure is akin to getting the
full genome of the new mineral.” Professor Brugger said.
“And in the case of Nataliyamalikite this was incredibly
difficult as the grains are tiny and almost invisible.”
The new mineral was discovered in the Kamchatka Peninsula,
one of the most active volcanic zones in the world,
featuring 160 volcanoes including 29 that are active.
According to Professor Brugger, who spent six weeks in the
region, it is, also, one of the few remaining wild oases on
this planet, a result of politics, off-limit for a long time
due to its military significance for the Soviets, as well
as, geographical isolation, no road connection to mainland
Russia and harsh climate.
Around 150 new minerals are discovered around the world
every year and the recently published article by Professor
Brugger marks the official birth of one of them.
ω.
Whatever Your Field of
Work and Wherever in the World You are, Please, Make a Choice to Do All You Can
to Seek and Demand the End of Death Penalty For It is Your Business What is Done
in Your Name. The Law That Makes Humans Take Part in Taking Human Lives and That
Permits and Kills Human Lives is No Law. It is the Rule of the Jungle Where Law
Does Not Exist.
The Humanion
||
Readmore
||
‽: 050717
||
Up
||
Not
the April Thesis: This Three Minute Thesis

Image: University of Edinburgh
|| July 02: 2017:
University of Edinburgh
News || ά.
On May 09, under the headline,
The Ninth of May Three Minute Thesis: Please, Read This and Head
to Research Without Borders at the University of Bristol: Until
May 12, The Humanion published the following: ''One, having been raised and having to live by and in a
socio-cultural sphere of absolutely hammered in
brick-cement-nail-plaster-pacifism, cynicism, distrust,
mistrust, pseudo-mistrust, pseudo-brewed anger, self-inflicting-self-fulfilling-prophecy
of destructive, negative and horrible a future, looking for, not
finding but making something or anything or anyone or everyone
but one's self to blame and hate attitude and expect the worst
possible of all, everything and everyone because one has
accepted the worst in and of oneself, and thus, one sees the
world around one as oneself, is responsible for the state of any
country or nation where, now, even if the most awe inspiring
human being stands to say that it is possible to change this
state, into million times better a state and billion times more
beautiful a state and this human being shows how it is possible
and achievable everyone in that nation, in that country will
stand and say: you are a liar and cheat. They will find nothing
to 'blame' him so that they get even more angry in the
'defamation' that this human soul has supposedly caused them.
And they say, ''How dare you disappoint us: We expected, made up
and demanded that you be a cheat, a liar, a self serving bug, an
imposter and horrible person and you dare to come here and
disappoint us by being none of that.
You dare to take us out of our
'comfortable' misery! And according to this, The Ninth of May
Three Minute Thesis, this nation, this country cannot blame
anyone else for their misery but themselves. How does such a
nation ever get out of this misery? Tell them, this nation, this
country, that is replicated by many, many, many, that they still
have an infinite source of light, they still have hope in the
children, who are their saviours. In The Mad Man's Diary Short
Story by Lu Xun, the Mad Man pleads to the world to Save the
Children. It is the children, who will save such nation, such
country by showing them, how astonishing humanity is and how
impossible a beautiful thing it is to believe, to have faith, to
have the power to wonder, to ask, how, why, what if, why not,
where, by what and to be able to exclaim: how beautiful this is
or look the fish has jumped out of the water and the fire of
light has caught on its tail or look how the butterfly's image
is swimming in the water where the submerged skies and clouds
are moving like dancing fishes as the wind blows. Or, look,
there's a moon next to your face or your eyes have bloomed as if
they are the photon-roses. And, here is the Ninth of May Three
Minute Thesis. Dear Reader, please, do not blame us, blame the
University of Bristol! They started it! How: This Friday
afternoon the members of Bristol public are invited to immerse
themselves in a wealth of advanced local research with a
dynamic and interactive showcase, followed by a fast and furious
Three-Minute Thesis competition. See! But Our Three Minute
thesis is not open for any award or prize or accolade but for
our Readers to wonder about. And as you do ponder, this is an
invite, please, if you can,
do join these events.''
This piece, that follows,
however, is not about the University of Bristol but the
University of Edinburgh. And there the story is of the
Three-Minute-Thesis.
A doctoral student from the School of Chemistry has won
two prizes in the University’s Three- Minute Thesis competition.
The final of the contest, in which PhD students vie to deliver
the best research presentation in three minutes using one slide,
took place in the Informatics Forum. The competition winner was
Mr Euan Doidge from the School of Chemistry with his
presentation ‘WEEE are Golden: metal recovery by solvent
extraction’. Mr Doidge will now go on to represent the
University in the UK and Universitas 21 competitions. The
contest’s runner-up was Ms Issy MacGregor from the MRC Institute
of Genetics and Molecular Medicine with her presentation
‘Meiotic Recombination: The Great Genetic Bake Off’. The
audience members also voted to award the People’s Choice prize
to Mr Euan Doidge. Nine finalists from the University’s three
Colleges competed in the sell-out final, which was streamed live
online. They included Ms Isobel MacGregor and Mr Toby Gurran
from MRC Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine and Ms
Laura Glendinning from the Roslin Institute.
Also, taking part were Ms Lulu Tucker from the School of
Chemistry and Ms Jennifer Dodoo from the School of Engineering.
Mr William Kerr and Mr Tim Squirrell from the School of Social
and Political Science competed, alongside Ms Vanitha Subramaniam
from the School of Health in Social Science.
First developed by the University of Queensland in 2008, the
Three-MT competition challenges research students to
communicate the significance of their projects to a
non-specialist audience. It enables doctoral students to
showcase their work and can open doors to new collaborations
and networks for researchers and supervisors.
ω.
About 3 Minute Thesis
Institute for Academic Development
Whatever Your Field of
Work and Wherever in the World You are, Please, Make a Choice to Do All You Can
to Seek and Demand the End of Death Penalty For It is Your Business What is Done
in Your Name. The Law That Makes Humans Take Part in Taking Human Lives and That
Permits and Kills Human Lives is No Law. It is the Rule of the Jungle Where Law
Does Not Exist.
The Humanion
||
Readmore ||
‽: 030717
||
Up
||
Scientists Unlock Four-Fold Increase in Performance of a
Green Energy Catalyst

Colourised transmission electron microscopy
of ceria ultrathin film shows that individual atoms shown
as dots shift under intense pressure. Image: Sang Chui Lee.
|| May 21: 2017: Trinity College Dublin News
|| ά.
A tiny amount of squeezing or stretching can produce a big
boost in catalytic performance, according to a new
collaborative study involving scientists from Trinity
College Dublin, Stanford University, SLAC National
Accelerator Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory and the University of Pennsylvania. The
discovery, published in the journal Nature Communications,
focuses on an industrial catalyst, known as cerium oxide or
ceria, a spongy material, commonly used in catalytic
converters, self-cleaning ovens and various green-energy
applications, such as fuel cells and solar water splitters.
Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at
Stanford and a faculty scientist at SLAC, Will Chueh, was
Co-author. He said, “Ceria stores and releases oxygen as
needed, like a sponge. We discovered that stretching and
compressing ceria by a few percent dramatically increases
its oxygen storage capacity. This finding overturns
conventional wisdom about oxide materials and could lead to
better catalysts.” Ceria has long been used in catalytic
converters to help remove air pollutants from vehicle
exhaust systems. It essentially takes oxygen from poisonous
nitrogen oxide to create harmless nitrogen gas.
The ceria then releases stored oxygen and converts lethal
carbon monoxide into benign carbon dioxide. Studies have
shown that squeezing and stretching ceria causes nanoscale
changes that affect its ability to store oxygen. In
particular, it has been suggested that stretching ceria
would increase its capacity to store oxygen, whereas
compressing it would decrease this capacity.
To test this prediction, the research team grew ultrathin
films of ceria, each just a few nanometers thick, on top of
substrates made of different materials. This process
subjected the ceria to enormous stress equal to 10,000 times
the Earth’s atmosphere and caused the molecules of ceria to
separate and squeeze together a distance of less than one
nanometer.
Surprise results
Typically, materials like ceria relieve stress by forming
defects in the film. But atomic-scale analysis showed a
surprise. Analysis of the position of individual atoms
showed that the films of ceria remained stretched or
compressed without forming any defects, allowing the stress
to remain in full force.
To measure and rationalise the impact of stress under
real-world operating conditions, the researchers then used
the brilliant beams of X-ray light produced at Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory’s Advanced Light Source along
with supercomputers. The results were even more surprising.
Ussher Assistant Professor in the School of Chemistry at
Trinity College Dublin, Max García Melchor, said, “Whether
we stretched or compressed the ceria we found that the
strained films showed a fourfold increase in oxygen
capacity, which is pretty huge. There are a lot of potential
applications for this in using catalysis to improve the
efficiency of energy conversion and storage, including in
green-energy technologies.”
“We hope that we may use this discovery to develop new clean
fuels from carbon dioxide or water to power our cars and
homes, for example.”
ω.
Whatever Your Field of
Work and Wherever in the World You are, Please, Make a Choice to Do All You Can
to Seek and Demand the End of Death Penalty For It is Your Business What is Done
in Your Name. The Law That Makes Humans Take Part in Taking Human Lives and That
Permits and Kills Human Lives is No Law. It is the Rule of the Jungle Where Law
Does Not Exist.
The Humanion
|| Readmore ||
‽: 220517
||
Up
||
Well
Aligned Tellurium Nanowires Realise High Performance
Photo-Detector

