Stainless steel/tin/glass coating as spectrally selective material for passive radiative cooling applications

Scopus : "Glass substrates coated with a stainless steel-tin double layer were prepared in order to achieve the inverse greenhouse effect. 

The measurements of the optical properties of the samples indicate that the needed specific spectral selectivity is available. Practical tests of radiative cooling were performed during clear night using a blackbody radiator covered by the coated plate with glass facing the sky. The blackbody temperature was observed to be 6.0 C below that of the ambient, and the cooling power was estimated to be 27.9 W/m2. Diurnal measurements indicated that cooling of the blackbody radiator is achieved except for approximately 6 hours around noon"

Globalisation challenges for metals

Factiva: "Globalization in the metals industries: looking back at the challenges to the metals industry over the past several decades and the responses to them, it is very easy to predict that coming decades also will provide new challenges and opportunities.

Grubb, John F.
1250 words
1 January 2009
Advanced Materials & Processes
29
ISSN: 0882-7958; Volume 167; Issue 1"

New catalyst paves the path for ethanol-powered fuel cells

Nanowerk: "A team of scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, in collaboration with researchers from the University of Delaware and Yeshiva University, has developed a new catalyst that could make ethanol-powered fuel cells feasible. 

The highly efficient catalyst performs two crucial, and previously unreachable steps needed to oxidize ethanol and produce clean energy in fuel cell reactions. Their results are published online in the January 25, 2009 edition of Nature Materials."

But at Brookhaven, scientists have found a winner. Made of platinum and rhodium atoms on carbon-supported tin dioxide nanoparticles, the research team’s electrocatalyst is capable of breaking carbon bonds at room temperature and efficiently oxidizing ethanol into carbon dioxide as the main reaction product. Other catalysts, by comparison, produce acetalhyde and acetic acid as the main products, which make them unsuitable for power generation.

Based on these studies and calculations, the researchers predict that the high activity of their ternary catalyst results from the synergy between all three constituents – platinum, rhodium, and tin dioxide – knowledge that could be applied to other alternative energy applications.

“These findings can open new possibilities of research not only for electrocatlysts and fuel cells but also for many other catalytic processes,” Adzic said.