#oxygen
Molecular mayhem at root of battery breakdown
Scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) have uncovered a molecular game of musical chairs that hurts battery performance.
In an article published in Nature Nanotechnology, the researchers demonstrate how the excitation of oxygen atoms that contributes to better performance of a lithium-ion battery also triggers a process that leads to damage, explaining a phenomenon that has been a mystery to scientists.
The research pinpoints the science behind one barrier on the road to creating longer-lived, higher-capacity rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. It’s an unexpected finding about a process that takes place every day in the batteries that power cell phones, laptop computers, and electric cars.
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Novel photolithographic technology that enables control over functional shapes of microstructures
Researchers have developed a novel photolithographic technology enabling control over the functional shapes of micropatterns using oxygen diffusion. …read more Source:: Nanowerk News
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It’s easy to get lost following the intricate, looping, twisting filaments in this detailed image of supernova remnant Simeis 147 or, as it’s better known as, the Spaghetti Nebula. Seen about 3,000 light years away, toward the boundary of the constellations Taurus and Auriga, it covers nearly 3 degrees or 6 full moons on the sky- about 150 light-years wide. This composite image includes data taken through narrow-band filters where the reddish emission is from ionized hydrogen atoms and doubly ionized oxygen atoms is in faint blue-green hues. The supernova remnant has an estimated age of about 40,000 years, meaning light from the massive stellar explosion first reached Earth 40,000 years ago. But the expanding remnant is not the only aftermath. The cosmic catastrophe also left behind a spinning neutron star, or pulsar. It’s all that remains of the original star’s core.
Happy new year everyone!
Image Credit & Copyright: Jason Dain
A rainbow airglow! Air glows all of the time, but it is usually hard to see. A disturbance, like a storm, may cause noticeable rippling in the Earth’s atmosphere. These gravity waves are oscillations in air, just like the ripples created when a rock is thrown in calm water. Makes sense right? But where do the colors come from? The deep red glow likely originates from OH molecules excited by ultraviolet light from the Sun. The orange and green airglow is likely caused by sodium and oxygen atoms slightly higher up. A spectacular sky is visible through this airglow, with the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy running up the image center, and M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, visible near the top left.
Image Credit & Copyright: Miguel Claro (TWAN); Rollover Annotation: Judy Schmidt
What if oxygen is poisonous and it just takes 75-100 years to kill us?
My science teacher said he thinks that’s true actually
Yeah this is actually pretty much exactly what is going on. It’s why anti-oxidants are such a big deal. Bonus fact: oxygen oxidizes stuff in your cells or, in other words, it’s not toxic, just setting you on firevery very slowly.What if there are aliens out there but they subsist on entirely different substances and they’re just scared as shit of us and our crazy ass hell planet? Once in a while some alien anthropologist type suggests checking out the people on this inhabited planet out towards the galaxy’s edge. The other aliens just look at the naive academic with horror. No!! We do not go to that world. That is where the DEATH BREATHERS live. They recreationally consume poisons and are more or less composed of biological fire. Their atmosphere is made of rocket fuel. We must leave the DEATH BREATHERS in peace. Do not go there. Do not.
I am so fucking inspired.
Death Breathers
University of Houston Texas Center for Superconductivity Director, Zhifeng Ren. Image credit: University of Houston.
By Anthony Caggiano
A new catalyst has enabled hydrogen to be made from seawater.
University of Houston, USA, researchers found combining an oxygen and a hydrogen evolution reaction catalyst together achieved current densities capable of supporting industrial demands while requiring relatively low voltage to start seawater electrolysis.
The researchers said the device, made with non-noble metal nitrides, avoids obstacles that have made it difficult to make hydrogen or safe drinking water from seawater.
University of Houston Texas Center for Superconductivity Director, Zhifeng Ren, said a major issue had been that there wasn’t a catalyst that could split seawater to produce hydrogen without also setting free ions of sodium, chlorine, calcium and other components of seawater, which once freed can settle on the catalyst and render it inactive. Chlorine ions are especially challenging, in part because chlorine requires only a slightly higher voltage to free than is needed to free hydrogen.
The researchers designed and synthesised a 3D core-shell oxygen evolution reaction catalyst using transition metal-nitride, with nanoparticles made of a nickle-iron-nitride compound and nickle-molybdenum-nitride nanorods on porous nickle foam.
University of Houston Postdoctoral Researcher and first paper author, Luo Yu, said the new oxygen evolution reaction catalyst was paired with a hydrogen one of nickle-molybdenum-nitride nanorods.
The catalysts were integrated into a two-electrode alkaline electrolyser, which can be powered by waste heat via a thermoelectric device or by an AA battery.
Cell voltages required to produce a current density of 100 milliamperes per square centimetre (a measure of current density, or mA cm-2) ranged from 1.564V to 1.581V.
