As part of ongoing research to make hydrogen a mainstream source of clean, renewable energy, scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have determined how titanium atoms help hydrogen atoms attach to an aluminum surface. Their study isolates the role of titanium, which is used as a catalyst in the crucial first step to trap hydrogen within a particular class of hydrogen-storage materials. The work may also help identify and develop similar hydrogen-storag

Researchers able to calculate projected damage based on wind speeds, severity of waves, other effects of storm

About 86 percent of oil production in the Gulf of Mexico and 59 percent of the natural gas output are being disrupted by Hurricane Katrina, according to a new prediction model developed by a University of Central Florida researcher and his Georgia colleague.
On their Web site, http://hurricane.methaz.org, UCF statistics professor Mark Johnson and Chuck Watson, founde

Composite material, compression process to reduce time, cost of manufacturing bipolar plates

A single fuel cell does not produce enough energy to power a car. So fuel cells are stacked, with a bipolar plate between each cell through which electrons are conducted. The hydrogen fuel and oxygen, which are part of the fuel cell chemistry, enter the plate through channels along the face on each side of the plates. Creating the channels in the bipolar plate is a manufacturing challenge.

Controlling nanoparticle size

Because the properties of nanoparticles depend so closely on their size, size distribution and morphology, techniques for controlling the growth of these tiny structures is of great interest to materials researchers today.

A research team from the Georgia Institute of Technology and Drexel University has discovered a surprising new mechanism by which polymer materials used in nanocomposites control the growth of particles. Reported on Au

Anticollision systems will be the next step on the way to even safer cars. Researchers in Trondheim are helping the automotive industry to turn plans into reality.

Modern vehicles contain a large number of built-in computers. The project aims to develop software for use both in anticollision systems and in systems designed to prevent car from turning over. In both systems the vehicle itself takes command when it is physically impossible for the driver himself to react sufficiently

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory have combined the world’s hardest known material – diamond – with the world’s strongest structural form – carbon nanotubes. This new process for “growing” diamond and carbon nanotubes together opens the way for its use in a number of energy-related applications.

The technique is the first successful synthesis of a diamond-nanotube nanocomposite, which means for the first time this specialized

Rising oil prices have revved momentum to develop more efficient combustion systems. But instrumental to this goal is a need to achieve greater understanding of the complex chemical reactions involved in combustion processes.

In one of the largest simulations ever brought to bear on this problem, researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory performed quantum chemical calculations to accurately predict the heat of formation of octane, a key component of gasoline.

Supercritical fluid carbon dioxide used; melt properties provide monitor

There is a lot of excitement about incorporating nano particles into polymers because of the ability to improve various properties with only a small percent of the particles. “You can improve the barrier to gases, such as hydrogen, carbon dioxide, and oxygen. You can increase material strength with little increase in weight,” said Don Baird, professor of chemical engineering at Virginia Tech.

Bu

Performing quantum calculations on a supercomputer, scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have characterized a material that might allow on-board refueling of hydrogen powered vehicles.

Researchers, led by Maciej Gutowski, looked at different crystalline structures of a compound made up of nitrogen, boron and hydrogen – NBH6 – and found one that might be more stable compared to ammonia borane, a molecular crystal built of NH3BH3 molecules. Ammonia borane can hold

Foggy windows and lenses are a nuisance, and in the case of automobile windows, can pose a driving hazard. Now, a group of scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) may have found a permanent solution to the problem. The team has developed a unique polymer coating — made of silica nanoparticles — that they say can create surfaces that never fog.

The transparent coating can be applied to eyeglasses, camera lenses, ski goggles … even bathroom mirrors, they say.

Automobile bumpers that deform and recover rather than crack and splinter, computer cases that withstand the occasional rough encounter, and resilient coatings that can withstand the ravages of the sun, may all be possible if tiny functionalized rubbery particles are imbedded in their plastic matrices, according to Penn State materials scientists.

“Plastics such as polypropylene, nylon, polycarbonate, epoxy resins and other compounds are brittle and fracture easily,” says Dr. T.C.

Engineers at Purdue University have developed a new way of producing hydrogen for fuel cells to automatically recharge batteries in portable electronics, such as notebook computers, and eliminate the need to use a wall outlet.

The findings will be presented Sunday (Aug. 28) during the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society in Washington, D.C., and also will be detailed in a peer-reviewed paper to appear in an upcoming issue of the journal Combustion and Flame. The pa

Heat has always been a problem for fuel cells. There’s usually either too much (ceramic fuel cells) for certain portable uses, such as automobiles or electronics, or too little (polymer fuel cells) to be efficient.

While polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cells are widely considered the most promising fuel cells for portable use, their low operating temperature and consequent low efficiency have blocked their jump from promising technology to practical technology.

EUREKA project E! 2929 ICOLS offers complete automatic control of lighting levels in both work and home environments. This € 300,000 project has developed an intelligent system extending the control offered by dimmer switches to all lighting sources, including fluorescent lamps. The system saves up to 30% of energy costs while providing safer illumination for work locations.

Artificial lighting is an everyday necessity, often taken for granted when readily available. It influe

The military’s next generation of airborne drones won’t be just small and silent – they’ll also dive between buildings, zoom under overpasses and land on apartment balconies.

At least, that’s what University of Florida engineers are working toward.

Funded by the U.S. Air Force and NASA, UF aerospace engineers have built prototypes of 6-inch- to 2-foot- drones capable of squeezing in and out of tight spots in cities — like tiny urban stunt planes. Their secret: seagull-in

Imagine this: A tiny, fast switch that uses water droplets to create adhesive bonds almost as strong as aluminum by borrowing a mechanism found in palm beetles.

The new beetle-inspired switch, designed by Cornell University engineers, can work by itself on the scale of a micron — a millionth of a meter. The switches can be combined in arrays for larger applications like powerful adhesive bonding. Like the transistor, whose varied uses became apparent only following its inventio