New freely accessible nanotechnology and nanoscience publications archive

New freely accessible nanotechnology and nanoscience publications archive

Research at the nanoscale has the potential to solve many fundamental scientific problems and lead to new developments in different disciplines and application areas such as medicine, electronics, energy, and the environment. Successful outcomes to such research will have a measurable impact on the future well-being of our global society; however this can only be achieved through improving access to information and opportunities for international collaboration. The ICPCNanoNet project is one such initiative in this framework. Funded by the EU under FP7 for four years from June 2008, it provides:
an electronic archive of nanoscience publications that is freely accessible to researchers around the globe;
an electronic database of nanoscience organizations and networks in ICPC;
links to nanoscience researchers and stakeholders across the globe;
annual reports on nanoscience developments in eight ICPC regions: Africa, Caribbean, Pacific, Asia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA), Latin America, Mediterranean Partner Countries (MPC), Western Balkan Countries (WBC);
online networking tools (forums, workshops);
annual workshops, one in each of EU, China, India, and Russia, which will also be webcast to facilitate greater access.
The project brings together partners from the EU, China, India and Russia and aims to provide wider access to published nanoscience and nanotechnology research and opportunities for collaboration between scientists in the EU and International Cooperation Partner Countries. This will be achieved through the creation of an open access electronic archive of nanoscience publications and tools to facilitate networking between scientists in different world regions.
The project builds on previous initiatives including Nanoforum (www.nanoforum.org) which provides information on nanoscience and technology in the EU; EuroIndiaNet (http://www2.spi.pt/euroindianet/) which promoted stronger collaboration between EU and Indian nanoscientists and technologists, and NanoforumEULA (www.mesaplus.utwente.nl/nanoforumeula/) which promotes stronger collaboration between EU and Latin American nanoscientists and technologists.
ICPCNanoNet is coordinated by the Institute of Nanotechnology (UK) and includes Sociedade Portuguesa de Inovação (Portugal), St Petersburg Electrotechnical University (Russia), Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (India), Chinese Society of Micro-Nano Technology (China), MERIT, Universiteit Maastricht (Netherlands), and Malsch TechnoValuation (Netherlands).
To register your interest in ICPCNanoNet please contact the project coordinator:
Dr Mark Morrison
Institute of Nanotechnology
mark.morrison@nano.org.uk
Tel. +44 (0)141 303 8444.
or register on the project websites: www.ICPC-nanonet.org (main project website) and www.nanoarchive.org (electronic archive).
Source: ICPCNanoNet

New catalyst paves the path for ethanol-powered fuel cells

(Nanowerk News) 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.

Like batteries that never die, hydrogen fuel cells convert hydrogen and oxygen into water and, as part of the process, produce electricity. However, efficient production, storage, and transport of hydrogen for fuel cell use is not easily achieved. As an alternative, researchers are studying the incorporation of hydrogen-rich compounds, for example, the use of liquid ethanol in a system called a direct ethanol fuel cell. READ MORE...

World's highest drug levels entering India stream

Jan. 26, 2009By Margie Mason, AP Medical Writer Patancheru, India (AP)—When researchers analyzed vials of treated wastewater taken from a plant where about 90 Indian drug factories dump their residues, they were shocked. Enough of a single, powerful antibiotic was being spewed into one stream each day to treat every person in a city of 90,000.

And it wasn't just ciprofloxacin being detected. The supposedly cleaned water was a floating medicine cabinet—a soup of 21 different active pharmaceutical ingredients, used in generics for treatment of hypertension, heart disease, chronic liver ailments, depression, gonorrhea, ulcers and other ailments. Half of the drugs measured at the highest levels of pharmaceuticals ever detected in the environment, researchers say. READ MORE...

AP National Writer Martha Mendoza contributed to this report from California.
SOURCE: The Associated Press.

UN declares 2011 as International Year of Chemistry

UN declares 2011 as International Year of Chemistry

New York, Paris, 30 December 2008 - The 63rd General Assembly of the United
Nations has adopted a resolution proclaiming 2011 as International Year of Chemistry,
placing UNESCO and the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC)
at the helm of the event.
Ethiopia submitted the U.N. resolution calling for the Year, which will celebrate
the achievements of chemistry and its contributions to the well-being of humanity. The
Year will also draw attention to the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable
Development 2005-2014. National and international activities carried out during 2011
will emphasize the importance of chemistry in sustaining natural resources.
Chemistry is fundamental to our understanding of the world and the cosmos.
Moreover, molecular transformations are central to the production of food, medicines,
fuel, and countless manufactured and extracted products. Through the Year, the world
will celebrate the art and science of chemistry, and its essential contributions to
knowledge, to environmental protection and to economic development.
“The International Year of Chemistry will give a global boost to chemical science
in which our life and our future are grounded. We hope to increase the public
appreciation and understanding of chemistry, increase young people’s interest in science,
and generate enthusiasm for the creative future of chemistry,” declared the President of
the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), Professor Jung-Il Jin. READ MORE...

