Skoltech imaging resources used in international experiment with new photocatalysts
2021-02-01
(Press-News.org) Skoltech researchers helped their colleagues from Japan, Germany, the United States, and China study the crystal structure and optical properties of a new class of two-dimensional compounds, which can be used as effective visible-light-responsive photocatalysts for energy and chemical conversion. They used the Advanced Imaging Core Facility equipment for imaging and structural analysis. The paper was published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
One potential use of photocatalysts, so-called water splitting can help substitute climate-warming fossil fuels with more environmentally friendly hydrogen. For this process to work on a large scale, engineers need better-designed catalysts that can utilize the solar spectrum effectively.
Skoltech Professor and Director of the Center for Energy Science and Technology Artem Abakumov and research scientist of the Advanced Imaging Core Facility Maria Kirsanova were part of an international collaboration that studied layered oxychlorides of the type Bi2MO4Cl, where M can stand for yttrium (Y), lanthanum (La), or bismuth (Bi).
"Based on AICF facilities, the Skoltech team performed high-resolution transmission electron microscopy imaging and analysis of local structural features that are responsible for high photocatalytic activity of Bi2MO4Cl compounds," Kirsanova explained.
Skoltech Advanced Imaging Core Facility has the most advanced equipment for conducting research using electron microscopy, both scanning and transmission, including the transmission electron microscope Titan Themis Z.
"The capabilities of the transmission electron microscope Titan Themis Z make it possible to investigate various materials, including photocatalysts, for example, you can visualize the crystal lattice of a material and the defects in crystal lattice using scanning transmission electron microscopy technique. The task of visualizing a crystal lattice is not the most trivial one, so the most important thing for us is the availability of employees with the necessary qualifications and with an extensive background, which is necessary for the interpretation of experimental results. In this regard, we pay great attention to improving the qualifications of our employees, since progress does not stand still and new techniques in the field of electron microscopy appear every year," Yaroslava Shakhova, head of AICF, explained.
By inserting a MO2 layer in the conventional Bi2O2 layer, the researchers effectively increased the number of dimensions of this material from one to two; they hypothesize that it may be interesting to go further, from 2D to 3D, by thickening the fluorite block of the compound. This can improve both the photocatalytic properties and other remarkable properties observed in this class of compounds, such as ferroelectricity (spontaneous electric polarization that can be reversed with an external magnetic field).
INFORMATION:
Other organizations involved in this research include Kyoto University; Aachen University; Center for Neutron Research, National Institute of Standards and Technology; Hoffmann Institute of Advanced Materials, Shenzhen Polytechnic; and Osaka University.
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2021-02-01
It has sometimes been suggested that humans use a tiny fraction of their brains. But, is this statement true? The authors of a study published on 20 January in the journal Nature Communications answer this question using neural records of mice subjected to visual stimuli.
This paper demonstrates, in the visual system of mice, the presence of a type of coordination of neural activity called differential correlations. A study by Rubén Moreno-Bote, a researcher at the Center for Brain and Cognition (CBC) and Serra Hunter research professor with the UPF Department of Information and Communication Technologies ...
2021-02-01
Scientists have revealed new insights into the behaviour of black holes with research that demonstrates how a phenomenon called backreaction can be simulated.
The team from the University of Nottingham have used their simulation of a black hole, involving a specially designed water tank, for this latest research published in Physical Review Letters. This study is the first to demonstrate that the evolution of black holes resulting from the fields surrounding them can be simulated in a laboratory experiment.
The researchers used a water tank simulator consisting of a draining vortex, like the one that forms when you pull the plug in the bath. This mimics a black hole since a wave which comes too ...
2021-02-01
Protein alteration in the family of lamins causes several diseases, known as laminopathies, such as progeria or precocious ageing. A study in which UB researchers have taken part states that alterations in the levels of one of these proteins, lamin B1, contribute to the degeneration of different brain neuronal populations in Huntington's disease. Caused by a mutation in the huntingtin gen, this pathology features involuntary movements, cognitive deficit and psychiatric disorders, and has no cure yet.
