This week on Chemistry World…
Posted by Chemistry World on Mon 24 Jan 2011Categories: News , This week's stories | [2] Comments
24 January 2011: Have something to say about an article you’ve read on Chemistry World this week? Leave your comments below…This week’s stories:
Electrons charge down DNA molecular wire
DNA can be used as a molecular wire to effectively conduct electricity over long distances without being damaged
Nanotubes protect brain tissue from stroke damage
Functionalised carbon nanotubes can protect brain from damage caused by stroke, research to investigate potential for repairing stroke-induced damage
US cost savings must spare science, Obama says
President proposes to freeze US domestic spending for five years, next budget will invest in research to spur innovation
Chips make short work of RNA synthesis
A simple lab on a chip synthesis of short strands of RNA has been developed
Eliminating arsenic from drinking water
Arsenic could be removed from water using a low cost, natural mineral found on the Earth’s surface
Firefighters need more protection from chemical fumes
Firefighters are exposing themselves to almost ten times the acceptable level of 75 volatile organic compounds while putting out vehicle fires
Muons take kinetic isotope effects to extremes
Scientists have used elementary particles to investigate the effect of isotope identity on one of the most fundamental reactions in chemistry
Germany heeds call to block lethal injection drug supply
German pharma industry agrees to block exports of drug used in lethal injections to the US, major producer ceases manufacture
Diet affects cholesterol drug
Metals in the body have been found to affect the performance of statin drugs
Carbon nanotubes for hydrogen storage
Researchers design 3D carbon-based nanotube matrix that can store and release hydrogen extremely efficiently
Luminescence gives 2D pH images
2D imaging of pH in vivo shows promise for wound monitoring in medicine
Channelling deeper to target breast cancer
An on chip model of breast ducts is used to demonstrate how to get further into the ducts than before to collect samples or deliver drugs
Patching up tooth enamel
Scientists have been able to rebuild eroded tooth enamel with a hydrogel
Dimer delivers pinpoint recognition
Synthetic molecule pairs up to provide a novel way to mimic selective binding seen in biological systems
Wed 26 Jan 2011 at 4:39 pm
Perhaps this new mathematical model of carbon nanotubes for hydrogen storage will also help us understand nature’s own nanotubes made entirely from chicken fathers. At any rate, here is an old comment that might be of interest on the possibilities of stable, flexible and cheap hydrogen storage:
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Chemical Engineer Richard Wool from the University of Delaware told the scientific community on June 23, 2009, that after his team slowly baked chicken feathers to 400 degrees and then cooled them to -266 degrees, the keratin in the feathers formed tiny, but super-strong, carbon microtubes – similar to the expensive synthetic nanotubes.
Nanotubes and microtubes are important in hydrogen storage because they hold the hydrogen atoms mechanically within them. This means that the atoms are not free to bounce around in gas form, and the stored hydrogen is not governed by Boyle’s law of gasses.
This makes it possible, therefore, to store hydrogen safely and cheaply, at room temperature and at low pressure. We may thus be able to build large tanks, stuff them with chicken feather charcoal and fill them up with hydrogen. Once filled, they can sit around until we need them, or they can be shipped elsewhere. And they may not need to be any more complex than the tanks we are accustomed to seeing on railroads.
Imagine tons of hydrogen fuel shipped via rail across the nation, supplementing electricity grids, lighting factories, airports, universities, sports arenas, or supplying distant terminals with hydrogen for automobile consumption. All this without expensive pipelines, compressors, or refrigeration.
Imagine also hydrogen standardized tanks mounted on trucks, busses, water vessels, or airplanes supplying hydrogen that can triple the power of diesel or jet fuel. And once these tanks run empty, they can be replaced with full ones – like the propane tanks of our gas grills.
Imagine further, small hydrogen cartridges that can power laptops, cell phones, tools, or toys. When these run empty we can refill them with home generators using electricity or natural gas to make hydrogen. Who would have expected all these possibilities from silly chicken feathers? Or that the triple-headed hydra of air pollution, greenhouse gasses, and dependence on foreign oil would finally be killed by the waste of chickens.
And consider this: If hydrogen technology continues at the same rate as computers, it may double every couple of years. This means that those at stage 4 now will be at stage 8 later. More importantly, if hydrogen takes off at the rate nuclear energy did in the ‘50s, advances would be exponential (2,4,16,256). As farfetched as this may seem, how else can we classify Dr. Wool’s findings that make a $5.5 million nanotube tank equal to a $200 chicken feather microtube tank? If this is not an exponential improvement, then what is?
Whether we are ready for it or not, the Hydrogen Age seems to have finally arrived – without fanfare, and on the wings of homely chickens.
Thu 27 Jan 2011 at 4:47 pm
I have to make a correction here. In the article by Mr. Cartwright, it says that the dyes are injected. This is not true because the dyes in the paper by Schreml et al. are immobilized in a polyurethane hydrogel matrix on transparent foils to create 2D sensors. In fact, this is one of the main advantages of the method: Dyes do not get into contact with tissues directly. Furthermore, dyes are bound to or encapsulated in microparticles, another safety mechanism. Protons diffuse to microparticles and the luminescence signal of the indicator dye (FITC) is changed while the luminescence signal of the reference dye (Ruthenium-tris(4,7-diphenyl-1,10-phenanthroline)) remains unchanged. Basically, this allows to image pH. Best regards
Ed. Thanks for this Stephan. The article has been updated accordingly