Science

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Polymer-coated catalyst protects "artificial leaf"

Due to the fluctuating availability of solar energy, storage solutions are urgently needed. One option is to use the electrical energy generated inside solar cells to split water by means of electrolysis, in the process yielding hydrogen that can be used for a storable fuel. Researchers at the HZB Institute for Solar Fuels have modified so called superstrate solar cells with their highly efficient architecture in order to obtain hydrogen from water with the help of suitable catalysts. This type of cell works something like an "artificial leaf." But the solar cell rapidly corrodes when placed in the aqueous electrolyte solution. Now, Ph.D. student Diana Stellmach has found a way to prevent corrosion by embedding the catalysts in an electrically conducting polymer and then mounting them onto the solar cell's two contact surfaces, making her the first scientist in all of Europe to have come up with this solution. As a result, the cell's sensitive contacts are sealed to prevent corrosion with a stable yield of approx. 3.7 percent sunlight.

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This complex solar cell is coated with two different catalysts and works like an "artificial leaf", using sunlight to split water and yield hydrogen gas.

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The Turbulent, High-Energy Sky Is Keeping NuSTAR Busy

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Artist's concept of NuSTAR in orbit. NuSTAR has a 33-foot (10-meter) mast that deploys after launch to separate the optics modules (right) from the detectors in the focal plane (left).

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Working backward: Computer-aided design of zeolite templates: Rice scientists apply drug-design lessons to production of industrial minerals

Taking a page from computer-aided drug designers, Rice University researchers have developed a computational method that chemists can use to tailor the properties of zeolites, one of the world's most-used industrial minerals.

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Rice University scientists have created a computational procedure to identify small organic molecules (purple) that can be used to guide the growth of zeolite crystals (yellow).

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Hubble Uncovers Evidence for Extrasolar Planet Under Construction

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Discovery of new material state counterintuitive to laws of physics

Dense materials made porous, doubling the number of nanotraps for use as water filters, chemical sensors, sequestration, hydrogen fuel cell storage, drug delivery, and catalysis.

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Pressure-induced transitions are associated with near 2-fold volume expansions. While an increase in volume with pressure is counterintuitive, the resulting new phases contain large fluid-filled pores, such that the combined solid + fluid volume is reduced and the inefficiencies in space filling by the interpenetrated parent phase are eliminated.

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Nanoparticle Opens the Door to Clean-Energy Alternatives

Cheaper clean-energy technologies could be made possible thanks to a new discovery. Led by Raymond Schaak, a professor of chemistry at Penn State University, research team members have found that an important chemical reaction that generates hydrogen from water is effectively triggered -- or catalyzed -- by a nanoparticle composed of nickel and phosphorus, two inexpensive elements that are abundant on Earth.

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A transmission-electron microscope image of a collection of quasi-spherical nickel phosphide nanoparticles. A team led by Raymond Schaak of Penn State University has found that these nanoparticles can catalyze an important chemical reaction that generates hydrogen from water.

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NASA's 2013 HS3 Hurricane Mission to Delve into Saharan Dust

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A well-defined plume of dust swept across the entire Atlantic Ocean on June 24, 2009. In this photo-like image taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite in three consecutive overpasses, the dust stretches from its origins in Africa’s Sahara Desert to the Lesser Antilles Islands on the eastern edge of the Caribbean Sea. Such spectacular dust storms are not uncommon.

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Iranian Scientists Produce Dynamometer for Nanoparticles, Biocells

Iranian researchers from the Institute for Advances Studies in Basic Sciences in Zanjan studied the axial potential of optical tweezers and succeeded in using this device for dynamometric purposes in experiments such as DNA tension and studying the mechanical properties of biocells.

The use of optical tweezers in order to measure the force in objects at nanometirc scale can be an interesting idea for the researchers in all fields, including biosciences. The use of the optical tweezers requires a comprehensive and exact understanding of its potential.

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U.S. Berkeley Lab Team Uncovers Secrets of Biological Soil Crusts

They lie dormant for years, but at the first sign of favorable conditions they awaken. This sounds like the tagline for a science fiction movie, but it describes the amazing life-cycles of microbial organisms that form the biological soil crusts (BSCs) of Earth's deserts. Now a research team with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has reported a unique molecular-level analysis of a BSC cyanobacterium responding to the wetting and drying of its environment. The results hold implications for land management, improved climate change models, and a better understanding of carbon cycling in soil microbial communities and how changes in global temperatures impact Earth's deserts.

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NASA's Webb Telescope's Last Backbone Component Completed

Assembly of the backbone of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, the primary mirror backplane support structure, is a step closer to completion with the recent addition of the backplane support frame, a fixture that will be used to connect all the pieces of the telescope together.