According to the study, published in the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine, these results open new therapeutic pathways for the treatment of this disease, since research shows pharmacological normalization of levels of lamin ...
2021-02-01
As COVID-19 spread across the world, so did conspiracy theories and false information about the virus. This proliferation of misinformation--labeled an "infodemic" by the World Health Organization (WHO)--makes it difficult to identify trustworthy sources and can threaten public health by undermining confidence in science, governments, and public health recommendations.
The consequences of misinformation can be tragic: hundreds died and thousands were poisoned in Iran after consuming toxic methanol alcohol, falsely believing it could cure COVID-19.
In a new article in the Journal of Public ...
2021-02-01
The COVID-19 pandemic is straining health systems across the country, especially intensive care units. New research from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Regenstrief Institute and Indiana University School of Medicine shows that people treated in the ICU for COVID-19 are twice as likely to die when the ICU capacity is strained by the number of COVID-19 patients.
"These results demonstrate that patients with COVID-19 are more likely to die if they are admitted to an ICU during times with peak COVID-19 caseload," said Dawn Bravata, M.D., first author of the study. "We know that strain on hospital ...
2021-02-01
Amsterdam, December 29, 2020 - This new pioneering study by Prof. Ricardo Maccioni and coworkers of the International Center for Biomedicine, "New Frontiers in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer´s disease" was published in the special issue of Latin American investigators of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease(JAD). This supports a growing body of research on the Alzheimer's prevention value of an integrated approach using daily exercise, nutraceuticals, oriental practices such as QiGong along with meditation, and social life. These elements of a healthy style of life are supplemented with the use of reliable biomarkers for early detection of this disease that allows the detection of Alzheimer up to 20 years before ...
2021-02-01
Chronic stress could be the prevailing condition of our time. In the short term, our jaws or stomachs may clench; in the long term, stress can lead to metabolic disease and speed up diseases of aging, as well as leading to more serious psychological disorders. The physical manifestations of stress originate in the brain, and they move along a so-called "stress axis" that ends in the adrenal glands. These glands then produce the hormone cortisol. When the stress axis is continually activated, changes occur in the cells and organs along the way, and the continual production of cortisol then substantially contribute the symptoms of chronic stress.
The stress response axis starts with the hypothalamus in the brain, ...
2021-02-01
Scientists say stable seafood consumption amongst the world's poorer coastal communities is linked to how local habitat characteristics influence fishing at different times of the year.
In the coastal communities of low-income countries, the seafood people catch themselves is often a main food source. In a new study, scientists focused on an often-overlooked type of fishing called gleaning: collecting molluscs, crabs, octopus and reef fish by hand close to shore.
"We surveyed 131 households in eight coastal communities on a small island off Timor-Leste," said study lead author Ruby Grantham from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies.
Grantham said even though gleaning is important for food security ...
2021-02-01
(Boston)--There have been great advances in treating melanoma over the past five years, however, even with these treatments many patients quickly develop drug resistance and die from their disease. A new study from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) has discovered that a drug (YK-4-279) that was previously created to target one specific type of protein has much broader use against a family of proteins that act to promote melanoma.
"We find that this drug inhibited melanoma from becoming more aggressive in human cells and in experimental models. We also found a specific pathway that this drug acts through to be anti-cancer: inhibiting proteins that drive genes that promote cancer cell growth and metastasis," ...
2021-02-01
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Antarctic ice is melting, contributing massive amounts of water to the world's seas and causing them to rise - but that melt is not as linear and consistent as scientists previously thought, a new analysis of 20 years' worth of satellite data indicates.
The analysis, built on gravitational field data from a NASA satellite system, shows that Antarctica's ice melts at different rates each year, meaning the models scientists use to predict coming sea level rise might also need adjusting.
"The ice sheet is not changing with a constant rate - it's more complicated than a linear change," said Lei Wang, assistant professor ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Skoltech imaging resources used in international experiment with new photocatalysts
