Materials Science news

Toward home-brewed electricity with 'personalized solar energy'

Chemistry / Materials Science

Nov 04, 2009 | 3.4 / 5 (9) | 4

New scientific discoveries are moving society toward the era of "personalized solar energy," in which the focus of electricity production shifts from huge central generating stations to individuals in their ...

Hybrid composite for root canal treatment

Chemistry / Materials Science

Nov 03, 2009 | not rated yet | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- A dentist carrying out root canal treatment will need to use a variety of compounds. These do not always bond together properly and sometimes expensive follow-up treatment has to be performed. ...

Porphyrin Dimers Increase Efficiency of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Chemistry / Materials Science

Oct 30, 2009 | 4.5 / 5 (12) | 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- Porphyrins are most commonly thought of as the pigment in red blood cells, but now scientists have found that porphyrins can also be used to increase the efficiency of an inexpensive type ...

Podcast: Tiny sea creature and a new medical adhesive

Chemistry / Materials Science

Oct 27, 2009 | 5 / 5 (3) | 0

Scientists questing after a long-sought new medical adhesive describe copying the natural glue secreted by a tiny sea creature called the sandcastle worm in the latest episode in the American Chemical Society's ...

Researchers make key step towards turning methane gas into liquid fuel

Chemistry / Materials Science

Oct 22, 2009 | 3.5 / 5 (8) | 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at the University of Washington and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have taken an important step in converting methane gas to a liquid, potentially making it more useful as a fuel ...

Carbenes: New molecules have wide applications

Chemistry / Materials Science

Oct 22, 2009 | 5 / 5 (3) | 0

Researchers at the University of California, Riverside have created in the laboratory a class of carbenes, highly reactive molecules, used to make catalysts - substances that facilitate chemical reactions. ...

Designer molecule detects tiny amounts of cyanide, then glows

Chemistry / Materials Science

Oct 21, 2009 | 4 / 5 (3) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- A small molecule designed to detect cyanide in water samples works quickly, is easy to use, and glows under ultraviolet or "black" light. Although the fluorescent molecule is not yet ready ...

Replacing Platinum in Fuel Cell Technology

Chemistry / Materials Science

Oct 20, 2009 | 2.8 / 5 (5) | 6

(PhysOrg.com) -- One of the biggest hindrances to the development of fuel cell technology is its cost. In order to work properly, polymer electrolyte fuel cells require a catalyst. So far, though, the most ...

Synthetic Cells Shed Biological Insights While Delivering Battery Power

Chemistry / Materials Science

Oct 20, 2009 | not rated yet | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Trying to understand the complex workings of a biological cell by teasing out the function of every molecule within it is a daunting task. But by making synthetic cells that include just a ...

Long carbon fibers could improve blast resistance of concrete structures

Chemistry / Materials Science

Oct 20, 2009 | not rated yet | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Dr. Jeffery Volz, assistant professor of civil, architectural and environmental engineering at Missouri University of Science and Technology, and his team have received $567,000 to explore ...

Chemists discover recipe to design a better type of fuel cell

Chemistry / Materials Science

Oct 18, 2009 | 3.9 / 5 (11) | 2

Fuel cells are often touted as one method to help decrease society's addiction to fossil fuels. But there is still a lot of work to be done before fuel cells will be ready for mass market to be used in transportation, home ...

Small mechanical forces have big impact on embryonic stem cells

Chemistry / Materials Science

Oct 18, 2009 | 4 / 5 (4) | 0

Applying a small mechanical force to embryonic stem cells could be a new way of coaxing them into a specific direction of differentiation, researchers at the University of Illinois report. Applications for force-directed ...

Chemistry Team Seeks to Use Artificial Photosynthesis and Nanotubes to Generate Hydrogen Fuel with Sunlight

Chemistry / Materials Science

Oct 14, 2009 | 1 / 5 (1) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of four chemists at the University of Rochester have begun work on a new kind of system to derive usable hydrogen fuel from water using only sunlight.

Building Up Broken Bones

Chemistry / Materials Science

Oct 14, 2009 | 4 / 5 (3) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Any one of the 8 million Americans who suffer bone fractures each year knows how hard it is to wait for the bones to knit, or heal. Bone healing is also important for integration of dental ...

Hollow spheres made of metal

Chemistry / Materials Science

Oct 13, 2009 | 4.9 / 5 (9) | 5

Producing metallic hollow spheres is complicated: It has not yet been possible to make the small sizes required for new high-tech applications. Now for the first time researchers have manufactured ground hollow ...

Hyper-SAGE boosts remote MRI sensitivity

Chemistry / Materials Science

Oct 09, 2009 | 5 / 5 (1) | 0

A new technique in Magnetic Resonance Imaging dubbed "Hyper-SAGE" has the potential to detect ultra low concentrations of clincal targets, such as lung and other cancers. Development of Hyper-SAGE was led ...

Toward better solar cells: Chemists gain control of light-harvesting paths

Chemistry / Materials Science

Oct 08, 2009 | 3 / 5 (2) | 0

University of Florida chemists have pioneered a method to tease out promising molecular structures for capturing energy, a step that could speed the development of more efficient, cheaper solar cells.

New NIST database on gas hydrates to aid energy and climate research

Chemistry / Materials Science

Oct 07, 2009 | not rated yet | 0

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has developed a free, online collection of data on the properties of gas hydrates, naturally occurring crystalline materials that are a potential energy resource and also ...