Figure One:a: SEM image of as-prepared Te
Nanowires.
Inset shows the diameter distribute of the product.
One:b: Time dependent photocurrent response to 980 nm
pulsed incident light with a period of 60 s under
77 K and bias voltages of 1.0 V. Image: Zhong Binnian
|| April 18: 2017: Chinese Academy of Sciences News || ά. A Chinese
research team, led by Professor Fei Guangtao, from Institute
of Solid State Physics, Hefei Institutes of Physical
Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, reported a facile
route to synthesise uniform Tellurium Nanowires:TeNWs in
large quantity by a PVP-assisted solvo-thermal process under
mild conditions, which was accepted as back cover image of
Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics. According to studies,
one-dimensional nanomaterials, such as nanowires:NWs,
nanorods, nanotubes, have been intensively explored due to
their fundamental properties and potential applications.
Among them, as a narrow direct band gap
semiconductor, 0.35 eV, tellurium:Te displays interesting
optical properties. Currently, considerable efforts have
been made to synthesise the Te nanomaterials by
solution-based approaches, however, which have drawbacks,
such as the hazardous chemicals, such as NaBH4, NH2OH,
N2H4·H2O and NH4:2:S2 as reducing agents and extreme
operating conditions. Low-temperature green chemical
synthesis in aqueous solution is highly desirable because it
is an environmentally benign and user-friendly approach,
which, may be, considered to be a relatively practical
alternative for industrialisation.
It has been shown that most advantageous nano-device
configuration requires either a single or a few NWs running
parallel to build up a well-defined conduction channel
between two electrodes so that such properties can be easily
modulated by external stimuli, such as light illumination
and magnetic field.
Oil-water interfacial self-assembly is a powerful bottom-up
approach for arranging most low-dimensional nanostructures
in ordered array. This assembly strategy effectively opens
the door for the self-assembly of hydrophilic nanostructures
into closely-packed nanofilms.
In their work, the SEM image of the Te nanowires and the
diameter distribute of the nanowires are shown in Figure
One:a. Then assembled the Te NWs into ordered alignment
through stirring-assisted assembling method.
After that, photodetectors, based on well aligned Te NWs
film were fabricated. Time dependent photocurrent response
to 980 nm pulsed incident light with a period of 60 s under
77 K and bias voltages of 01.0 V. The responsivity can reach
86.52 A:W at bias voltage of 01.0 V.
The photodetector, based on the well aligned Te NWs film had
a series of more excellent photoelectric properties than
that being randomly oriented. For example, the
photoresponsivity of the forward is 103 times larger and the
response time is 01.15×103 times shorter than the latter.
The study is sponsored by National Basic Research Programme
of China, the National Natural Science Foundation of China,
the CAS:SAFEA International Partnership Programme for
Creative Research Teams and the Foundation of Director of
Institute of Solid State Physics, Chinese Academy of
Sciences.
ω.
Whatever Your Field of
Work and Wherever in the World You are, Please, Make a Choice to Do All You Can
to Seek and Demand the End of Death Penalty For It is Your Business What is Done
in Your Name. The Law That Makes Humans Take Part in Taking Human Lives and That
Permits and Kills Human Lives is No Law. It is the Rule of the Jungle Where Law
Does Not Exist.
The Humanion
||
Readmore ||
‽: 190417
||
Up
||
How to
Capture Selectively: That Is the Question

Amaze. Copyright ESA-N. Vicente
|| April 13: 2017:
Swansea
University
News
|| ά.
Natural gas producers want to draw all the methane they can
from a well while sequestering as much carbon dioxide as
possible and could use filters, that optimise either carbon
capture or methane flow. No single filter will do both. Now
Scientists based at Swansea University and Rice University
in Texas, know how to fine-tune sorbents for their needs.
Subtle adjustments in the manufacture of a polymer-based
carbon sorbent make it the best-known material either for
capturing the greenhouse gas or balancing carbon capture
with methane selectivity, according to Chemist Professor
Andrew Barron of Rice and Swansea Universities.
The specifics are in a paper this month by Professor Barron
and Rice University research scientist Saunab Ghosh in the
Royal Society of Chemistry journal Sustainable Energy and
Fuels. "The challenge is to capture as much carbon as
possible while allowing methane to flow through at typical
wellhead pressures." Professor Barron said. "We've defined
the parameters in a map, that gives industry the best set of
options to date." Previous work by the lab determined that
carbon filters maxed out their capture ability with a
surface area of 2,800 square metres per gram and a pore
volume of 01.35 cubic centimetres per gram.
They, also, discovered the best carbon capture material
didn't achieve the best trade-off between carbon and methane
selectivity. ''With the new work, they know how to tune the
material for one or the other.'' Professor Barron said. "The
traditional approach has been to make materials with
ever-increasing pore volume and relate this to a better
adsorbent; however, it appears to be a little more subtle."
he said.
The lab made its latest filters by heating a polymer
precursor and then treating it with a chemical activation
reagent of potassium, oxygen and hydrogen, aka KOH. When the
polymer is baked with KOH at temperatures over 500 degrees
Celsius, 932 degrees Fahrenheit, it becomes a highly porous
filter, full of nanoscale channels, that can trap carbon.
The ratio of KOH to polymer during processing turned out to
be the critical factor in determining the final filter's
characteristics. Making filters with a 03-to-01 ratio of KOH
to polymer gave it a surface area of 2,700 square metres per
gram and maximised carbon dioxide uptake under pressures of
five to 30 bar. One bar is slightly less than the average
atmospheric pressure at sea level.
Filters made with a 02-to-01 ratio of KOH to polymer had
less surface area, 2,200 square metres per gram and a lower
pore volume. That resulted in the optimum combination of
carbon dioxide uptake and methane selectivity.
The size of the pores was critical as well. Filters with
maximum carbon uptake had the largest fraction of pores
smaller than 02 nanometres. Bigger pores were better for
methane selectivity.
"It appears that total pore volume is less important than
the relative quantity of pores at specific sizes." Professor
Barron said. "Our goal was to create a guide for researchers
and industry to design better materials.
Not only can these materials be used for carbon dioxide
separation from natural gas but they are, also, models for
carbon dioxide sequestration in a natural resource. This is
the future direction of our research."
Professor Barron is the Charles W. Duncan Jr. Welch
Professor of Chemistry and a Professor of Materials Science
and Nanoengineering at Rice University. ω.
Whatever Your Field of
Work and Wherever in the World You are, Please, Make a Choice to Do All You Can
to Seek and Demand the End of Death Penalty For It is Your Business What is Done
in Your Name. The Law That Makes Humans Take Part in Taking Human Lives and That
Permits and Kills Human Lives is No Law. It is the Rule of the Jungle Where Law
Does Not Exist.
The Humanion
||
Readmore ||
‽: 140417
||
Up
||
Photocatalyst Development for Highly Selective Carbon
Dioxide Conversion

Illustration for the selective conversion of
carbon dioxide, based on the lattice
engineering of catalytic sites in photocatalysts: Image:
Xiong Yujie and Journal
of the American Chemical Society
|| April 02: 2017:
University of Science and Technology of China
News
|| ά.
A significant increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels
during the past decades has been widely recognised as a
global environment problem. For this reason, a large number
of investigations have been performed for the reduction of
carbon dioxide. In particular, the photocatalytic conversion
of carbon dioxide with water into methane is an appealing
approach, which allows the transformation of carbon dioxide
into a carbon-neutral fuel by harvesting solar energy.
Despite the promising future, this approach has faced a
grand challenge in terms of reaction activity and
selectivity. Most recently, the research group led by
Professor Xiong Yujie at the University of Science and
Technology of China, has discovered that the isolation of
copper sites in palladium lattice promotes the conversion
selectivity of carbon dioxide to methane, based on the
lattice engineering on the catalytic sites of photocatalysts.
This work has been published in Journal of the American
Chemical Society.
The activity and selectivity have yet to be significantly
improved for two reasons: i: carbon dioxide molecules
possess very low reactivity in chemical transformations,
limiting the catalytic activity; and ii: multiple side
reactions, such as the reduction of carbon dioxide to carbon
monoxide and the hydrogen evolution from water reduction
simultaneously take place, lowering the reaction
selectivity.
Previous studies indicate that copper sites exhibit
excellent performance in the adsorption and activation of
carbon dioxide molecules and, thus, can serve as catalytic
sites integrated with semiconductor photocatalysts. However,
the metallic Cu materials at the nanoscale heavily suffer
from oxidation and often provide multiple pathways for
catalytic reactions.
To address this grand challenge, Xiong research group has
incorporated single-atom copper sites into palladium
lattice, which can largely prevent the oxidation of copper
sites. Meanwhile, the strong binding of hydrogen to
palladium can suppress hydrogen evolution and other side
reactions in photocatalytic carbon dioxide conversion.
Based on the bimetallic palladium-copper structures, the
researchers have further combined synchrotron
radiation-based X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy
characterization, in-situ infrared spectroscopy detection
and theoretical simulations to establish the
structure-property relationship between catalytic sites and
carbon dioxide conversion performance. Taking titania
photocatalyst as an example, the conversion selectivity
carbon dioxide to methane in photocatalysis achieves 96% by
Pd7Cu1-TiO2.
This design is also applicable to visible-responsive
photocatalysts, which can be implemented in photocatalytic
carbon dioxide conversion under visible illumination. This
work provides fresh insights into the catalytic site design
for selective photocatalytic carbon dioxide conversion, and
highlights the importance of catalyst lattice engineering at
atomic precision to catalytic performance.
Professor Li Song, Professor Junfa Zhu, Professor Zeming Qi
and Professor Jun Jiang made important contributions to the
synchrotron radiation-based X-ray absorption fine structure
spectroscopy, photoelectron spectroscopy, in-situ diffuse
reflectance infrared Fourier-transform spectroscopy
characterisations and theoretical simulations in this work.
This work was financially supported by the 973 Program, NSFC
and CAS Key Research Programme of Frontier Sciences.
ω.
The Paper:
This work has been published in
Journal of the American Chemical Society, J. Am. Chem. Soc.
DOI: 10.1021/jacs.7b00452.
Whatever Your Field of
Work and Wherever in the World You are, Please, Make a Choice to Do All You Can
to Seek and Demand the End of Death Penalty For It is Your Business What is Done
in Your Name. The Law That Makes Humans Take Part in Taking Human Lives and That
Permits and Kills Human Lives is No Law. It is the Rule of the Jungle Where Law
Does Not Exist.
The Humanion
||
Readmore ||
‽: 030417
||
Up
||
Here's
the Molecular Treasure Map: Now Go and Create New Materials
for New Material Stories to Build Cities That Did Not Exist
Yet

