Chemistry Blog From Networlddirectory
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- The Structure Of Microcrystals
Microcrystals take the form of tiny grains, so small that they resemble a powder. How can we determine their structure? Until today, the technique of X-ray diffraction, normally used to study crystals, was not an appropriate solution. For the first time, scientists from the ESRF and the CNRS have used X-ray diffraction to determine the structure of microcrystal grains of only one cubic micrometre in size. They gained a factor of a thousand on the size of the analysable samples thanks to new equipment created at the ESRF. This breakthrough opens up new possibilities of research to chemists, physicists and biologists........
Fri, 05 Oct 2007 03:48:52 GMT - Superoxide Dismutase
We can’t live without oxygen. Our cells rely on oxygen as the final acceptor of electrons in respiration, allowing us to extract far more energy from food than would be possible without oxygen. But oxygen is also a dangerous compound. Reactive forms of oxygen, such as superoxide (oxygen with an extra electron), leak from the respiratory enzymes and wreak havoc on the cell. This superoxide can then cause mutations in DNA or attack enzymes that make amino acids and other essential molecules. This is a significant problem: one study showed that for every 10,000 electrons transferred down .........
Fri, 05 Oct 2007 03:48:52 GMT - Pinning Down Spin of Surface Atoms
Researchers who dream of shrinking computers to the nanoscale look to atomic spin as one possible building block for both processor and memory, yet setting the spin of an atom, let alone measuring it, has been a challenge. Now, University of California, Berkeley, physicists have succeeded in measuring the spin of a single atom, moving one step closer to quantum computers and "spintronic" devices built from nanoscale transistors based on atomic spin........
Thu, 27 Sep 2007 02:31:05 GMT - A better definition for the kilogram?
How much is a kilogram?. It turns out that nobody can say for sure, at least not in a way that wont change ever so slightly over time. The official kilogram a cylinder cast 118 years ago from platinum and iridium and known as the International Prototype Kilogram or Le Gran K has been losing mass, about 50 micrograms at last check. The change is occurring despite careful storage at a facility near Paris........
Thu, 27 Sep 2007 02:31:05 GMT - Palladium and platinum an easier find
Finding uses for palladium and platinum--rare precious metals coveted by the automobile, chemical, and pharmaceutical industries as catalysts in chemical reactions-proves easier than finding the scarce materials themselves. Detection involves expensive instruments operated by highly trained chemists that take days to return results. But chemists at the University of Pittsburgh have unearthed a fast, easy, and inexpensive method that could help in the discovery of palladium/platinum deposits and streamline the production of pharmaceuticals. The research will be published online Sept. 21 in the Journal of the American Chemical Society........
Thu, 27 Sep 2007 02:31:05 GMT - Changing concepts on neutron's electrical properties
For two generations of physicists, it has been a standard belief that the neutron, an electrically neutral elementary particle and a primary component of an atom, actually carries a positive charge at its center and an offsetting negative charge at its outer edge. The notion was first put forth in 1947 by Enrico Fermi, a Nobel laureate noted for his role in developing the first nuclear reactor. But new research by a University of Washington physicist shows the neutron's charge is not quite as simple as Fermi believed........
Thu, 27 Sep 2007 02:31:05 GMT - The Origin Of Soil-scented Geosmin
Brown University chemists have found the origins of an odor - the sweet smell of fresh dirt. In Nature Chemical Biology, the Brown team shows that the protein that makes geosmin - source of the good earth scent - has two similar but distinct halves, each playing a critical role in making this organic compound........
Thu, 27 Sep 2007 02:31:05 GMT - Molecule of the Month: Citrate Synthase
Your body burns up a lot of food every day. However, cells don’t burn food like a fireplace. Instead, food molecules are combined with oxygen molecules one-by-one, in many carefully controlled steps. In this way, the energy that is released can be captured in convenient forms, like ATP or NADH, which are then used elsewhere to power essential cellular functions. Our cells get most of their energy from a long series of reactions that combine oxygen and glucose, forming carbon dioxide and water, and creating lots of ATP and NADH in the process.
Citrate synthase is a central enzyme .........
Thu, 27 Sep 2007 02:31:05 GMT - Tiny Tubes and Rods as Catalysts
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have developed new ways to make or modify nanorods and nanotubes of titanium oxide, a material used in a variety of industrial and medical applications. The methods and new titanium oxide materials may lead to improved catalysts for hydrogen production, more efficient solar cells, and more protective sunscreens. The research is published in two papers now available online, one in Advanced Materials (August 22, 2007), and the other in the Journal of Physical Chemistry........
Tue, 11 Sep 2007 04:04:40 GMT - Perfecting hydrogen-generating technology
Scientists at Purdue University have further developed a technology that could represent a pollution-free energy source for a range of potential applications, from golf carts to submarines and cars to emergency portable generators. The technology produces hydrogen by adding water to an alloy of aluminum and gallium. When water is added to the alloy, the aluminum splits water by attracting oxygen, liberating hydrogen in the process. The Purdue scientists are in the process of developing a method to create particles of the alloy that could be placed in a tank to react with water and produce hydrogen on demand........
Tue, 11 Sep 2007 04:04:40 GMT - Toxic Byproducts of Carbon Nanotube Manufacturing
A new analysis of by-products discharged to the environment during production of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) -- expected to become the basis of multibillion-dollar industries in the 21st Century -- has identified cancer-causing compounds, air pollutants, and other substances of concern, scientists reported here today at the 234th national meeting of the American Chemical Society........
Tue, 11 Sep 2007 04:04:40 GMT - Explosive crystal
Known to the alchemists and long used as a detonator to set off dynamite-mercury fulminate has a checkered past. Now, more than 300 years after the discovery of this explosive compound, German scientists have been able to characterize its crystal structure and thus finally reveal the molecular structure of mercury fulminate. As Wolfgang Beck, Thomas Klapotke and their team report in the journal ZAAC - Journal of Inorganic and General Chemistry, the orthorhombic crystals consist of separate, nearly linear Hg(CNO)2 molecules........
Tue, 11 Sep 2007 04:04:40 GMT - Hydrogen For Tomorrow's Vehicles
Hydrogen may prove to be the fuel of the future in powering the effi cient, eco-friendly fuel cell vehicles of tomorrow. Developing a method to safely store, dispense and easily "refuel" the vehicle's storage material with hydrogen has baffl ed scientists for years. However, a new and attractive storage medium being developed by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory researchers may provide the "power of pellets" to fuel future transportation needs........
Tue, 11 Sep 2007 04:04:40 GMT - More Cheaper Hydrogen
A new class of catalysts created at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory may help researchers and engineers overcome some of the hurdles that have inhibited the production of hydrogen for use in fuel cells. Argonne chemist Michael Krumpelt and colleagues in Argonne's Chemical Engineering Division used "single-site" catalysts based on ceria or lanthanum chromite doped with either platinum or ruthenium to boost hydrogen production at lower temperatures during reforming. "We've made significant progress in bringing the rate of reaction to where applications require it to be," Krumpelt said........
Tue, 11 Sep 2007 04:04:40 GMT - What Are Those Actinides Doing?
Scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory are uniting theory, computation and experiment to discover exactly how heavy elements, such as uranium and technetium, interact in their environment. As part of that effort, researchers have combined sensitive experimental measurements with fi rst principle electronic structure calculations to measure, and to really understand, the structural and bonding parameters of uranyl, the most common oxidation state of uranium in systems containing water........
Tue, 11 Sep 2007 04:04:40 GMT
