Scientists based in Singapore have reviewed the application of nanomaterials in removing chemical and biological pollutants from the environment in this fascinating Energy & Environemntal Science article. Their review has recently been highlighted on nanowerk.
Read the review in full:
A review on nanomaterials for environmental remediation
Mya Mya Khin, A. Sreekumaran Nair, V. Jagadeesh Babu, Rajendiran Murugan and Seeram Ramakrishna
DOI: 10.1039/C2EE21818F
Submit an oral abstract for The 11th International Conference on Materials Chemistry (MC11), the flagship event of the RSC’s Materials Chemistry Division – deadline Friday 7th December.
This cutting edge international research conference is organised around four exciting and diverse areas of the application of materials chemistry:
• Energy Materials – including all aspects of Materials Chemistry related to energy generation, conversion and storage.
• Environmental Materials – the design, synthesis and applications of materials that facilitate processes to provide a sustainable environment.
• Biomaterials – materials for tissue engineering and healthcare, green biomaterials and advanced synthesis methods of biomaterials.
• Electronic, Magnetic and Optical Materials – encompassing inorganic, organic, hybrid and nano materials, soft matter and interfaces.
Why take part in MC11?
There are over 100 opportunities for oral presentations over four parallel sessions. So you can share your own research with the more than 400 expected participants during the four-day event. There will also be plenty of opportunity for discussion during poster session receptions, lunches and coffee breaks, all taking place in the dedicated conference centre.
If you take part in this conference you will have the benefit of hearing and networking with an excellent line-up of plenary and keynote speakers, all experts in their fields.
All academic and industrial scientists working on the chemistry, physics and materials science of functional materials, including students, are encouraged to be there. Visit www.rsc.org/mc11 for full details.
Scientists in the Republic of Korea have sandwiched an organic piezoelectric material – poly(vinylidene fluoride trifluoroethylene) [P(VDF-TrFE)] – between two graphene electrodes to make a fully flexible, rollable, stretchable, foldable and twistable nanogenerator.
The output voltage of the nanogenerator is up to 30 times that of a rigid nanogenerator when exposed to the same input sound waves and 8 times higher in the same air flow.
The team says that stretchable power generators could easily be transferred to fabrics, including clothes and flags for example, allowing them to harness energy from people’s movement or the wind.
Read the full details of this exciting research in Energy & Environmental Science:
Highly Sensitive Stretchable Transparent Piezoelectric Nanogenerator
Ju-Hyuck Lee, Keun Young Lee, Brijesh Kumar, Nguyen Thanh Tien, Nae_Eung Lee and Sang-Woo Kim
DOI: 10.1039/C2EE23530G
An EES article on a model system for achieving highly efficient solar cells which comprise lots of independent stacked units which rival the state of the art for cell performance when irradiated from the side has been featured on e! Science News.
To date systems of this type are made from direct band gap III–V semiconductors connected in series, which is much more complex to engineer.
Read more about this fascinating research today:
Multiple-bandgap vertical-junction architectures for ultra-efficient concentrator solar cells
Avi Braun, Alexis Vossier, Eugene A. Katz, Nicholas J. Ekins-Daukes and Jeffrey M. Gordon
DOI: 10.1039/C2EE22167E
To date, when making biofuel from non-food source biomass (for example corn stover – maize leaves and stalks), the hemicellulose and cellulose need to be separated before processing because of their different chemical and physical properties.
Now, US scientists have reported a system that allows them to be processed together; only a single reactor is required and no pre-treatment is needed (pre-treatment and extraction/separation steps can account for up to 30% of the capital cost of a biofuel plant, they say). The breakdown product of both materials, gamma-valerolactone, is also used as the solvent, which means that there is no need for solvent separation at the end of the process.
Read this HOT EES Communication in full today:
Integrated conversion of hemicellulose and cellulose from lignocellulosic biomass
David Martin Alonso, Stephanie Wettstein, Max Mellmer, Elif Gurbuz and James Dumesic
DOI: 10.1039/C2EE23617F
We are proud to announce that the significant International Symposia on Advancing the Chemical Sciences (ISACS) series will return in 2013 to include Challenges in Chemical Renewable Energy (ISACS12) on 3-6 September in Cambridge, UK.
Abstracts are now invited for this event so submit today and take advantage of this exceptional opportunity to present your work alongside scientists from across the globe.
For details of speakers and conferences themes, please visit the dedicated website.
The 6th ChemComm International Symposium will take place in Brazil on 5th and 8th November 2012, the first ever RSC Journal Roadshow to take place in South America. Attendance at the symposium is free of charge and student participation is strongly encouraged. Please register your interest in attending the meeting on the conference website.
The theme for the meetings is Chemistry and Sustainable Energy. Two one-day meetings will be held:
Each one day meeting will feature a selection of stimulating lectures reflecting the academic and industrial breadth of green chemistry, biofuels, sustainable energy, bioprocess including photosynthesis and catalysis (organic chemistry), delivered by internationally recognised researchers. The first one-day meeting will be held at FAPESP, São Paulo. The second one-day meeting will be held in COPPE-UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro.
Confirmed speakers:
More details about the meeting and how to register are available on the conference website.
Scientists in China and Germany have carbonised corrugated cardboard and from it made layered corrugated carbon as a cheap, high performance electrode material for microbial fuel cells. The microbial bioelectrochemical system of the fuel cell works by using an anode to biocatalytically oxidise complex organic matter and convert this chemical energy into a current flow. With the cardboard, the cell reaches a current density of 40 mA cm-2, one order of magnitude higher than current microbial bioelectrochemical systems, which achieve a current density of <4 mA cm-2.
Read this hot EES communication in full today:
Layered corrugated electrode macrostructures boost microbial bioelectrocatalysis
Shuiliang Chen, Guanghua He, Qin Liu, Falk Harnisch, Yan Zhou, Yu Chen, Muddasir Hanif, Suqin Wang, Xinwen Peng, Haoqing Hou and Uwe Schröder
DOI: 10.1039/C2EE23344D
They identified one zeolite in particular which had superior CO2 adsorption properties and CO2/N2 selectivity compared to Mg2(dobdc) ((dobdc4- = 1,4-dioxido-2,5-benzenedicarboxylate) – one of the best currently available adsorbent materials.
Read the full details of this HOT Energy & Environmental Science paper:
Evaluation of cation-exchanged zeolite adsorbents for post-combustion carbon dioxide capture
Tae-Hyun Bae, Matthew R. Hudson, Jarad A. Mason, Wendy L. Queen, Justin J. Dutton, Kenji Sumida, Ken J. Micklash, Steven S. Kaye, Craig M. Brown and Jeffrey R. Long
DOI: 10.1039/C2EE23337A
The first application of a cobalt(II)/(III) tris(2,2’-bipyridine)-based aqueous electrolyte in the fabrication of dye-sensitised solar cells has been carried out by scientists from Australia. In their Energy & Environmental Science paper, they report very high efficiency for an aqueous dye sensitised solar cell.
Cobalt(II)/(III) tris(2,2’-bipyridine)-based electrolytes have been used previously in liquid electrolytes using organic solvents. But, the disadvantages with these types of electrolytes are a high vapour pressure and they are not environmentally friendly.
Electrolytes based on ionic liquids, plastic crystals and solid state conductors have been explored but the ingress of moisture in these systems affects their stability.
Electrolytes based on water are attracting attention as water is cheap, abundant, non-toxic and non-flammable.
Read this exciting research article today:
Aqueous dye-sensitized solar cell electrolytes based on the cobalt(II)/(III) tris(bipyridine) redox couple
Leone Spiccia
DOI: 10.1039/C2EE23317G
