Despite over a century of study and decades of intensive research, few fuel cell products have appeared on the market. The major inhibitor to mass commercialisation is cost. H2/air alkaline fuel cells (AFCs) containing KOH(aq) electrolyte promise the lowest cost devices, with the ability to use non-Pt catalysts. The fundamental problem with AFCs is that the KOH(aq) electrolyte reacts with CO2 (...

Molten carbonates are highly inviscid liquids characterized by low melting points and high solubility of rare earth elements and volatile molecules. An understanding of the structure and related properties of these intriguing liquids has been limited to date. We report the results of a study of molten sodium carbonate (Na2CO3) which combines high energy X-ray diffraction, containerless techniqu...

A surface-controlled dissolution of cylindrical solid particles model is applied to potassium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate and sodium carbonate in dimethylformamide at elevated temperatures. Previously published data for the dissolution of potassium carbonate is interpreted assuming a cylindrical rather than a spherical shape of the particles, the former representing a closer approximation to ...

Crustaceans, like most mineralized invertebrates, adopted calcium carbonate mineralization for bulk skeleton reinforcement. Here, we show that a major part of the crustacean class Malacostraca (which includes lobsters, crayfishes, prawns and shrimps) shifted toward the formation of calcium phosphate as the main mineral at specified locations of the mandibular teeth. In these structures, calcium...

The Martian meteorite ALH84001 preserves evidence of interaction with aqueous fluids while on Mars in the form of microscopic carbonate disks. These carbonate disks are believed to have precipitated 3.9 Ga ago at beginning of the Noachian epoch on Mars during which both the oldest extant Martian surfaces were formed, and perhaps the earliest global oceans. Intimately associated within and throu...

To improve the performance of nanostructured calcium carbonate in gene delivery, a hydrophilic polysaccharide, alginate, was added to calcium carbonate co-precipitation systems to form alginate/CaCO(3)/DNA nanoparticles. The size and ζ-potential of the nanoparticles were measured by a zetasizer. Due to the existence of alginate chains which retarded the growth of calcium carbonate based co-prec...

Most commercial water contains alkaline earth metal cations such as magnesium, calcium and barium, and anions such as carbonate, bicarbonate, sulfate, silicate, oxalate, phosphate, etc. Different combinations of these anions and cations will give rise to potentially scalant systems, such as calcium carbonate, calcium silicate, calcium sulfate, calcium oxalate, barium sulfate, magnesium sulfate,...

Any substantial move of energy sources from fossil fuels to renewable resources requires large scale storage of excess energy, for example, via power to fuel processes. In this respect electrochemical reduction of CO2 may become very important, since it offers a method of sustainable CO production, which is a crucial prerequisite for synthesis of sustainable fuels. Carbon dioxide reduction in s...

in the present work, high temperature tensile properties of medium density polyethylene (mdpe) and its nanocomposites are investigated. for this purpose mdpe reinforced with different weight percentages of nano-sized calcium (2, 5, 10) are produced by compression moulding method. tensile tests have been carried out at different temperatures, i.e. 30, 60, 90c using thermomechanical analysis (tm...

Nitrogen (N) in livestock food sources that does not end up in a product (e.g. milk or eggs) or that does not get incorporated in body tissue is excreted by the animal. Nitrogen in the urine is in the form of urea which can rapidly hydrolyse to form ammonium carbonate. The decomposition of ammonium carbonate frees up ammonium ions that can volatilise as gaseous ammonia (NH3). Hydrolysis of urea...