Water splitting is an important technology for green hydrogen production. However, the sluggish kinetics of anodic oxygen evolution reaction limit device performance. Furthermore, under acidic conditions, sparse and expensive iridium-based catalysts are required. In May issue Chem, Lu et al. explored mild electrochemical oxidation treatments to transform graphite flakes into promising (OER) cat...

The Sonju Lake intrusion (SLI) is a 1200-m thick, sheet-like, tholeiitic layered intrusion located within the 1096 Ma Beaver Bay Complex of NE Minnesota. Its cumulus stratigraphy of Ol Pl+Ol Pl+Cpx+Ol Pl+Cpx+Ox±Ol Pl+Cpx+Ox+Ol+Ap indicates formation by closed-system fractional crystallization of a tholeiitic magma. In 1999, outcrop sampling revealed a stratiform PGE-enriched interval within oxi...

Research posted today on ES&T’s Research ASAP website (10.1021/es0509836) describes how, in one elegant step, selected bacteria can recover precious metals from industrial waste solutions and deposit them as nanocrystal catalysts on their cell surfaces. By using the metal-covered biomass to clean up toxic chromium wastes, the researchers demonstrated the approach’s potential as a sustainable te...

A facile recipe has been developed to prepare three-dimensional nanoarchitectures of nitrogen-doped graphene loading Co nanoparticle hybrids (Co/NG). The hybrids show an outstanding electrocatalytic activity for glucose oxidation reaction (GOR) and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), and thus can be used as electrode materials of a nonenzymatic and precious-metal-free glucose fuel cell (GFC).

Detailed understanding of the nature of the active centers in non-precious-metal-based electrocatalyst, and their role in oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) mechanistic pathways will have a profound effect on successful commercialization of emission-free energy devices such as fuel cells. Recently, using pyrolyzed model structures of iron porphyrins, we have demonstrated that a covalent integratio...

Direct alkaline alcohol fuel cells (DAAFCs) have attracted increasing interest over the past decade because of their favourable reaction kinetics in alkaline media, higher energy densities achievable and the easy handling of the liquid fuels. In this review, principles and mechanisms of DAAFCs in alcohol oxidation and oxygen reduction are discussed. Despite the high energy densities available d...

The aim of this investigation was to evaluate the metal-ceramic bonding of Au-1.6 wt% Ti alloy. Therefore, the coefficient of thermal expansion, modulus of elasticity, ceramic bonding strength, and hardness of Au-1.6 wt% Ti alloy were measured. The metal-ceramic interface was observed by EPMA to investigate its bonding mechanism. The Au-1.6 wt% Ti alloy showed a coefficient of thermal expansion...