Common household chemicals pose new threat to brain health

Research shows chemicals in countless household items harm specialized cells in the brain

03-Apr-2024 - A team of researchers from theCase Western Reserve University School of Medicinehas provided fresh insight into the dangers some common household chemicals pose to brain health. They suggest that chemicals found in a wide range of items, from furniture to hair products, may be linked to ...

Making ammonia 'greener'

Smaller ammonia processing plants powered by alternative energy

15-Jan-2019 - Ammonia, a compound first synthesized about a century ago, has dozens of modern uses and has become essential in making the fertilizer that now sustains most of our global food production. But while we've been producing ammonia at a large scale since the 1930s, it has been accomplished mainly in ...

Physicists deploy magnetic vortex to control electron spin

17-Jun-2016 - Researchers at Case Western Reserve University have developed a way to swiftly and precisely control electron spins at room temperature. The technology offers a possible alternative strategy for building quantum computers that are far faster and more powerful than today's supercomputers. "What ...

New nanomaterial maintains conductivity in three dimensions

08-Sep-2015 - An international team of scientists has developed what may be the first one-step process for making seamless carbon-based nanomaterials that possess superior thermal, electrical and mechanical properties in three dimensions. In early testing, a three-dimensional (3D) fiber-like supercapacitor ...

Flexible supercapacitor raises bar for volumetric energy density

Could be woven into clothes to power wearable medical, communications devices

13-May-2014 - Scientists have taken a large step toward making a fiber-like energy storage device that can be woven into clothing and power wearable medical monitors, communications equipment or other small electronics. The device is a supercapacitor—a cousin to the battery. This one packs an interconnected ...

Metal-free catalyst outperforms platinum in fuel cell

Researchers now optimizing cheap, easy-to-make alternative

06-Jun-2013 - Researchers from South Korea, Case Western Reserve University and University of North Texas have discovered an inexpensive and easily produced catalyst that performs better than platinum in oxygen-reduction reactions. The finding, detailed in Nature's Scientific Reports, is a step toward ...

Platinum is wrong stuff for fuel cells

Material wastes energy, Case Western Reserve University researcher suggests

16-Jul-2012 - Fuel cells are inefficient because the catalyst most commonly used to convert chemical energy to electricity is made of the wrong material, a researcher at Case Western Reserve University argues. Rather than continue the futile effort to tweak that material - platinum - to make it work better, ...

Researchers love triangles

Shaped catalysts spark longer, faster-growing, rule-breaking nanowires

08-Jun-2012 - A research team at Case Western Reserve University has found that gold catalysts shaped in the form of a cube, triangle, or other higher order structures grow nanowires about twice as fast and twice as long compared to wires grown with the more typical spherically-shaped catalysts.This finding ...

Implanted biofuel cell converts bug's chemistry into electricity

Case Western Reserve University scientists take step toward cyborg

10-Jan-2012 - An insect's internal chemicals can be converted to electricity, potentially providing power for sensors, recording devices or to control the bug, a group of researchers at Case Western Reserve University report. The finding is yet another in a growing list from universities across the country ...

Researchers image atomic structural changes that control properties of sapphires

02-Dec-2010 - Materials scientists from Case Western Reserve University and the Institute of Solid State Research in Jülich, Germany have produced particularly clear changes in the atomic structure of sapphire following deformation at high temperatures. Peering through an electron microscope down to a level ...