Odd reaction creates a stir in the lab

Using certain stir bars can create laboratory errors

02-Apr-2019 - The stirrers that mix cream into your coffee probably don't make much difference to the drink. But in a chemistry lab, it turns out using the wrong stirrer can skew the science. Rice University scientists have determined that stir bars made of PTFE, more commonly known as Teflon, can introduce ...

A new structure family of oxide-ion conductors 'SrYbInO4'

27-Oct-2017 - Because some A2BO4-based materials such as (Pr,La)2(Ni,Cu,Ga)O4+δ exhibit high oxide-ion conductivity, scientists at Tokyo Tech have been exploring new structure families of ABCO4-based materials as BaRInO4, where R represents a rare earth element. Here, A, B, and C are cations located at ...

Coking of fluid fuels

New procedure shall analyze and avoid reasons

10-Nov-2015 - In heating appliances, diesel engines and other technical systems driven by fluid fuels and lubricants, combustion can lead to growing undesirable deposits (coking), which may affect the functionality of the system. Deposits arise during the evaporation of fuels on hot surfaces. The detailed ...

Unveiling distribution of defects in proton conductors

21-Oct-2015 - Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC), recently used as a power source for households in Japan, have several drawbacks such as high-cost, material degradation and long start-up time derived from high operating temperatures up to 750°C. Lowering the operating temperature to an "intermediate" range of ...

Microanalysis technique makes the most of small nanoparticle samples

26-Feb-2014 - Researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have demonstrated that they can make sensitive chemical analyses of minute samples of nanoparticles by, essentially, roasting them on top of a quartz crystal. The NIST-developed ...