News by Subject Technology & Engineering

Applying the new method, technologists and materials scientists will be able to quickly, accurately and without destroying the studied objects to obtain information about the microstructure and functionality of transparent materials - single crystals, glasses, and ceramics. The article on that is available online on the site of the Journal of Alloys and Compounds.

Industry consumes large quantities of crude oil to produce basic substances for drugs, cosmetics, plastics, or food. However, these processes consume a lot of energy and produce waste. Biological processes with enzymes are far more sustainable. The protein molecules can catalyze various chemical reactions without auxiliary materials or solvents being required. But they are expensive and, hence, have been economically unattractive so far. Researchers of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have now developed a new biomaterial that considerably facilitates the use of enzymes.

Chemists from NUST MISIS have developed a new hybrid catalyst for carbon monoxide oxidation consisting of hexagonal boron nitride and silver nanoparticles. This material makes it possible to get a full conversion of carbon monoxide at only 194 degrees Celsius. This temperature is nowhere near the process's record temperatures, but in the future, chemists can reduce the temperature of catalysis more by increasing the concentration of silver in the hybrid material.

A study of hurricane-hit areas of the United States has revealed a trend of larger homes being built to replace smaller ones in the years following a storm.

How do animals adapt to urban environments? In the case of the Tungara frog, city males put on a more elaborate mating display than males in forested areas.

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have used nuclear resonance vibrational spectroscopy to probe the hydrogen bonds that modulate the chemical reactivity of enzymes, catalysts and biomimetic complexes. The technique could lead to the development of better catalysts for use in a wide range of fields. The findings were published as a 'Very Important Paper' in the Dec. 3 issue of Angewandte Chemie and featured on the journal's back cover.

A team at the HZB has improved the manufacturing process of photocathodes and can now provide photocathodes with high quantum efficiency for bERLinPro.

In the drive to find new ways to extend electronics beyond the use of silicon, physicists are experimenting with other properties of electrons, beyond charge. In work published today (Dec 7) in the journal Science, a team led by Penn State professor of physics Jun Zhu describes a way to manipulate electrons based on their energy in relation to momentum -- called 'valley degree of freedom.'