Molecular
packing of material discovered using new method.
|| March 27: 2017: University of Southampton News ||
ά.
Scientists at the University of Southampton working with
colleagues at the University of Liverpool have developed a
new method, which has the potential to revolutionise the way
we search for, design and produce new materials. The
researchers used sophisticated computer modelling to map how
molecules assemble and crystallise to form new materials,
each molecule leading to a myriad of possible structures,
each with different properties and possible applications.
This new approach, published in the journal Nature, could
accelerate the discovery of materials for key applications
in energy, pollution control, pharmaceuticals and a host of
other fields. “When an engineer builds a dam or an
aeroplane, the structure is first designed using computers.
This is extremely difficult at the size scale of molecules
or atoms, which often assemble in non-intuitive ways.”
explains
Professor Graeme Day, a
Professor of Chemistry at Southampton. “It is difficult to
design at the atomic scale from scratch and the failure rate
in new materials discovery is high. As chemists and
physicists trying to discover new materials, we often feel
like explorers without reliable maps.”

Professor Andrew Cooper, Director of the Materials
Innovation Factory at the University of Liverpool, says,
“Each molecule has an associated energy surface, which you
can think of as being like the map of a desert island. Some
islands contain treasure in the form of useful new
materials, but most don’t. There is an almost limitless
number of molecules that we could, in principle, make, this
new method tells us which islands to search and what to look
for.”
Unlike engineers, chemists are not truly free to make any
structure that they want: they are limited to discovering
structures, that correspond to the optimised positions of
atoms, known as local minima, on a highly complex energy
surface. This surface can only be fully represented in many
dimensions, so cannot be easily conceptualised.
However, the UK team has combined methods that predict how
molecules will form crystal structures, with computer
simulations that predict the properties of these structures.
The result is relatively simple colour-coded maps which can
be used, by researchers without a computational background,
to locate the best materials for specific applications. For
example, a researcher trying to create a highly porous
material to store a particular gas might use the map to
identify the best molecules that optimise this property.
In the simulations highlighted in their paper, the
researchers applied this new approach to a series of known
and hypothetical molecules, which led to the discovery and
synthesis of materials with large methane storage
capacities, which has ramifications for natural-gas-powered
vehicles. The research also led to the synthesis of the
least dense molecular crystal that has ever been created,
showing how computational methods can be used to discover
unprecedented properties.
The project was funded by the European Research Council and
the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council:EPSRC.
The work was carried out in the UK but the team included
researchers from Spain, China, Poland, Canada and America.
ω.
Images: University of
Southampton
Whatever Your Field of
Work and Wherever in the World You are, Please, Make a Choice to Do All You Can
to Seek and Demand the End of Death Penalty For It is Your Business What is Done
in Your Name. The Law That Makes Humans Take Part in Taking Human Lives and That
Permits and Kills Human Lives is No Law. It is the Rule of the Jungle Where Law
Does Not Exist.
The Humanion
||
Readmore ||
‽: 280317
||
Up
||
What
Can We Make of These Before They Disappear Into the Earth:
Bradford Making Matter Smarter

|| March 19: 2017:
University of Bradford News || ά.
Ground-breaking research, involving the University of
Bradford, into the development of self-healing concrete that
could lead to huge savings in maintenance costs and greater
protection for the UK's infrastructure has received fresh
funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research
Council:EPSRC. The Resilient Materials 4 Life:RM4L project
supported with an investment of £04.7 million by EPSRC, will
look to build on the success of the Materials 4 Life:M4L
project that has led to major advances in the development of
transformative construction materials, such as adaptable,
self-diagnosing and self-healing materials.
RM4L will be led by Cardiff University, the University of
Cambridge, the University of Bath and the University of
Bradford as well as industry partners. The overall project
cost will be around £6 million, including contributions from
partners. M4L was announced in 2013, and led to a number of
developments in the field of these innovative new
technologies, including the UK’s first self-healing concrete
trials using materials such as shape-memory polymers,
microcapsules and flow networks containing mineral-based
healing agents and calcite forming bacteria.
As part of RM4L,
researchers will aim to effect a transformation in
construction materials by using the biomimetic approach
first adopted in M4L to create smart materials that will
adapt to their environment, develop immunity to harmful
actions, self-diagnose the onset of deterioration and
self-heal when damage.
The project’s findings will benefit bodies and companies
responsible for the provision, management and maintenance of
built environment infrastructure, and the researchers will
work with industry partners in the construction supply chain
throughout the duration of RM4L. RM4L represents a further
boost for infrastructure research in the UK, after EPSRC
announced an investment of £125 million to support the
establishment of the UK Collaboratorium for Research on
Infrastructure and Cities:UKCRIC at 14 universities, earlier
this month.
Professor Philip Nelson, Chief Executive of EPSRC, said,
“Resilient Materials 4 Life has the potential to
revolutionise the way our infrastructure copes with
long-term wear and tear and reduce costs significantly.
Moreover, as part of EPSRC’s continuing support for
world-leading research in this vital field it will help,
through the upgrading of the nation’s infrastructure, to
keep the UK a prosperous and resilient nation.”
Professor John Sweeney of the University of Bradford said,
“Here at Bradford we will be developing and producing novel
and sophisticated shape memory polymers. These will form the
basis of a range of smart devices to be incorporated into
structural concrete, to act in conjunction with mechanisms
developed at the partner universities to produce strong and
self-healing civil engineering structures. This is a great
boost to Bradford’s expertise in polymer science and
technology at a national and international level, and
underlines our status as a world-leading technology
University.”
Professor Bob Lark, PI for the project welcomed the news of
the award by saying, “This is a wonderful opportunity to
build on the exciting findings of M4L to ensure that we
address the full range of complex damage and response
scenarios that are experienced by construction materials. We
are confident that our research will have a significant
impact on the sustainability of our infrastructure and we
are very grateful to EPSRC for their vote of confidence in
what we are endeavouring to achieve.” ω.
Whatever Your Field of
Work and Wherever in the World You are, Please, Make a Choice to Do All You Can
to Seek and Demand the End of Death Penalty For It is Your Business What is Done
in Your Name. The Law That Makes Humans Take Part in Taking Human Lives and That
Permits and Kills Human Lives is No Law. It is the Rule of the Jungle Where Law
Does Not Exist.
The Humanion
||
Readmore ||
‽: 200317
||
Up
||
Potential Approach to How Radioactive Elements Could Be
Fished Out of Nuclear Waste

