Nanotechnology

  2010 APR 26 - (VerticalNews.com) -- According to a study from Montreal, Canada, "Nanotubes hold promise for a number of biological and materials applications because of their high aspect ratio and encapsulation potential. A particularly attractive goal is to access nanotubes that exert well-defined control over their cargo, such as selective encapsulation, precise positioning of the guests along the nanotube length and triggered release of this cargo in response to specific external stimuli. ...read more

  2010 APR 26 - (VerticalNews.com) -- According to recent research from Santa Fe, Argentina, "The radiation field of a packed-bed photocatalytic reactor filled with quartz wool coated with titanium dioxide was modeled using the Monte Carlo technique and the following information: the radiation flux emitted by the lamps, the diameter size distribution of the quartz fiber cloth. the mass of quartz fibers and of TiO2 that was immobilized on the fiber surface as well as the refractive index, and the spectral absorption coefficient of the materials of the system. ...read more

  2010 APR 26 - (VerticalNews.com) -- According to a study from Waterloo, Canada, "Shape- and size-controlled supported metal and intermetallic nanocrystallites are of increasing interest because of their catalytic and electrocatalytic properties. In particular, intermetallics PtX (X=Bi, Pb, Pd, Ru) are very attractive because of their high activity as fuel-cell anode catalysts for formic acid or methanol oxidation."

  "These are normally synthesized using high-temperature techniques, but rigorous size control is very challenging. Even low-temperature techniques typically produce nanoparticles with dimensions much greater than the optimum <6 nm required for fuel cell catalysis. Here, we present a simple and robust, chemically controlled process for synthesizing size-controlled noble metal or bimetallic nanocrystallites embedded within the porous structure of ordered mesoporous carbon (OMC). By using surface-modified ordered mesoporous carbon to trap the metal precursors, nanocrystallites are formed with monodisperse sizes as low as 1.5 nm, which can be tuned up to similar to 3.5 nm," wrote X.L. Ji and colleagues, University of Waterloo ...read more