A Small Japanese Puffer Fish Is The Creator Of One Of The Most Spectacular Animal-made Structures. To

A method to engineer crystals with a large fraction of reactive facets

Versatile superstructures composed of nanoparticles have recently been prepared using various disassembly methods. However, little information is known on how the structural disassembly influences the catalytic performance of the materials. Scientia Professor Rose Amal, Vice-Chancellor’s Research Fellow Hamid Arandiyan and a group from the Particles and Catalysis Research Group from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) School of Chemical Engineering have had their research address this issue published in Nature Communications.

The research team led by Dr Jason Scott and Prof Sean Smith in collaboration with Curtin University and Beijing University of Technology has developed a method that allows them to engineer crystals with a large fraction of reactive facets. An ordered mesostructured La0.6Sr0.4MnO3 (LSMO) perovskite catalyst was disassembled using a unique fragmentation strategy, whereby the newly-exposed (001) reactive faces at each fracture were more reactive towards methane oxidation than the regular (i.e. before disassembly)

It is of significant interest to use methane as an alternative fuel to coal and oil due to its high hydrogen to carbon ratio which provides comparatively lower greenhouse gas emissions. Commercial catalysts for methane combustion contain precious metals (e.g. Pt and Pd) which are of high cost and poor thermal stability (caused by agglomeration of the metal deposits). Using perovskite-type catalysts to replace noble metal supported catalysts for methane oxidation has attracted recent attention due to their excellent thermal stability. In their recently published article, the research team describes a simple fragmentation method to synthesise a novel three-dimensional hexapod mesostructured LSMO perovskite.

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Im Rahmen des TV Pop-Ups haben Gert-Jan Akerboom und Hannah Reber eine multimediale Installation gebaut. Der Bauplan wird von Gert-Jan Akerboom als Kunstwerk im Rahmen der CGG Berlin aus- und zur Verfügung gestellt. Viel Spaß beim Bauen! :*

more infos? ask presse@cgg-berlin.de

Peru

Four Planet System in Orbit, Directly Imaged | Planetary Landscapes Credit: Many Worlds

This evocative movie of four planets more massive than Jupiter orbiting the young star HR 8799 is a composite of sorts, including images taken over seven years at the W.M. Keck observatory in Hawaii.

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(snowflake designs by Tomoko Fuae, Joseph Wu, Shuzo Fujimoto, and Dennis Walker)

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The full rotation of the Moon as seen by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Where you will find me today { @ NASA } contemplating formations like ‘cloud streets’ like this activity over the Bering Sea | 📷via @explorenasa + NASA/Goddard | research for #spacelandings2017 #atmosphericresearch #newterrain #environment #sciencematters { cylinders of #spinning #air }