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Tuning strategies and structure effects of electrocatalysts for the carbon dioxide reduction reaction

Excessive carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel consumption lead to serious climate and environmental problems, such as increasing global average temperature and sea-level rise. The crucial link is diminishing greenhouse gas (mainly CO2) concentrations in the air, which requires efficient CO2 conversions and utilizations. Electrocatalytic reduction reaction of carbon dioxide (CO2RR) can directly convert renewable electricity and CO2 into valuable chemicals, such as formic acid, methanol and ethanol.

Because of the multi-electron reaction mechanisms, the CO2RR products are varied, so the catalyst design is crucial. Substantial strategies have been devoted to searching CO2RR catalysts for specific products. The catalysts with different components or the different intrinsic structure with the same component can both invoke distinct performance. Therefore, reasonable strategies for tuning the intrinsic and external structure of catalysts have become a primary concern. It is important to develop new strategies for preparing CO2RR catalysts, while the crystal plane, defect, vacancy or multi-component factors in the structure may lead to a series of effects to improve the catalytic activity. The analysis of the activity sources of different catalysts can reveal the catalytic intrinsic nature, which can provide theoretical support for designing CO2RR catalysts.

columbia-canaille

The Plutonium Files

The United States Government performed human experimentation involving plutonium on unwitting Americans during the Cold War

The Plutonium Files: America’s Secret Medical Experiments in the Cold War is a 1999 book by Eileen Welsome. It is a history of United States government-engineered radiation experiments

The experiments began in 1945, when Manhattan Project scientists were preparing to detonate the first atomic bomb.

Radiation was known to be dangerous and the experiments were designed to ascertain the detailed effect of radiation on human health. Most of the subjects, Welsome says, were poor, powerless, and sick.

From 1945 to 1947, 18 people were injected with plutonium by Manhattan project doctors. Other experiments directed by the United States Atomic Energy Commission continued into the 1970s.

In Nashville, pregnant women were given radioactive mixtures. In Cincinnati, some 200 patients were irradiated over a period of 15 years. In Chicago, 102 people received injections of strontium and caesium solutions. In Massachusetts, 57 developmentally disabled children were fed oatmeal laced with radioactive tracers in an experiment sponsored by MIT and the Quaker Oats Company. In none of these cases were the subjects informed about the nature of the procedures, and thus could not have provided informed consent.

In the book these stories are interwoven with details of more well-known radiation experiments and accidents.

The government covered up most of these radiation mishaps until 1993, when President Bill Clinton ordered a change of policy and federal agencies then made available records dealing with human radiation experiments, as a result of Welsome’s work.

The resulting investigation was undertaken by the president’s Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments, and it uncovered much of the material included in Welsome’s book. The committee issued a controversial 1995 report which said that “wrongs were committed” but it did not condemn those who perpetrated them.

The final report came out on October 3, 1995, the same day as the verdict in the O.J. Simpson case, when much of the media’s attention was directed elsewhere.

materialsscienceandengineering

Enzymes successfully embedded in plastics

In general, plastics are processed at way over a hundred degrees Celsius. Enzymes, by contrast, cannot usually withstand these high temperatures. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research IAP have managed to reconcile these contradictions: They are able to embed enzymes in plastics without the enzymes losing their activity in the process. The potentials this creates are enormous.

Materials that clean themselves, have anti-mold surfaces or are even self-degrading are just a few examples of what will be possible if we manage to embed active enzymes into plastics. But for the enzyme-specific properties to be transferred to the materials, the enzymes must not suffer damage as they are embedded in the plastic. Scientists at Fraunhofer IAP have developed a solution to the problem as part of the “Biofunctionalization/Biologization of Polymer Materials BioPol” project. Since summer 2018, the project has been running in cooperation with BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg. The Ministry of Science, Research and Culture of the State of Brandenburg is funding the project.

“It was clear from the outset that we were not looking to produce biofunctionalized plastics on a laboratory scale. We wanted to take a giant step to show that technical production is possible,” says Dr. Ruben R. Rosencrantz, Head of the “Biofunctionalized Materials and (Glyco)Biotechnology” department at Fraunhofer IAP, summarizing the ambitious project goals. At around the midpoint in the project, major breakthroughs are already emerging: Enzymes have been successfully embedded, both in terms of the enzymes themselves and the processing technique.

Permanganate oxidation complete!

#potassium permanganate #toluene #benzoic acid #chemistry

Sometimes you gotta try a different type of chemistry... one that you could eat after the reaction is over.

#cupcakes #baking #chemistry

Luminol reacting with H2O2 catalysed by Fe3+

#chemistry #luminol

Iron sulphate (FeSO4)

#chemistry

Separating nitrotoluene from the nitration mixture with a sep funnel.

#chemistry #toluene #nitrotoluene

Manganese sulphate crystals

#chemistry #manganese

My first time using the soxhlet ❤️

#chemistry #soxhlet #science #molecularsieves

This is the complex called Schweiser’s reagent. I didn’t record how I made the ammonia, it’s not a secret, I’ll tell you (but don’t tell anyone, jk) : I started with an ammonium salt (NH4NO3 ), you can use any other NH4 salt. I added NaOH and then I smelled ammonia, it’s pretty stinky and you should do it in a very well ventilated area. NH3 is very soluble in water, so you can use the solution that you have made, but if you want only the ammonia, then purify it by putting it in a round bottom flask with some glass connectors and tubing and prepare some distilled water in a beaker so that the ammonia can get in it and dissolve, carefully heat the flask until you see bubbles and when you don’t see them it’s done, you have extracted almost all NH3, inevitably there will be losses. NH4NO3 +NaOH-> NH3+NaNO3+H2O

Well, this is Copper Hidroxide (II), in the first picture you can see my reactives NaOH and CuSO4, also the chemical equation. I made this because I wanted to try something new for me, making a complex called Schweiser's reagent.

#chemistry #copper #blue

This is the Iodine Clock Reaction performed by me, obviously. I really enjoy making this reaction, I feel like a little a little enthusiastic kid receiving chocolate. The reaction itself is simple: 2NaI+H2SO4->2HI+Na2SO4 2HI+H2O2-> I2+2H2O The colour is given by the I2 reacting with the starch to make a complex.

Comparison between Fe2+ (left) and Fe3+ (right)

#science #chemistry

My first attempt at making CuSO4 crystals.

Well, I finally did it.

This is from the iodine clock reaction, this solution contains Na2S4O6, NaI, starch, water and some H2O2. The color of the solution is due to the iodine present in the solution, because when NaI and H2O2 react in an acid medium I2 is produced, which is violet (or pink). If you want to discolor the iodine clock mixture, you need to add NaOH, mine was a bit impure (it contains some NaCl, so I needed to add more); the reaction is : 2NaI+H2SO4 -> Na2SO4+2HI 2HI+H2O2->I2+2H2O NaOH+HI-> NaI+H2O The bubbles were CO2, because NaOH is so reactive that it reacts with CO2 from the air to produce Na2CO3 and when a carbonated salt reacts with an acid CO2 is formed. I hope you enjoyed!

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