News by Subject Technology & Engineering

A new superhydrophilic filter has proven able to remove greater than 90 percent of hydrocarbons, as well as all bacteria and particulates from contaminated water produced by hydraulic fracturing (fracking) operations at shale oil and gas wells, according to researchers at the Energy Safety Research Institute at Swansea University in collaboration with researchers at Rice University.

Rice scientists have discovered a two-dimensional, four-component alloy with an optical bandgap that can be tuned by the temperature used to grow it via chemical vapor deposition.

Scientists at Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) have recently developed a fully scalable method for the synthesis of atom-precise platinum clusters for potential use in catalytic applications. This method could provide a new pathway for large-scale production of atom-precise clusters. To demonstrate this, the hydrogenation of styrene was performed.

The materiality exhibited by manmade polymers currently relies on simple chemical bonds and the sequence order taken by molecules in the polymer chain. We now no longer need to rely on fate to determine such materiality with this new technique for precisely defining polymer-chain order. This system uses highly specific 'grabber' ends on each molecule that bond with only one type of 'pin' end on another molecule.

The paper outlines how the urban design of the city of Teotihuacan differed from past and subsequent cities, only to be rediscovered and partially modelled on many centuries later by the Aztecs.

HRL Laboratories, LLC, has made a breakthrough in metallurgy with the announcement that researchers at the famous facility have developed a technique for successfully 3-D printing high-strength aluminum alloys that opens the door to additive manufacturing of engineering-relevant alloys.

Chemists at the Nagoya Institute of Technology report a metal-free method to control cationic polymerization that provides a new framework for higher quality industrial polymers. The reaction depends on weak halogen bonding and the addition of a small amount of ammonium salt to produce long, homogeneous polymers. The study can be read in Chemistry - A European Journal.