Image: University of Manchester
|| March 17: University of Manchester News 2017
|| ά. University of
Manchester scientists have shown
how arsenic molecules might be used to ‘fish out’ the most
toxic elements from radioactive nuclear waste, a
breakthrough, that could make the decommissioning industry
even safer and more effective. Elizabeth Wildman, a PhD
student in the research group led by Professor Steve Liddle
based at the University, has reported the first examples of
thorium with multiple bonds to arsenic to exist under
ambient conditions on multi-gram scales, where before they
had only been prepared on very small scales at temperatures
approaching that of interstellar space, 03-10 Kelvin.
The finding is to be published in the leading journal Nature
Communications. “Nuclear power could potentially produce far
less carbon dioxide than fossil fuels but the long-lived
waste it produces is radioactive and needs to be handled
appropriately.” said Elizabeth Wildman, from Manchester’s
School of Chemistry. “In order to find ways of separating,
recycling and reducing the volume of nuclear waste, research
has focussed on developing our understanding of how elements
like thorium and uranium interact with elements from around
the periodic table to potentially help improve nuclear waste
clean-up.”
Professor Liddle, Head of Inorganic Chemistry and
Co-Director of the Centre for Radiochemistry Research at the
University, added: “We need to reduce the volume of nuclear
waste in order to make it easier to handle and process it to
remove benign elements or separate the high level from low
level waste.”
This research follows up on previous research published on
uranium-phosphorus, uranium-arsenic, and thorium-phosphorus
chemistry. This latest study looked at how the soft element
arsenic interacts with thorium, because arsenic could in
principle be used in organic molecules that bond to metal
atoms and improve extraction processes.
“There is currently significant interest in using organic
molecules to extract, selectively, metal ions from the
‘soup’ of nuclear waste and fish out the more radioactive
and toxic ones and leave the rest behind. ” he added. “This
requires an understanding of chemical bonding and how the
organic extractants bind to different metals. We can then
exploit this knowledge to achieve separation by having them
selectively bind to one type of metal and remove it from the
soup.
There is mounting evidence that the molecules that are best
at this contain soft donor atoms to the metals. Thus, we
need to understand soft donor-to-metal binding better.
Arsenic is a soft donor, so we have prepared model complexes
with it to understand the nature of the bonding. Until now,
complexes exhibiting multiple bonds between thorium and
arsenic were limited to spectroscopic experiments carried
out at temperatures close to that of interstellar space
03-10 Kelvin, where only a few molecules were made at a
time.
Here, we have made molecules in multi-gram quantities and
they are stable under ambient conditions enabling us to
study them more straightforwardly. We might be able to use
this new knowledge and understanding in a real system in the
future.”
The research was carried out in the School of Chemistry in a
joint project between the universities of Manchester and
Regensburg and was funded and supported by the Royal
Society, European Research Council, Engineering and Physical
Sciences Research Council, and COST.
ω.
The Paper: 'Triamidoamine Thorium-Arsenic Complexes with
Parent Arsenide, Arsinidiide and Arsenido Structural
Motifs': E. P. Wildman, G. Balázs, A. J. Wooles, M. Scheer,
and S. T. Liddle, Nat. Comm., 2017, 8, 14769.
Whatever Your Field of
Work and Wherever in the World You are, Please, Make a Choice to Do All You Can
to Seek and Demand the End of Death Penalty For It is Your Business What is Done
in Your Name. The Law That Makes Humans Take Part in Taking Human Lives and That
Permits and Kills Human Lives is No Law. It is the Rule of the Jungle Where Law
Does Not Exist.
The Humanion
||
Readmore ||
‽: 180317
||
Up
||
New
Metamaterials with Their Sound-Shaping Quality Offer New
Sphere of Potentials

Left Image: Quantal metamaterial bricks.
Right Image: Metamaterial bricks are assembled into a layer
to produce a meta-surface,
which could have applications across healthcare and
entertainment.
Images: University of Sussex
|| February 28: 2017: University of Bristol News || ά. A
super-material that bends, shapes and focuses sound waves
that pass through it has been invented by scientists. The
creation pushes the boundaries of metamaterials, a new class
of finely-engineered surfaces that perform nature-defying
tasks. These materials have already shown remarkable results
with light manipulation, allowing scientists to create a
real-life version of Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak, for
example. But a research team from the Universities of Sussex
and Bristol have now shown that they also work with sound
waves, which could transform medical imaging and personal
audio.
Finely shaped sound fields are used in medical imaging and
therapy as well as in a wide range of consumer products such
as audio spotlights and ultrasonic haptics. The research
published on Monday, February 27 in Nature Communications
shows a simple and cheap way of creating these shaped sound
waves using acoustic metamaterials. The collaborative
research team assembled a metamaterial layer out of lots of
small bricks that each coil up space. The space coiling
bricks act to slow down the sound meaning that incoming
sound waves can be transformed into any required sound
field.
The new metamaterial layers could be used in many
applications. Large versions could be used to direct or
focus sound to a particular location and form an audio
hotspot. Much smaller versions could be used to focus high
intensity ultrasound to destroy tumours deep within the
body. Here, a metamaterial layer could be tailor-made to fit
the body of a patient and tuned to focus the ultrasound
waves where they are needed most. In both cases the layer
could be fitted to existing loudspeaker technology and be
made rapidly and cheaply.
Dr Gianluca Memoli, from the Interact Lab at the University
of Sussex, who led the study, said, “Our metamaterial
bricks can be three-D printed and then assembled together to
form any sound field you can imagine. We also showed how
this can be achieved with only a small number of different
bricks. You can think of a box of our metamaterial bricks as
a do-it-yourself acoustics kit.
Professor Sriram Subramanian, Head of the Interact Lab at
the University of Sussex, added, “We want to create acoustic
devices that manipulate sound with the same ease and
flexibility with which LCDs and projectors do to light. Our
research opens the door to new acoustic devices combining
diffraction, scattering and refraction, and enables the
future development of fully digital spatial sound
modulators, which can be controlled in real time with
minimal resources.”
Bruce Drinkwater, Professor of Ultrasonics in the Department
of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Bristol,
explained, “In the future I think there will be many
exciting applications of this technology. We are now working
on making the metamaterial layers dynamically
reconfigurable. This will mean we can make cheap imaging
systems which could be used either for medical diagnostics
or crack detection.”
Paper: ‘Metamaterial bricks and quantization of
meta-surfaces’ by Memoli, G. et al is published in Nature
Communications.
The work is a
collaboration between computer scientists at the University
of Sussex and engineers from the University of Bristol.
ω.
Whatever Your Field of
Work and Wherever in the World You are, Please, Make a Choice to Do All You Can
to Seek and Demand the End of Death Penalty For It is Your Business What is Done
in Your Name. The Law That Makes Humans Take Part in Taking Human Lives and That
Permits and Kills Human Lives is No Law. It is the Rule of the Jungle Where Law
Does Not Exist.
The Humanion
||
Readmore ||
‽: 010317
||
Up
||
Molecule That Changes Shape as It Passes Between the States
of Liquid and Solid

Image:
University of Warwick
|| February 18: 2017: University of Warwick News || ά. An
advanced Technology has shown how a particular molecule
self-assemble into different forms as it passes between
solution state to solid state and back again, an interesting
phenomenon in science: claims new research by the University
of Warwick. Professor Steven P. Brown from the Department of
Physics, with colleagues in the Department of Chemistry, has
identified that the supramolecular structure of a guanosine
derivative can be different upon passing from the solid
state into the solution state and vice versa.
This defies chemical precedent, as self-assembled structures
driven by the formation of specific intermolecular hydrogen
bonds in solution would be expected to remain the same in
the solid state. The phenomenon has been observed by the
using of advanced nuclear magnetic resonance:NMR facility at
Warwick. In solution state, the guanosine derivative
analysed by the researchers is constituted by quartet-like
molecular structure and scientific intuition would suggests
that this should remain like this in the solid state.
However, upon changing into the solid state, the
supramolecular assembly surprisingly contains both quartet
and ribbon structures. Professor Brown and his colleagues
made this discovery using advanced NMR spectroscopy
technology, which measures the magnetic response of nuclei
at the centre of atoms. The researchers identified the
distinct supramolecular states by spotting varying peaks in
spectra that identify close approach of these magnetic
nuclei in atoms.
Professor Brown comments, “Access to state-of-the-art NMR
infrastructure has enabled us to see with chemical precision
how the guanosine-based molecules self-assemble, thus
revealing the surprising phenomenon of a change in
self-assembly upon going changing from solution to solid and
from solid to solution.”
The University of Warwick’s national solid-state NMR
facility is directed by Professor Brown and a Facility
Executive with scientists from 4 other UK universities - and
was officially launched in 2010. The facility and this
research is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences
Research Council.
The research, ‘Co-existence of Distinct Supramolecular
Assemblies in Solution and in the Solid State’, is published
in Chemistry: A European Journal – and is designated a Very
Important Paper. Professor Brown collaborated with
researchers in Italy and the U.S.A.
ω.
Whatever Your Field of
Work and Wherever in the World You are, Please, Make a Choice to Do All You Can
to Seek and Demand the End of Death Penalty For It is Your Business What is Done
in Your Name. The Law That Makes Humans Take Part in Taking Human Lives and That
Permits and Kills Human Lives is No Law. It is the Rule of the Jungle Where Law
Does Not Exist.
The Humanion
||
Readmore ||
‽: 190217
||
Up
||
The
Magic of the Mushrooms: Or Rather Their Science

|| February 05: 2017: University of
Bristol News || ά. A new review that investigates the
true magic of mushrooms and the many roles they play in
our lives, in science and in nature has been published
by scientists from the University of Bristol. The paper,
which appeared recently in
Studies in Mycology,
covers model organisms used in scientific study, the
edible mushrooms, the decomposers, the deadly and the
toxic, all the way through to the life-saving medicinal
mushrooms important for medicine
The review, led by
Professor Gary Foster
and
Dr Andy Bailey from the
University's
School of Biological Sciences,
covers such areas as the genus
Amanita which
contains some of the most poisonous species of fungi
known. The type-species is
Amanita muscaria,
also known as fly agaric, which has a long history for
use for 'recreational' or cultural purposes, as well as
acknowledged insecticidal properties.
Armillaria species
are also discussed, which includes
A. ostoyae, reportedly the largest organism in the
world, with one fungal colony covering around 965
hectares in an Oregon forest, leading to the name of the
'Humongous Fungus'.
The related
Armillaria mellea is a highly pathogenic mushroom
that is capable of killing mature trees and is the
nightmare of many gardeners both in the UK and around
the world. But
perhaps even more a potential nightmare for many is
Moniliophthora perniciosa
a fungus that puts chocolate production at risk, as the
fungus is responsible for causing ‘Witches Broom
Disease’ in cocoa trees. The fungus causes broom-like
growths to sprout from the upper branches of infected
trees, these then shower infectious spores onto
neighbouring trees and the ground below.
Whilst many will be aware of the
white button mushroom, many may not know the full
secrets of Pleurotus
ostreatus, the oyster mushroom, which is the second
most popular edible mushroom, eaten globally. Not many
people know that this apparently unassuming species is
actually a carnivore. It paralyses and consumes small
worms called nematode worms, gaining valuable nitrogen
from their bodies.
Dr Kate de Mattos-Shipley,
one of the Lead authors, said, "The more time I've spent
researching fungal Biology, the more fascinated I've
become with the modest mushrooms and their relatives,
really quite an astonishing group of organisms. It's
been great working with such an accomplished team trying
to put into words just how unique and important they
are, and I hope through this paper we can convince
others of the same."
And one final example from the review,
Psilocybe semilanceata, which is one of the
best-known psychedelic, or ‘magic’ mushrooms, which
causes hallucinations and distortions in time
perception. Relatives of this species may have been used
ritually as long as 9000 years ago, although the first
record of this exact species being consumed was
accidental rather than intentional, after a London
family went mushroom collecting in St James Park in 1799
and got a bit more than they bargained for!
The review also reflects some of the
research strengths and interest of the Bristol Group,
which ranges from work on edible mushrooms such as the
edible
Agaricus, the white
button mushroom, the pathogenic tree killer Armillaria,
through to the discovery of new antibiotics for human
medicine, such as their work on
Clitopilus.
ω.
Whatever Your Field of
Work and Wherever in the World You are, Please, Make a Choice to Do All You Can
to Seek and Demand the End of Death Penalty For It is Your Business What is Done
in Your Name. The Law That Makes Humans Take Part in Taking Human Lives and That
Permits and Kills Human Lives is No Law. It is the Rule of the Jungle Where Law
Does Not Exist.
The Humanion
||
Readmore ||
‽: 060217
||
Up
||
What are These: Well, These are Silicon Pore Optics
Stacks