Source: IUPAC/UNESCO release, 30 Dec 2008

'India will have to reduce energy consumption by 20%’

CHENNAI: Some sections view the current economic meltdown as a direct fall-out of consumption exceeding money supply. Power policy makers of the
country seem to have stuck on the analogy to caution energy con-sumption in urban India.
“In fact, we need to expand energy con-sumption in this country, mainly to the two-thirds of our population who have scarce or no access to electricity, and non-biomass fuels,” said Planning Commission principal adviser (energy) Surya P Sethi. India’s per capita consumption of power is 20% the world average, 4% that of the US, and 28% that of China. “To achieve a desirable human development index growth, the pres-ent power consumers will have to cut their usage by 20%, by which growth may come down by a percentage point or two”. Speaking at the panel discussion on sustainable electricity in India, at Pan IIT, an IIT alumni conference, at the Indian institute of technology Madras on Saturday, he said the situation was potentially explosive unless we invest talent, technology and innovation in equitable allocation of basic resources like energy, water and land.To achieve 20% energy conservation we need to increase the energy efficiency of our appli-ances by 20%, he said. READ MORE...
Source: The Economic Times

Low-cost fuel cells a step closer

Low-cost fuel cells a step closer Chinese researchers develop a nickel catalyst
by Helen Tunnicliffe

A GROUP OF scientists from Wuhan University in China have developed a hydrogen fuel cell using a nickel-based catalyst and an alkaline electrolyte, which they believe is a viable alternative to expensive platinum catalysts and acidic electrolytes currently in use.

Shanfu Lu, Jing Pan, Aibin Huang, Lin Zhuang and Juntao Lu developed an alkaline electrolyte - the polymer quaternary ammonium polysulphone – which can conduct hydrogen ions. They used silver for the positive electrode and chromium-decorated nickel for the negative electrode.

“The surface electronic structure of nickel has been tuned to suppress selectively the surface oxidative passivation with retained activity toward hydrogen oxidation,” states the abstract.

In other words, the chromium has changed the surface electronic structure of the nickel to prevent it from being oxidised (which would otherwise reduce its effectiveness) while still allowing the catalysis of the reaction of hydrogen ions which produces the electrical current.

Most hydrogen fuel cells in use today are acidic and corrode metals. Most research has, therefore, concentrated on catalysts made from precious metals, usually platinum, which are stable in acidic conditions. However, their high cost has prevented a greater uptake of the technology. The scientists believe their discovery to be an important advance in fuel cell technology.

The paper was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
Source: tcetoday, Friday 26 December 2008

Scientific output in nanoscience increased by nearly 16% per year during the last decade

(Nanowerk News) Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Nanotechnology - World R&D Report 2008 - Research in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology" report to their offering. This bibliometric report examines scientific activity in nanoscience using scientific papers, as well as intellectual property in nanotechnology using patents granted by the USPTO. The central aim of the scientometric and technometric analyses is to identify areas in which high-output, high-intensity, and high-impact research is being conducted. For this purpose, emphasis is placed on ranking research at the country, company and university levels. In addition, the report examines how nanoscale research and technology are evolving over time and features detailed analyses of eight non-mutually exclusive domains of nanoscale R&D. Nanoscience and nanotechnology are hotbeds of R&D wherein emergent properties of matter, which are present only at extremely small feature scales, are discovered and exploited. R&D Reports uses bibliometric indicators calculated on peer-reviewed papers in the Scopus database and granted patents in the USPTO database to produce multicriteria rankings and collaboration networks of countries, universities and companies. These show, at a glance, the leaders' scientific and technological positions in eight key domains of nanoscience and nanotechnology: General Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Materials Electronics and Computing Optics and Photonics Nanoelectromechanical Systems (NEMS) Medicine and biology Energy Environment Metrology
Key findings include: The scientific output in nanoscience increased at a compound annual growth rate of nearly 16% during the last decade. The scientific output in Republic of Korea and China exhibit spectacular growth. The number of patents granted has also grown rapidly (10%). Nanomaterials, nanophotonics, nanoelectronics and nanoscience in medicine & biology represent the largest concentration of R&D. Growth is particularly fast in emerging domains, namely NEMS, energy and environment.
For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/5e25cc/nanotechnology_w

Source: Research and Markets