"... they are looking to use the nanotree structure to mimic photosynthesis in a device that not only harnesses the power of the sun to produce hydrogen fuel, but also captures CO2 from the atmosphere to reduce carbon emissions at the same time."
En-route to metallic hydrogen, which would be superconductive at room temperature. Catch? Need a pressure that it beyond 10 million bar... good luck :)
A total storage of 9.5 wt% H2 could be reached which is above the 7.5wt% set by the DoE for market requirements of hydrogen vehicles. The nanoboxes can be opened and closed using electric fields.
not much new that has not been shared here before ... BUT: we have done relativley little on any of them. for good reasons?? don't know - maybe time to look into some of these again more closely
Energy Efficiency(
Termite mounds inspired regulated airflow for temperature control of large structures, preventing wasteful air conditioning and saving 10% energy.[1]
Whale fins shapes informed the design of new-age wind turbine blades, with bumps/tubercles reducing drag by 30% and boosting power by 20%.[2][3][4]
Stingray motion has motivated studies on this type of low-effort flapping glide, which takes advantage of the leading edge vortex, for new-age underwater robots and submarines.[5][6]
Studies of microstructures found on shark skin that decrease drag and prevent accumulation of algae, barnacles, and mussels attached to their body have led to "anti-biofouling" technologies meant to address the 15% of marine vessel fuel use due to drag.[7][8][9][10]
Energy Generation(
Passive heliotropism exhibited by sunflowers has inspired research on a liquid crystalline elastomer and carbon nanotube system that improves the efficiency of solar panels by 10%, without using GPS and active repositioning panels to track the sun.[11][12][13]
Mimicking the fluid dynamics principles utilized by schools of fish could help to optimize the arrangement of individual wind turbines in wind farms.[14]
The nanoscale anti-reflection structures found on certain butterfly wings has led to a model to effectively harness solar energy.[15][16][17]
Energy Storage(
Inspired by the sunlight-to-energy conversion in plants, researchers are utilizing a protein in spinach to create a sort of photovoltaic cell that generates hydrogen from water (i.e. hydrogen fuel cell).[18][19]
Utilizing a property of genetically-engineered viruses, specifically their ability to recognize and bind to certain materials (carbon nanotubes in this case), researchers have developed virus-based "scaffolds" that
We discussed this today during coffee. The inventor claims that he claims that a pressure differential can push hydrogen through a proton conductive membrane (thereby stripping off the electrons) which flow through an electric circuit and provide electric power. The type of membrane is fairly similar to that found in a hydrogen fuel cell. If the pressure differential is cause by selective heating this is in essence a heat engine that directly produces electricity. The inventor claims that this could be a high efficiency alternative to thermoelectric devices and could even outperform PV and Sterling engines with an efficiency close to that of fuel cells (e.g., ~60% @ dT=600K).
I could not find any scientific publications as the inventor is not affiliated to any University - he has however an impressive number of patents from a very wide field (e.g., the "Super Soaker" squirt gun) and has worked on several NASA and US military projects. His current research seams to be funded by the latter as well. Here are some more links that I found:
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/11/shooting-for-the-sun/308268/http://www.johnsonems.com/?q=node/13http://scholar.google.nl/scholar?q=%22lonnie+g+johnson%22+&btnG=&hl=nl&as_sdt=0%2C5
Here we go: we might not need liquid water after all on mars to get some nice flowering plants there! ... and terraform ? :-)
Thirsty plants can extract water from the crystalline structure of gypsum, a rock-forming mineral found in soil on Earth and Mars.
Some plants grow on gypsum outcrops and remain active even during dry summer months, despite having shallow roots that cannot reach the water table. Sara Palacio of the Pyrenean Institute of Ecology in Jaca, Spain, and her colleagues compared the isotopic composition of sap from one such plant, called Helianthemum squamatum (pictured), with gypsum crystallization water and water found free in the soil. The team found that up to 90% of the plant's summer water supply came from gypsum.
