Porous boron absorbing

Posted by David Bradley on October 3, 2011 Comments Off

Researchers in Europe have developed a hydrogen storage material based on porous magnesium borohydride that can safely adsorb large quantities of the gas via both a physical and a chemical mechanism. They used X-ray diffraction, infra-red and Raman spectroscopy to …

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Forget hyperneutrinos, we’re on pseudo-atoms now

Posted by David Bradley on September 24, 2011 Comments Off

When chemists think of the neutral radical ammonium, few think of it as behaving like an alkali metal. However, in many ways, particularly its electronegativity, which can be transferred from compound to compound, it acts like a pseudo-atom akin to …

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Sounding out unclick chemistry

Posted by David Bradley on September 19, 2011 Comments Off

US chemists have attached polymer chains to a small, robust molecule and used ultrasound to grab the chains and literally pull the molecule apart. The technique can reverse click chemistry reactions, a popular transformation in which simple starting materials are …

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Boost your battery with seaweed

Posted by David Bradley on September 9, 2011 Comments Off

An extract from brown algae – seaweed – could give rechargeable lithium-ion batteries a boost by allowing silicon nanopowder to be used as a high-capacity alternative to graphite electrodes. The potential improvement is almost an order of magnitude boost, the …

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Chemical spider

Posted by David Bradley on September 6, 2011 Comments Off

A chemical spider that spins a polymer thread using a simple catalyst could drive a nanomotor, according to researchers at Pennsylvania State University, US. Ayusman Sen and colleagues say that these nanomotors have potential applications in the deposition of polymers …

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Bromine chemical leak

Posted by David Bradley on September 2, 2011 Comments Off

At least 42 people received hospital treatment in the Russian city of Chelyabinsk after a leak of the toxic chemical bromine in a rail incident. Between 24 and 50 litres (5-11 gallons) were released, said officials. NTV broadcast images of …

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