Rice-built reactor yields green ammonia and purified water

New reactor system could decarbonize ammonia production, treat nitrate-contaminated water

20-Aug-2024 - Ammonia plays a critical role in sustaining food production for the world’s growing population, but making it accounts for about 2%of global energy consumption and 1.4% of carbon dioxide emissions. Rice University engineers have developed a revolutionary reactor design that could decarbonize ...

Synthetic chemistry approach yields new compounds with potential biomedical applications

The study marks a significant advancement in chemical synthesis techniques, leveraging modern organic chemistry and engineered enzymes

10-May-2024 - Researchers at Rice University have successfully synthesized a group of natural compounds known as fusicoccanes. The molecules, found in various living organisms, exhibit diverse biological activities, including the ability to modulate protein-protein interactions within biological systems. The ...

Rusting iron can be its own worst enemy

Simulations show iron catalyzes corrosion in 'inert' carbon dioxide

26-Jan-2022 - Iron that rusts in water theoretically shouldn’t corrode in contact with an “inert”supercritical fluidof carbon dioxide. But it does. The reason has eluded materials scientists to now, but a team at Rice University has a theory that could contribute to new strategies to protect iron from the ...

More effective catalyst with light

Plasmonic effect allows catalyst to work at lower energy

08-Oct-2018 - Rice University nanoscientists have demonstrated a new catalyst that can convert ammonia into hydrogen fuel at ambient pressure using only light energy, mainly due to a plasmonic effect that makes the catalyst more efficient. A study from Rice's Laboratory for Nanophotonics (LANP) describes the ...

Sculpting with graphene foam

18-Jun-2018 - Rice University scientists have developed a simple way to produce conductive, three-dimensional objects made of graphene foam. The squishy solids look and feel something like a child's toy but offer new possibilities for energy storage and flexible electronic sensor applications, according to ...

For graphite pellets, just add elbow grease

26-Mar-2018 - It's easy and economical to make shiny pellets of graphite from functionalized graphene, according to scientists at Rice University. A report shows how chemically altered graphene powder can be pressed into a lightweight, semiporous solid that retains many of the strong and conductive qualities ...

Mat baits, hooks and destroys pollutants in water

23-Mar-2018 - A polymer mat developed at Rice University has the ability to fish biologically harmful contaminants from water through a strategy known as "bait, hook and destroy." Tests with wastewater showed the mat can efficiently remove targeted pollutants, in this case a pair of biologically harmful ...

Weak hydrogen bonds key to strong, tough infrastructure

31-Jan-2018 - The right mix of hydrogen bonds in polymer and cement composites is critical to making strong, tough and ductile infrastructure material, according to Rice University scientists who want to mimic the mechanics of mother-of-pearl and similar natural composites with synthetic materials. Seashells ...

Nature's toughest substances decoded

05-Dec-2017 - How a material breaks may be the most important property to consider when designing layered composites that mimic those found in nature. A method by Rice University engineers decodes the interactions between materials and the structures they form and can help maximize their strength, toughness, ...

Four elements make 2-D optical platform

27-Sep-2017 - Rice University scientists have discovered a two-dimensional alloy with an optical bandgap that can be tuned by the temperature used to grow it. The Rice lab of materials scientist Pulickel Ajayan grew the four-component alloy of transition metals molybdenum and tungsten with chalcogens sulfur ...