The study has implications for the search for life in extreme environments on this planet and others.
Very interesting indeed. Attention is to be put on the form of calcium sulfate that is found on Mars. If it is hydrated (gypsum Ca(SO4)*2(H2O)) it works, but if it is dehydrated there is no water for the roots to take in.
The Curiosity Rover tries to find out, but has uncertainty in recognising the hydrogen presence in the mineral:
Copying :
"(...)
3.2 Hydration state of calcium sulfates
Calcium sulfates occur as a non-hydrated phase (anhydrite, CaSO4) or as one of two
hydrated phases (bassanite, CaSO4.1/2H2O, which can contain a somewhat variable water
content, and gypsum, CaSO4.2H2O). ChemCam identifies the presence of hydrogen at 656 nm,
as already found in soils and dust [Meslin et al., 2013] and within fluvial conglomerates
[Williams et al., 2013]. However, the quantification of H is strongly affected by matrix effects
[Schröder et al., 2013], i.e. effects including major or even minor element chemistry, optical and
mechanical properties, that can result in variations of emission lines unrelated to actual
quantitative variations of the element in question in the sample. Due to these effects,
discriminating between bassanite and gypsum is difficult. (...)"
As a side note, this is also being used as method to create a hypothetical substance called 'metallic hydrogen'. At such high pressures, hydrogen itself should become superconducting at room temperature and thus of tremendous interest...
Seems a little speculative but pretty interesting thoughts. In regards to terraforming Mars this might be of interest:
"During the daytime, plant-like microorganisms on a Martian-like surface could photosynthesize hydrogen peroxide. At night, when the atmosphere is relatively humid, they could use their stored hydrogen peroxide to scavenge water from the atmosphere, similar to how microbial communities in the Atacama use the moisture that salt brine extracts from the air to stay alive."
Researchers cooled a cloud of about 4,000 antiprotons down to 9 kelvin using a standard approach for cooling atoms that has never been used with charged particles or ions. The technique could provide a new way to create and trap antihydrogen, which could help researchers probe a basic symmetry of nature.
hydrogen and antihydrogen should share many basic traits, like mass, magnetic moment, and emission spectrum. If antihydrogen and hydrogen have even slightly different spectra, it indicates some new physics principles beyond the standard model, a very big deal.
yeah the problem is the amount of antimatter you can get and more specifically how to trap it. I found that you would need around one gram to go to the outer Solar System. So we are far from that, but finding an efficient way to trap it, with an electromagnetic trap rather than solid walls is a first step !
So short in fact, that last year when the looming crisis, which reporters had been covering for years, became official, the price of helium-3 went from $150 per liter to $5,000 per liter.
The science, medical and security uses for helium-3 are so diverse that the crisis banded together a hodge-podge of universities, hospitals and government departments to try and find workable alternatives and engineer ways to recycle the gas they do have.
None of these. Either you recycle, or you take it from natural sources on Earth. Although most people don't know - there is plenty of natural He3 on Earth. It's just nonsens to use it for energy production (in fusion reactors) since the energy belance for getting the He3 from these source on Earth is just negative.
Or you try to substitute He3.
See Also:
Matter & Energy
Nanotechnology
Optics
Physics
Materials Science
Graphene
Organic Chemistry
Reference
White gold
Electromagnetic radiation
Nanomedicine
Nanoparticle
Any use for the smell project?
"We have demonstrated resonant antenna-enhanced single-particle hydrogen sensing in the visible region and presented a fabrication approach to the positioning of a single palladium nanoparticle in the nanofocus of a gold nanoantenna,"
A team led by Robert Wolkow at Canada's National Institute for Nanotechnology in Edmonton, Alberta, has discovered that single silicon atoms, sitting in an electron-doped silicon lattice that is blanketed with hydrogen, provide electronic structures with
The portable nuclear reactor is the size of a hot tub. It's shaped like a sake cup, filled with a uranium hydride core and surrounded by a hydrogen atmosphere.