Lifeboat Foundation

Natural gas and biogas have become increasingly popular sources of energy throughout the world in recent years, thanks to their cleaner and more efficient combustion process when compared to coal and oil.

However, the presence of contaminants such as carbon dioxide within the gas means it must first be purified before it can be burnt as fuel.

Traditional processes to purify natural gas typically involve the use of toxic solvents and are extremely energy-intensive.

Continue reading “Novel membrane material removes more impurities without the need for toxic solvents” »

One day, phones will be made from stardust and unicorns. For now, though, we have four choices.

The mind-bending material would be like a sponge made of water that’s leaking water.

Utilizing tape to repair or reinforce concrete structures may seem like some hillbilly fix-it joke, but in fact that’s just what fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) sheets are used for. Now, scientists have developed what they say is a better FRP, that halves the number of people and amount of time required for application.

New York startup Ecovative has created a biodegradable plastic from…

Simple electrical procedure could reshape noses and correct vision.

Another possibility for an alternative to traditional plastics?

A substance made by solitary bees.

Sometimes the answers to life’s most complicated questions are hidden in the smallest details. That’s a truth Veronica Harwood-Stevenson discovered when she found there might be a way to create a sustainable alternative to plastic products by mimicking a natural substance produced by bees.

Continue reading “EHF Fellow: Veronica Harwood-Stevenson” »

UC Berkeley chemists have proved that three carbon structures recently created by scientists in South Korea and Japan are in fact the long-sought schwarzites, which researchers predict will have unique electrical and storage properties like those now being discovered in buckminsterfullerenes (buckyballs or fullerenes for short), nanotubes and graphene.

The new structures were built inside the pores of zeolites, crystalline forms of silicon dioxide – sand – more commonly used as water softeners in laundry detergents and to catalytically crack petroleum into gasoline. Called zeolite-templated carbons (ZTC), the structures were being investigated for possible interesting properties, though the creators were unaware of their identity as schwarzites, which theoretical chemists have worked on for decades.

Continue reading “Schwarzites: Long-sought carbon structure joins graphene, fullerene family” »

Stimulation with ultrafast light pulses can realize and manipulate states of matter with emergent structural, electronic and magnetic phenomena. According to a new study, published in the journal Nature Materials, an ultrafast laser pulse plus ‘frustration’ resulted in a new state of matter — a ‘supercrystal.’