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Sean Nash

Electrified charcoal sponge soaks up CO2 from the air - 1 views

www.anthropocenemagazine.org/...s-up-co2-directly-from-the-air

CO2 carbondioxide climatechange charcoal electricity HSR HSR-2025 science environmental engineering chemistry biology physics potential research idea

shared by Sean Nash on 15 Jun 24 - No Cached
  • With a little bit of electric charge, the sponge-like charcoal material used in household water filters can also capture carbon dioxide from air, researchers report in the journal Nature. The advance could provide a low-cost, efficient route for removing the greenhouse gas from the atmosphere.
  • For the material, the researchers turned to an activated charcoal sponge, a porous substance with a large surface area. The material is commonly found in household purifiers to capture chemicals and toxins from water. Activated charcoal cannot efficiently capture carbon dioxide from air normally. But chemist Alexander Forse and his colleagues proposed that inserting charged, reactive particles into activated charcoal could turn it into a direct air capture sorbent.
  • The researchers charged the activated charcoal cloth in a battery-like setup. They used the cloth like one electrode in a battery, placing it in a solvent solution with an opposite electrode. When they passed electricity through the device, charged hydroxide ions accumulate in the tiny pores of the charcoal cloth.
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  • Tests showed that the resulting sorbent material rapidly captured carbon dioxide from ambient air by reacting with hydroxides.
  • One downside to the material is that its performance decreases under humidity. The researchers are working to fix that, and are also to increase the quantity of carbon dioxide that the material can capture.
    • Sean Nash
      Sean Nash on 15 Jun 24
       
      Seems like a potential engineering challenge to me. I think it would be immediately interesting to figure out more of the detail of what they've done here... and run some quick feasibility tests. Can we easily replicate with available materials? Can we measure the CO2 uptake with simple probes? When testing different versions of the same material, can we compare results with a microscopic examination of the material to potentially correlate a particular construction with better performance? Could we perhaps then suggest best materials for certain circumstances? Could we even create materials that perform better?
  • Sean Nash on 15 Jun 24
     
    "When researchers ran a charge through charcoal sponges commonly used in home water filters, they discovered a low-cost, low-energy route to remove CO2 from the air"
Sean Nash

Q. What's the greener building material, fungus or concrete? - 1 views

www.anthropocenemagazine.org/...ng-material-fungus-or-concrete

fungi concrete electricity ecology environment green building materials science fungus HSR-2025 HSR environmental questions engineering physics chemistry biology potential research idea

shared by Sean Nash on 06 Jun 24 - No Cached
  • Sean Nash on 06 Jun 24
     
    This is more of a broad idea re: the use of living things as building materials - not so much detail in this specific article
Sean Nash

New fabric makes urban heat islands more bearable | ScienceDaily - 0 views

www.sciencedaily.com/...240613161204.htm

HSR HSR-2025 science environmental engineering physics biology potential research idea

shared by Sean Nash on 15 Jun 24 - No Cached
  • This year has already seen massive heatwaves around the globe, with cities in Mexico, India, Pakistan and Oman hitting temperatures near or past 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit).
  • In tests under the Arizona sun, the material kept 2.3 degrees Celsius (4.1 degrees Fahrenheit) cooler than the broadband emitter fabric used for outdoor endurance sports and 8.9 degrees Celsius (16 degrees Fahrenheit) cooler than the commercialized silk commonly used for shirts, dresses and other summer clothing.
  • "You can save a lot of cooling, electricity and energy costs because this is a passive process," Sui said.
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  • Spectrally engineered textile for radiative cooling against urban heat islands. Science, 2024; 384 (6701): 1203 DOI: 10.1126/science.adl0653
    • Sean Nash
      Sean Nash on 15 Jun 24
       
      I'm not yet convinced of the feasibility of this one, but this might provide a spark for someone. Some types of materials engineering like this is done on a nanoscale, which may not be the best for what we can do... but I believe there is space here for exploring composite materials with different properties to engineer better outcomes than what we're currently dealing with.
  • Sean Nash on 15 Jun 24
     
    "With applications in clothing, construction and food storage, the new textile reduces heat from both the sun and thermal radiation from nearby buildings"
Sean Nash

New fabric cools people in sweltering cities - 0 views

www.anthropocenemagazine.org/...ople-cool-in-sweltering-cities

HSR HSR-2025 science statistical analysis engineering physics chemistry potential research idea

shared by Sean Nash on 02 Jul 24 - No Cached
  • researchers have designed a new wearable fabric to help people beat the heat in urban settings. The material, reported in the journal Science, could find use in clothing, cooling facades for buildings and cars, and for food storage and transport.
  • Existing cooling fabrics reflect sunlight and also wick away sweat to cool a person via evaporation. More recently, researchers have designed cooling fabrics that rely on the principle of radiative cooling: the natural phenomenon in which objects radiate heat through the atmosphere straight into outer space.
  • But radiative cooling fabrics made so far are designed to work when laid horizontally as opposed to vertically, as they would be when worn.
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  • researchers at the University of Chicago made a new three-layer fabric. Its wool bottom layer wicks heat from the skin to the middle layer, which is made of silver nanowires that block heat from coming in. The top layer selectively emits heat into the atmosphere.
  • In tests conducted in the urban heat island of Chicago and under blistering Arizona sun, the material stayed 2.3°C cooler than sports cooling fabrics and 8.9°C cooler than commercial silk used for summer clothing.
  • Sean Nash on 02 Jul 24
     
    Materials science is certainly a nifty bit of engineering. This is the second time I've seen this study mentioned. Look interesting enough to dig into various materials and how they might be combined to serve a key purpose?
emmarrogers

Crayfish Light-Dark Maze - Maze Engineers - 0 views

maze.conductscience.com/...crayfish-light-dark-maze

crayfish

shared by emmarrogers on 17 Sep 24 - No Cached
  • Time spent in the dark arms of the maze Time spent in the light arms of the maze
  • water quality
  • Moreover, it can effectively be used to observe the effect of various stressors such as social stress, changes in environmental parameters, or electric field stress on anxiety-like behaviors
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  • anxiety-like behaviors
  • prefer dark places
  • 10 minutes.
  • 50-lux in
  • 50-lux intensity in the light arms and 10-lux
  • 50-lux intensity in the light arms and 10-lux
  • explore the maze for 10 minute
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