Image: cosine
||
January 08: 2017
|| ά.
Stacks of carefully polished, coated and cut silicon wafers, normally
used to manufacture integrated circuits, that will focus
X-rays inside ESA’s Athena space observatory, due for launch
in 2028. Invisible X-rays tell us about the very hot matter
in the Universe, black holes, supernovas and superheated gas
clouds.
But energetic X-rays do not behave like
typical light waves, try to reflect them with a standard
mirror and they are absorbed. Instead, X-rays can only be
reflected at shallow angles, like stones skimming across
water. That means multiple mirrors must be stacked together
to build a telescope. ESA has developed ‘silicon pore
optics’ to see much further into space than the ageing XMM-Newton
X-ray observatory.
This approach is based on industrial silicon wafers, taking
advantage of their stiffness and super-polished surface.
Grooves are cut into the wafers to form pores through which
the X-rays are focused.
A few dozen at a time are stacked
together to form a single mirror module. Many hundreds of
these modules will be combined to form the optics of the
X-ray mission. ω.
Whatever Your Field of
Work and Wherever in the World You are, Please, Make a Choice to Do All You Can
to Seek and Demand the End of Death Penalty For It is Your Business What is Done
in Your Name. The Law That Makes Humans Take Part in Taking Human Lives and That
Permits and Kills Human Lives is No Law. It is the Rule of the Jungle Where Law
Does Not Exist.
The Humanion
||
Readmore ||
‽: 090117
||
Up
||
Ground-Breaking Production Method Could Accelerate
Worldwide Ggraphene Revolution

||
December
17: 2016: University of Exeter
News
|| ά.
An innovative new cheap and simple mass production technique, developed
by the University of Exeter, is set to open up the global
potential of the ‘wonder’ material graphene. A team of
engineers from Exeter’s Centre for Graphene Science have
developed a new method for creating entire device arrays
directly on the copper substrates used for the commercial
manufacture of graphene.
Complete and fully-functional devices can
then be transferred to a substrate of choice, such as
silicon, plastics or even textiles.
Professor David Wright,
from Exeter’s Engineering department and one of the authors
said, “The conventional way of producing devices using
graphene can be time-consuming, intricate and expensive and
involves many process steps including graphene growth, film
transfer, lithographic patterning and metal contact
deposition.
Our new approach is much simpler and has
the very real potential to open up the use of
cheap-to-produce graphene devices for a host of important
applications from gas and bio-medical sensors to
touch-screen displays.”
To demonstrate the new process, the team have produced a
flexible and completely transparent graphene-oxide based
humidity sensor that would cost pennies to produce using
common wafer-scale or roll-to-roll manufacturing techniques,
yet can outperform currently available commercial sensors.
The new research features in the latest online edition of
the Institute of Physics’ respected journal, 2D Materials.
Professor Monica Craciun,
also from Exeter’s engineering department and co-author
added, “The University of Exeter is one of the world’s
leading authorities on graphene, and this new research is
just the latest step in our vision to help create a graphene-driven
industrial revolution.
High-quality, low cost graphene devices
are an integral part of making this a reality, and our
latest work is a truly significant advance that could unlock
graphene’s true potential.”
The Exeter engineering team consisted of Dr. Arseny Alexeev,
Mr. Matthew Barnes, Dr. Karthik Nagareddy and Profs Craciun
and Wright, and the work was carried out as part of the
EU-funded FP7 project CareRAMM.
A simple process for the fabrication of large-area CVD
graphene based devices via selective in situ
functionalization and patterning is published in 2D
Materials online:doi.org/10.1088/2053-1583/4/1/011010.
ω.
Whatever Your Field of
Work and Wherever in the World You are, Please, Make a Choice to Do All You Can
to Seek and Demand the End of Death Penalty For It is Your Business What is Done
in Your Name. The Law That Makes Humans Take Part in Taking Human Lives and That
Permits and Kills Human Lives is No Law. It is the Rule of the Jungle Where Law
Does Not Exist.
The Humanion
||
Readmore ||
‽: 181216
||
Up
||
Nanotranslated Dimensions for Nanomaterials

Image: UCL
|| November
22: 2016: UCL
News
|| ά.
Two-dimensional two-D nanomaterials have been made by dissolving layered
materials in liquids, according to new UCL-led research. The
liquids can be used to apply the two-D nanomaterials over
large areas and at low costs, enabling a variety of
important future applications. Two-D nanomaterials,
such as graphene, have the potential to revolutionise
technology through their remarkable physical properties, but
their translation into real world applications has been
limited due to the challenges of making and manipulating
two-D nanomaterials on an industrial scale.
The new approach, published in Nature Chemistry on November
21, produced single layers of many two-D nanomaterials in a
scalable way. The researchers used the method on a wide
variety of materials, including those with semiconductor and
thermoelectric properties, to create two-D materials that
could be used in solar cells or for turning wasted heat
energy into electrical energy, for example. “Two-D
nanomaterials have outstanding properties and a unique size,
which suggests they could be used in everything from
computer displays to batteries to smart textiles.
Many methods for making and applying
two-D nanomaterials are difficult to scale or can damage the
material, but we’ve successfully addressed some of these
issues. Hopefully our new process will help us realise the
potential of two-D nanomaterials in the future.” explained
study director Dr Chris Howard at UCL Physics & Astronomy.
For the study, funded by the Royal Academy of Engineering
and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council,
the scientists inserted positively charged lithium and
potassium ions between the layers of different materials
including bismuth telluride, Bi2Te3, molybdenum disulphide,
MoS2, and titanium disulphide, TiS2, giving each layer a
negative charge and creating a ‘layered material salt’.
These layered material salts were then gently dissolved in
selected solvents without using chemical reactions or
stirring. This gave solutions of two-D nanomaterial sheets
with the same shape as the starting material but with a
negative charge.
The scientists analysed the contents of the solutions using
atomic force microscopy and transmission electron microscopy
to investigate the structure and thickness of the two-D
nanomaterials. They found that the layered materials
dissolved into tiny sheets of clean, undamaged, single
layers, isolated in solutions.
The team from UCL, University of Bristol, Cambridge Graphene
Centre and École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, were
able to demonstrate that even the two-D nanomaterial sheets,
comprising millions of atoms, made stable solutions rather
than suspensions.
“We didn’t expect such a range of two-D nanomaterials to
form a solution when we simply added the solvent to the
salt, the layered material salts are large but dissolve into
liquid similar to table salt in water. The fact that they
form a liquid along with their negative charge, makes them
easy to manipulate and use on a large scale, which is
scientifically intriguing but also relevant to many
industries.” said first author Dr Patrick Cullen at UCL
Chemical Engineering.
“We’ve shown they can be painted onto surfaces and, when
left to dry, can arrange themselves into different tiled
shapes, which hasn’t been seen before. They can also be
electroplated onto surfaces in much the same way gold is
used to plate metals. We’re looking forward to making
different two-D nanomaterials using our process and trying
them out in different applications as the possibilities are
near endless.” he concluded.
UCL Business PLC:UCLB, the technology commercialisation
company of UCL has patented this research and will be
supporting the commercialisation process.
ω.
Whatever Your Field of
Work and Wherever in the World You are, Please, Make a Choice to Do All You Can
to Seek and Demand the End of Death Penalty For It is Your Business What is Done
in Your Name. The Law That Makes Humans Take Part in Taking Human Lives and That
Permits and Kills Human Lives is No Law. It is the Rule of the Jungle Where Law
Does Not Exist.
The Humanion
||
Readmore ||
‽: 231116
||
Up
||
It's All in the TiN: Nanoparticle Boost for Solar-Powered
Water Heating

A new nanofluid made by WPI‒MANA
researchers from titanium nitride-based:TiN
nanoparticles shows high efficiency in heating water and
generating water vapour from sunlight.
|| November
22: 2016:
WPI-MANA News: Tsukuba: Japan
|| ά.
A highly-efficient, nanoparticle-based method for heating water and
generating water vapour from sunlight is demonstrated by
WPI-MANA scientists in Japan. Solar energy could provide a
renewable, sustainable source of power for our daily needs.
However, even the most advanced solar cells struggle to
achieve energy conversion efficiency of higher than 30%.
While current solar-powered water heaters fare better in
terms of energy efficiency, there are still improvements to
be made if the systems are to be used more widely.
One potential candidate for inclusion in solar water heaters
is 'nanofluid' that is, a liquid containing
specially-designed nanoparticles that are capable of
absorbing sunlight and transforming it into thermal energy
in order to heat water directly. Satoshi Ishii and his
co-workers at the International Centre for Materials
Nanoarchitectonics:WPI-MANA and the Japan Science and
Technology Agency have developed a new nanofluid containing
titanium nitride:TiN nanoparticles, which demonstrates high
efficiency in heating water and generating water vapour.
The team analytically studied the optical absorption
efficiency of a TiN nanoparticle and found that it has a
broad and strong absorption peak thanks to lossy plasmonic
resonances. Surprisingly, the sunlight absorption efficiency
of a TiN nanoparticle outperforms that of a carbon
nanoparticle and a gold nanoparticle.
They then exposed each nanofluid to sunlight and measured
its ability to heat pure water. The TiN nanofluid had the
highest water heating properties, stemming from the resonant
sunlight absorption. It also generated more vapour than its
carbon‒based counterpart. The efficiency of the TiN
nanofluid reached nearly 90%. Crucially, the TiN particles
were not consumed during the process, meaning a TiN‒based
heating system could essentially be self‒sustaining over
time.
TiN nanofluids show great promise in solar heat
applications, with high potential for use in everyday
appliances such as showers. The new design could even
contribute to methods for decontaminating water through
vapourisation.
References: "Titanium nitride nanoparticles as plasmonic
solar heat transducers", S. Ishii, R. P. Sugavaneshwar and
T. Nagao, The Journal of Physical Chemistry C 120 (2016).
DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.5b09604
Contact Information: International Centre for Materials
Nanoarchitectonics:WPI-MANA: National Institute for
Materials Science: 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0044
Japan: Phone: +81-29-860-4710: E-mail: mana-pr at
ml.nims.go.jp.
About MANA: The
International Centre for Materials Nanoarchitectonics:MANA
was one of the nine research centers sponsored by Japan's
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and
Technology:MEXT for the World Premier International Research
Centre Initiative:WPI. The aim of the WPI is to create top
world-level research centres sufficiently attractive to
outstanding researchers from around the world, and MANA was
established under this premise to encourage proactive
science and technology research with a team of excellent
researchers. MANA has been called one of Japan's best
research institutes not only for its research output, but
also for its efforts to internationalise and establish
effective programmes for training young researchers. MANA’s
Vision: Toward a better global future: Pioneering a new
paradigm in materials development
on the basis of 'nanoarchitectonics. MANA’s Mission: Develop
groundbreaking new materials on the basis of 'nanoarchitectonics';
Create a 'melting pot' where top-level researchers gather
from around the world; Foster young scientists who battle to
achieve innovative research; Construct a worldwide network
of nanotechnology research centres.
ω.
Whatever Your Field of
Work and Wherever in the World You are, Please, Make a Choice to Do All You Can
to Seek and Demand the End of Death Penalty For It is Your Business What is Done
in Your Name. The Law That Makes Humans Take Part in Taking Human Lives and That
Permits and Kills Human Lives is No Law. It is the Rule of the Jungle Where Law
Does Not Exist.
The Humanion
||
Readmore
||
‽: 221116
||
Up
||
What Do You Find in Penryn: Rare Knowledge About Rare
Things That are Vitally Important

|| November 18: 2016: University of Exeter
News || ά.
Pioneering new insights into why high
concentrations of some of the most rare and desirable
natural elements, that are vital for the production of
essential environmental, digital and security technologies,
have been discovered. Pivotal new collaborative research,
led by the world-famous Camborne School of Mines, based at
the University of Exeter's Penryn Campus, Cornwall, provides
a ground-breaking explanation of why remarkably high levels
of these crucial earth elements are found at the Songwe Hill
Rare Earth Project in Malawi, Southeast Africa.
The research team insisted that the new
findings could pave the way for mining companies to
significantly increase the likelihood of enhancing the
global security of the supply of critical, yet rare, earth
elements. The innovative findings are published in the
respected journal Ore Geology Reviews.At present, many of
the 15 naturally occurring rare earth elements are essential
components in the vast majority of green and digital
technology production and advances.
These include neodymium, a ‘light rare
earth’ element vital for the production of permanent magnets
in electric cars, wind turbines and smartphones; and ‘heavy
rare earth’ elements such as dysprosium, europium and
terbium which are used in lighting, anti-fraud and safety
technologies. However, all 15 are considered as 'critical
raw materials' by the European Union, due to risks of
disruption to the supply by the dominant global producer,
China.
The new research reveals that the Songwe Hill carbonatite -
an igneous rock containing at least 50 per cent carbonate
minerals – is composed not just of the relatively common
rare earth mineral synchysite, but also the heavy rare
earth-enriched variety of the mineral apatite. This apatite
is the key to why Songwe has a higher content of heavy rare
earths than most other similar types of carbonatite host
rock.
Dr Sam Broom-Fendley, lead author of the study said: “The
occurrence of heavy rare earth rich apatite is particularly
uncommon in carbonatites. Our work indicates that you need
to ‘simmer’ these rocks in hot fluids to cause heavy rare
earth enrichment. This is particularly useful as combined
extraction of both light rare earth minerals and the heavy
rare earth rich apatite creates a well-balanced deposit
potentially suitable to support the growing magnetics
industry.”
The research team employed a variety of techniques including
cathodoluminescence, laser ablation and electron microprobe
analysis, to unravel the sequence of events that formed the
rare mineral apatite. It was conducted in collaboration with
the UK:Canadian exploration company Mkango Resources, who
are working predominantly in Malawi.
William Dawes, CEO of Mkango Resources and co-author of the
paper adds: “Mkango is very pleased to have collaborated on
this pioneering research into heavy rare earth enrichment at
Songwe. Our focus is on developing a new sustainable source
of light and heavy rare earths outside China. Pushing the
boundaries of research into rare earths through
collaborations with leaders in the field is a core theme of
the company’s strategy.”
Frances Wall, Professor of Applied Mineralogy at Camborne
School of Mines said, ‘A better understanding how and where
heavy rare earths can be concentrated helps exploration
companies improve their deposit models and increases the
chances of a new rare earth deposit coming into production.”
The research was funded by the UK’s Natural Environment
Research Council, including its Security of Supply of
Minerals programme.
About the University of Exeter: The University of Exeter is
a Russell Group university that combines world-class
research with very high levels of student satisfaction.
Exeter has over 21,000 students and is in the top one per
cent of universities worldwide. Exeter is also ranked 9th in
The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2017
and 11th in the Guardian University Guide 2017. In the 2014
Research Excellence Framework (REF), the University ranked
16th nationally, with 98% of its research rated as being of
international quality. Exeter was named The Times and The
Sunday Times Sports University of the Year 2015-16, in
recognition of excellence in performance, education and
research. Exeter was The Sunday Times University of the Year
2012-13.
The University will launch its flagship Living Systems
Institute in 2016, a world-class, interdisciplinary research
community that will revolutionise the diagnosis and
treatment of diseases. This follows recent investments of
more than £350 million worth of new facilities across its
campuses in recent years; including landmark new student
services centres, the Forum in Exeter and The Exchange on
the Penryn Campus in Cornwall, together with world-class new
facilities for Biosciences, the Business School and the
Environment and Sustainability Institute.
ω.
Whatever Your Field of
Work and Wherever in the World You are, Please, Make a Choice to Do All You Can
to Seek and Demand the End of Death Penalty For It is Your Business What is Done
in Your Name. The Law That Makes Humans Take Part in Taking Human Lives and That
Permits and Kills Human Lives is No Law. It is the Rule of the Jungle Where Law
Does Not Exist.
The Humanion
||
Readmore
||
‽: 191116
||
Up
||
World’s Smallest Magnifying Glass That Makes It Possible
to See Individual Chemical Bonds Between Atoms

Artist's impression: Image: NanoPhotonics
Cambridge:Bart deNijs
|| November 15: 2016: University of Cambridge
News || ά.
Using the strange properties of tiny particles
of gold, researchers have concentrated light down smaller
than a single atom, letting them look at individual chemical
bonds inside molecules, and opening up new ways to study
light and matter. For centuries, scientists believed that
light, like all waves, couldn’t be focused down smaller than
its wavelength, just under a millionth of a metre. Now,
researchers led by the University of Cambridge have created
the world’s smallest magnifying glass, which focuses light a
billion times more tightly, down to the scale of single
atoms.
In collaboration with European colleagues, the team used
highly conductive gold nanoparticles to make the world’s
tiniest optical cavity, so small that only a single molecule
can fit within it. The cavity, called a ‘pico-cavity’ by the
researchers, consists of a bump in a gold nanostructure the
size of a single atom, and confines light to less than a
billionth of a metre. The results, reported in the journal
Science, open up new ways to study the interaction of light
and matter, including the possibility of making the
molecules in the cavity undergo new sorts of chemical
reactions, which could enable the development of entirely
new types of sensors.
According to the researchers, building nanostructures with
single atom control was extremely challenging. “We had to
cool our samples to -260°C in order to freeze the scurrying
gold atoms.” said Felix Benz, lead author of the study. The
researchers shone laser light on the sample to build the
pico-cavities, allowing them to watch single atom movement
in real time.
“Our models suggested that individual atoms sticking out
might act as tiny lightning rods, but focusing light instead
of electricity.” said Professor Javier Aizpurua from the
Centre for Materials Physics in San Sebastian in Spain, who
led the theoretical section of this work. “Even single gold
atoms behave just like tiny metallic ball bearings in our
experiments, with conducting electrons roaming around, which
is very different from their quantum life where electrons
are bound to their nucleus.” said Professor Jeremy Baumberg
of the NanoPhotonics Centre at Cambridge’s Cavendish
Laboratory, who led the research.
The findings have the potential to open a whole new field of
light-catalysed chemical reactions, allowing complex
molecules to be built from smaller components. Additionally,
there is the possibility of new opto-mechanical data storage
devices, allowing information to be written and read by
light and stored in the form of molecular vibrations.
The research is funded as part of a UK Engineering and
Physical Sciences Research Council:EPSRC investment in the
Cambridge NanoPhotonics Centre, as well as the European
Research Council:ERC and the Winton Programme for the
Physics of Sustainability, and supported by the Spanish
Council for Research:CSIC and the University of the Basque Country:UPV:EHU.
Reference: Felix Benz et al. ‘Single-molecule optomechanics
in ‘pico-cavities’.’ Science 2016. DOI:
10.1126/science.aah5243
:The text in this piece is by University of
Cambridge and is licensed under a Creative
Commons Attribution 4.0 International License:
ω.
Whatever Your Field of
Work and Wherever in the World You are, Please, Make a Choice to Do All You Can
to Seek and Demand the End of Death Penalty For It is Your Business What is Done
in Your Name. The Law That Makes Humans Take Part in Taking Human Lives and That
Permits and Kills Human Lives is No Law. It is the Rule of the Jungle Where Law
Does Not Exist.
The Humanion
||
Readmore
||
‽: 161116
||
Up
||
Better and Stronger: Polymer Breakthrough to Improve
Everyday Used Things

Image: University of Warwick
|| October 22: 2016: University of Warwick News ||
ά.
Medicine, mobile phones, computers and clothes could all be
enhanced using the process for making paint, according to
research by the University of Warwick. A breakthrough in the
understanding of polymers, the molecules from which almost
everything we use is made, is set to make commercial
products, from water bottles to electrical goods, stronger
and more effective for their uses.
Professor David Haddleton from Warwick’s Department of
Chemistry has discovered a way to translate the specific
requirements of a product into its essential molecular
structure. Enacting the same process from which we get
emulsion paint and glue, complex polymers can be
tailor-made, with producers able to write into the code,
essentially, the DNA, of a molecule the exact properties
needed for the final product, weight, strength, shape, size
etc. This will give commercial producers greater control
than ever before over the design of their products by using
their existing infrastructure with a simple modification.
Controlled polymerisation has revolutionised academic
polymer synthesis and traditionally uses one of two
techniques: with sulphur or with copper. Both techniques
have drawbacks, the former using toxic and noxious bad
smelling thiols, and the latter using heavy metal and
catalysts which add cost and complication to new materials.
Emulsion polymerisation is the process used to make emulsion
paint and household glues, using water as solvent. The use
of special macromonomers allows for a new process - sulfur-free
RAFT emulsion polymerization – which eliminates these
problems. It allows complex polymers with good monomer
sequence control to be synthesised in an aqueous
environment, without the use of chemicals containing
sulphur.
Professor Haddleton comments that the breakthrough will have
many commercial uses: “Sulphur-free RAFT allows the use of
commercial processes to make sequence controlled polymers
containing molecular information to be made using large and
uncontaminated processes and I expect this to be of great
interest to the polymer industry for use in nanomedicine to
automotive applications.”
The University of Warwick is a global leader in polymer
research. In 2016, Warwick hosted a polymer chemistry
conference, the biggest of its kind ever to take place in
the UK.
Professor Haddleton leads the Haddleton polymer research
group at Warwick, and he is Editor-in-Chief of Polymer
Chemistry, a new high impact Royal Society of Chemistry
Journal.
The paper, ‘Sequence-controlled methacrylic multiblock
copolymers via sulphur-free RAFT emulsion polymerization’,
is published in Nature Chemistry:doi:10.1038/nchem.2634. ω.
||
Readmore ||
‽: 231016
||
Up
||
All That Glitters is Not Gold But That What Gold is Has
Much Secrets Still to Reveal

|| October 08: 2016: Cardiff University News ||
ά.
A team, led by experts at Cardiff University, has peered
deep inside the structure of a gold catalyst to find the
reason for the material’s remarkable activity. The team,
from the Cardiff Catalysis Institute, have discovered a
cocktail of different sized gold particles within the
catalyst that each contribute, to different degrees, to
gold’s catalytic ability.
Publishing their findings in the journal Nature
Communications, the researchers believe that this unique
insight, a first of its kind, can be used to modify the
production methods of gold catalysts in order to make them
even more efficient at speeding up chemical reactions.
Professor Graham Hutchings, Director of the Cardiff
Catalysis Institute, said: “Ever since we first discovered
gold’s remarkable catalytic ability, we’ve been examining
its detail right down to the nanoscale, one-billionth of a
metre, to find out what gives it these unparalleled
characteristics.”
The team, which also included researchers from Lehigh
University and Tokyo Metropolitan University, have now shown
that within the catalyst there exists a wide distribution of
gold species: nanoparticles larger than one nanometre in
size; sub-nanometre clusters containing less than 20 atoms;
and individual gold atoms.
“We’ve conclusively shown that it is not the particles or
the individual atoms or the clusters which are solely
responsible for the efficient catalysis, but in fact a
combination of all three which each contribute to different
degrees.” continued Professor Hutchings. The research showed
that the sub-nanometre clusters were the most efficient way
of using gold to catalyse reactions, whereas the larger
particles were less efficient and the individual atoms even
less
To arrive at their conclusions, the researchers examined
gold on iron oxide samples under an extremely powerful
electron microscope, and correlated their observations with
the catalytic performance of the samples themselves. The
results showed that the catalytic performance depended on
how the samples were originally prepared, which causes
changes in the gold distributions.
This study was supported by the Japanese Society for the
Promotion of Science which supported Dr Simon Freakley, from
the Cardiff Catalysis Institute, to travel to the lab of
Professor Masatake Haruta, the discoverer of this catalyst
system, to learn about the effect of preparing the catalysts
by different methods.
Qian He, a research fellow at Cardiff University who led the
electron microscope study, said: “In the end, there were
subtle differences in the order and speed in which the
ingredients were added while preparing the material. When
examined under the electron microscope, it was clear that
the two slightly different methods produced quite different
distributions of particles, clusters and dispersed atoms on
the support.”
Professor Hutchings and his team have pioneered research
into gold catalysts in recent years, and made the landmark
discovery that gold is a remarkable catalyst for the
production of vinyl chloride, the main ingredient of PVC.
They found that gold offers an alternative to the
environmentally harmful and toxic mercury catalyst that was
traditionally used in industry.
As a result of Professor Hutchings’ pioneering work, the
gold catalyst has now been commercialised by leading
chemicals company Johnson Matthey and is currently in
production at a purpose built reactor in Shanghai, China.
Current estimates suggest that 20 million tonnes of vinyl
chloride could be manufactured each year using the gold
catalyst. ω.
||
Readmore ||
‽: 091016
||
Up
||
Would Thor Thunder, Or Go Quiet: Elizabeth Wildman
Wonders at Her Lab Results

Image: University of Manchester
|| October 05: 2016: University of Manchester News ||
ά.
A researcher at The University of Manchester has made a
surprise finding after observing variations of a chemical
bond with a radioactive metal called thorium, and this newly
revealed relationship could one day contribute to improving
nuclear fuel management. Elizabeth Wildman, a PhD student in
the research group led by Professor Steve Liddle, has
reported compounds where unusual forms of phosphorus, known
as the Devil’s element, are stabilised by thorium, a
radioactive chemical element named after the Norse god of
thunder, which can be used as a nuclear fuel in the nuclear
power industry.
“This has been an exciting experience and I am delighted my
work has been recognised in this way,” said Elizabeth
Wildman. “It seems the Norse god of thunder has tamed the
Devil’s element.” This latest study from Professor Liddle’s
research group looked at how ‘soft’ elements such as
phosphorus can interact with thorium in unusual bonding
environments. The research looked at species with single and
double thorium-phosphorus bonds, and even managed to trap
moieties as fundamental as PH and a naked P atom between two
thorium ions.
“Nuclear power could provide energy security for the UK and
produce far less carbon dioxide than fossil fuels, but the
waste it produces is potentially very dangerous if not
handled properly” said Professor Steve Liddle, Co-Director
of the Centre for Radiochemistry Research at The University
of Manchester. “In order to find ways of reducing the volume
of nuclear waste and recycle unspent fuel, research has
focussed on developing our understanding of how radioactive
actinide elements interact with elements from around the
periodic table that they could come into contact with in the
fuel cycle.”
The work was carried out as part of a
collaborative research project between the universities of
Manchester and Regensburg, and was funded and supported by
the Royal Society, European Research Council, Engineering
and Physical Sciences Research Council, and European
Co-operation in Science and Technology.
The research has been published in the leading
multi-disciplinary journal Nature Communications in an
article entitled ‘Thorium Phosphorus Triamidoamine Complexes
Containing Th-P Single and Multiple Bond Interactions’.
Energy is one of The University of Manchester’s research
beacons, examples of pioneering discoveries,
interdisciplinary collaboration and cross-sector
partnerships that are tackling some of the biggest questions
facing the planet. ω.
||
Readmore ||
‽: 061016
||
Up
||
Graphene: Pressure? What Pressure?

Image: University of Manchester
|| August 27: 2016: University of Manchester News ||
ά.
Small balloons made from one-atom-thick material graphene
can withstand enormous pressures, much higher than those at
the bottom of the deepest ocean, scientists at The
University of Manchester report. This is due to graphene’s
incredible strength, 200 times stronger than steel.
The graphene balloons routinely form when placing graphene
on flat substrates and are usually considered a nuisance and
therefore ignored. The Manchester researchers, led by
Professor Irina Grigorieva, took a closer look at the nano-bubbles
and revealed their fascinating properties. These bubbles
could be created intentionally to make tiny pressure
machines capable of withstanding enormous pressures. This
could be a significant step towards rapidly detecting how
molecules react under extreme pressure.
Writing in Nature Communications, the scientists found that
the shape and dimensions of the nano-bubbles provide
straightforward information about both graphene’s elastic
strength and its interaction with the underlying substrate.
The researchers found such balloons can also be created with
other two-dimensional crystals such as single layers of
molybdenum disulfide:MoS2 or boron nitride. They were able
to directly measure the pressure exerted by graphene on a
material trapped inside the balloons, or vice versa.
To do this, the team indented bubbles made by graphene,
monolayer MoS2 and monolayer boron nitride using a tip of an
atomic force microscope and measured the force that was
necessary to make a dent of a certain size.
These measurements revealed that graphene enclosing bubbles
of a micron size creates pressures as high as 200
megapascals, or 2,000 atmospheres. Even higher pressures are
expected for smaller bubbles. Ekaterina Khestanova, a PhD
student who carried out the experiments, said: “Such
pressures are enough to modify the properties of a material
trapped inside the bubbles and, for example, can force
crystallisation of a liquid well above its normal freezing
temperature’.
Sir Andre Geim, a co-author of the paper, added: “Those
balloons are ubiquitous. One can now start thinking about
creating them intentionally to change enclosed materials or
study the properties of atomically thin membranes under high
strain and pressure.”
More information about
graphene:
ω.
||
Readmore ||
‽: 280816
||
Up
||
Unwrapping the Gifts of MLI

Multi-layer insulation blankets: Image:
ESA:G. Porter
|| August 14: 2016 ||
ά.
Blankets of Multi-layer Insulation:MLI are used to cover
satellite surfaces to help insulate them from orbital
temperature extremes. These are the reason that satellites
often look as though they’ve been covered in shiny Christmas
wrapping.
MLI blankets are made up of multiple layers of very thin,
metal-coated plastic film, with low-conducting ‘spacer’
material placed in-between such as silk, nylon or
glass-fibre netting. Alternatively, MLI is sometimes
deliberately crinkled to minimise any contact between
layers.
In the airlessness of space, objects can be hot and cold at
the same time, especially if one side is in sunshine and
another is in shade. In such conditions, thermal radiation
is the main driver of temperature change, rather than
convection or conduction, and reflective MLI serves to
minimise it.
Thermal control specialists aim to maintain the temperature
of the satellite within set limits, to keep electronic and
mechanical parts working optimally and to prevent any
temperature-triggered structural distortion.
Placing MLI blankets on a satellite body is a skilled art in
itself, with complex shapes needing to be created to fit
around edges or joints. ω.
||
Readmore
||
‽: 150816
||
Up
||
New Continuous Flow Chemistry Online Seminar: October 27 at
10:00 ET

Image: Mettler Toledo
|| August 02: 2016 ||
ά.
METTLER TOLEDO has announced an upcoming online symposium
entitled Flow Chemistry for Process Development, featuring
speakers from Snapdragon and Nalas Engineering. This free
online seminar will be held on October 27, 2016 at 10:00 AM
ET. Using case studies from the pharmaceutical industry,
this online seminar will focus on continuous flow chemistry.
Topics include how to use continuous flow chemistry with
Process Analytical Technology (PAT) to expedite process
development. Both talks will be followed by a live question
and answer session with the presenter.
Jerry Salan of Nalas Engineering will present "Accelerated
Process Development Using an Advanced Flow Reactor". Eric
Fang of Snapdragon will present "Development of Continuous
Flow Chemistry Using PAT Analyses". Chemical, petrochemical,
and pharmaceutical companies are investing in continuous
chemical process development to decrease costs and speed up
the delivery of new molecules to the market. Continuous flow
chemistry has facilitated the use of synthetic steps that
are currently unattainable with batch processes because they
have mixing limitations or are too exothermic.
Novel development of continuous flow
reactors has provided robust solutions which can deliver a
number of distinct advantages over a more traditional batch
process. When coupled with process analytical technology:PAT,
flow chemistry allows for rapid analysis, optimization, and
scale-up of a chemical reaction. This online seminar
features two industry experts with backgrounds in academia
as well as the pharmaceutical and chemical industries
addressing how flow chemistry integrated with in situ
reaction analysis accelerates development of robust chemical
processes.
This free online seminar is for chemists and chemical
engineers in the pharmaceutical and chemical industries as
well as academia. There is no fee to attend. However,
registration is required. Register for the Flow Chemistry
for Process Development Seminar now.
About
METTLER TOLEDO:
METTLER TOLEDO provides Process Analytical
Technology (PAT), automated synthesis reactors, and in situ
sampling. In situ FTIR spectroscopy and automated sampling
provides continuous analysis of reactions. Inline particle
analysis enables crystallization development with continuous
particle size measurements. Automated reactors and reaction
calorimetry provides process knowledge to eliminate scale-up
and safety incidents. ω.
||
Readmore
||
‽:
030816
||
Up
||
Indium, Selenium, Tellurium and Gallium: Rare Metals from
the Glass Sandwich
Bettina Koch Writing

Indium that has been recovered from
scrap PV materials: Image: Loser Chemie
|| June 17: 2016 ||
ά.
Globally unique technology for PV scrap recycling saves raw
materials. Until recently, discarded photovoltaic modules
were - at best - shredded and used for the production of low
quality glass. The rare metals they contained were lost for
good. Thanks to an innovative and environmentally friendly
technology developed in the Loser Holding group, the fragile
glass layers of the thin film modules can be separated from
each other successfully and used by the high quality raw
materials industry.
Rare metals such as indium, selenium,
tellurium and gallium which are otherwise expensive and have
to be imported are recovered from the scrap. The panel glass
can be used directly for the manufacturing of float glass,
and the ferrous back-cover glass can be used in the
manufacturing of windows, for example. At CWT Chemische
Werke Tangermünde GmbH in Saxony-Anhalt, which is part of
the Loser group, the first industrial system is to go into
use processing PV scrap.
This is a unique technology, worldwide, for the recycling of
photovoltaic modules. Robots send the thin film modules to a
laser cabin where concentrated light is applied through the
upper layer of glass and provides the energy needed to
destroy the semiconductor layers. The sandwich can now be
pulled apart with vacuum cups without the panels shattering.
Once the sandwich has been opened, the rare metals in the
thin film module are accessible to fluids and can be removed
on a hydro-metallurgical basis. "We're talking about a
biodegradable compound which is also found in nature,"
explains the company's managing director Ulrich Loser. "And
after the semiconductors have been separated by the
solution, the active materials can be used again." The rare
metals are then prepared for the manufacturing of
photovoltaic modules or for use in the electrical technology
and electronics industries.
The cleaned glass can be used as a
valuable secondary raw material which reduces the
requirement for sand, and thanks to a low melting point,
saves a considerable amount of energy in the manufacturing
of glass when compared to its manufacturing from scratch.
The company's relative proximity to the plate glass-works
near Magdeburg, the potential buyers of the cleaned glass,
was the determining factor in its decision to buy the
disused production plant for fertilizer and animal feed in
Tangermünde.
"We want to breathe new life into the
Tangermünde chemical works," highlights Loser. The first
goal is to prepare for restarting the production of the
phosphorous-based fertilizer, while the next step is the
construction of the first industrial system for processing
the photovoltaic modules. If everything goes to plan, by
2018, the plant could be processing around 10,000 tonnes of
thin film modules per year.
Loser estimates that in excess of 10 million tonnes of PV
modules have so far been installed in Europe, and large
quantities of discarded PV modules are already finding their
way into the waste-management economy. Some come from
insolvent solar companies, while some are unwanted, having
been replaced by newer, higher output modules.
Like all technology, their "useful life"
is also limited, which means a huge supply of scrap PV
equipment is a future certainty. This is what Loser wants to
be ready for. Following the successful trials with all of
the module versions tested so far, the Loser subsidiary
Tesoma is to construct a demonstration system in Lichtenau.
Potential customers can find out about the process at the
special purpose machinery manufacturer located in
neighbouring Saxony. The industrial systems for the works in
Tangermünde are also to be constructed at Tesoma.
The Loser group is focusing on Asia and America as export
markets for the automated, turnkey systems for the recycling
of PV scrap. "We want to take the process to market maturity
and sell it worldwide," says Loser. Tangermünde in the north
of Saxony-Anhalt is to be the first centre for the
processing of photovoltaic scrap. ω.
Readmore
‽: 180616
Up |
|