The voltage is significant, Yu said, because while a voltage of at least 1.23V is required to produce hydrogen, chlorine is produced at a voltage of 1.73V, meaning the device had to be able to produce meaningful levels of current density with a voltage between the two levels.
The researchers tested the catalysts with seawater drawn from Galveston Bay, off the Texas coast. Ren said it also would work with wastewater.
The work is described in Nature Communications.
Introduction
In November 2020, the UK is set to host the major UN Climate Change summit; COP26. This will be the most important climate summit since COP21 where the Paris Agreement was agreed. At this summit, countries, for the first time, can upgrade their emission targets through to 20301. In the UK, current legislation commits government to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 100% of 1990 levels by 2050, under the Climate Change Act 2008 (2050 Target Amendment)2.
Hydrogen has been recognised as a low-carbon fuel which could be utilised in large-scale decarbonisation to reach ambitious emission targets. Upon combustion with air, hydrogen releases water and zero carbon dioxide unlike alternative heavy emitting fuels. The potential applications of hydrogen span across an array of heavy emitting sectors. The focus of this blog is to highlight some of these applications, and on-going initiatives, across the following three sectors: Industry, Transport and Domestic.
Please click (here3) to access our previous SCI Energy Group blog centred around UK CO2emissions.
Figure 1: climate change activists
Industry
Did you know that small-scale hydrogen boilers already exist?4
Through equipment modification, it is technically feasible to use clean hydrogen fuel across many industrial sectors such as: food and drink, chemical, paper and glass.
Whilst this conversion may incur significant costs and face technical challenges, it is thought that hydrogen-fuelled equipment such as furnaces, boilers, ovens and kilns may be commercially available from the mid-2020’s4.
Figure 2: gas hydrogen peroxide boiler line vector icon
Domestic
Did you know that using a gas hob can emit up to or greater than 71 kg of CO2per year?5
Hydrogen could be supplied fully or as a blend with natural gas to our homes in order to minimise greenhouse gas emissions associated with the combustion of natural gas.
As part of the HyDeploy initiative, Keele University, which has its own private gas network, have been receiving blended hydrogen as part of a trial study with no difference noticed compared to normal gas supply6.
Other initiatives such as Hydrogen 1007 and HyDeploy8are testing the feasibility of delivering 100% hydrogen to homes and commercial properties.
Figure 3: gas burners
Transport
Did you know that, based on an average driving distance of approximately 11,500 miles per annum, an average vehicle will emit approximately 4.6 tonnes of CO2per year?9
In the transport sector, hydrogen fuel can be utilised in fuel cells, which convert hydrogen and oxygen into water and electricity.
Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are already commercially available in the UK. However, currently, form only a small percentage of Ultra Low Emission Vehicle (ULEV) uptake10.
Niche applications of hydrogen within the transport sector are expected to show greater potential for hydrogen such as buses and trains. Hydrogen powered buses are already operational in certain parts of the UK and hydrogen trains are predicted to run on British railways from as early as 202211.
Figure 4: h2 combustion engine for emission free ecofriendly transport
Summary
This blog gives only a brief introduction to the many applications of hydrogen and its decarbonisation potential. The purpose of which, is to highlight that hydrogen, amongst other low-carbon fuels and technologies, can play an important role in the UK’s transition to net-zero emissions.
Stay tuned for further SCI Energy Group blogs which will continue to highlight alternative low-carbon technologies and their potential to decarbonise.
Reace Edwards is a member of SCI’s Energy group and a PhD Chemical Engineering student at the University of Chester. Read more about her involvement with SCI here or watch her recent TEDx Talk here.
Links to References:
1. https://eciu.net/briefings/international-perspectives/cop-26
2. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2019/9780111187654
3. https://sci.tumblr.com/post/186882462624/understanding-uk-carbon-dioxide-emissions
5. https://www.carbonfootprint.com/energyconsumption.html
6. https://hydeploy.co.uk/hydrogen/
7. https://sgn.co.uk/about-us/future-of-gas/hydrogen/hydrogen-100
9. https://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/greenhouse-gas-emissions-typical-passenger-vehicle
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cars/news/hydrogen-fuel-cell-trains-run-british-railways-2022/
Doctor, the seizures gone on far too long… she needs cpr
pupils fixed and dilated
Here comes the walking heavy metal band, drawn in black, like his soul
Trying out a new high flow nasal cannula with my philly collar, after doing a nebulizer treatment.
Sometimes I just really love the look of having an NG tube // braced.and.tubed
Sunday morning ✨
Saturday night realness… in bed at 9pm wearing my soft collar, oxygen on, and feeding tube in (but I got the wrong kind of drip bags so can’t actually use the NG tube ). Also been battling a headache on & off all damn day so I’m just done and need to relax.
PrettySickDays
What happens when the lines blur between fetish & need? Pain & pleasure?
When the migraine mornings aren’t so bad because you can put on a neck brace & oxygen and relax… When your shoulder seizes up, but a heat pack, brace & sling will make it feel better… When your sinus issues are raging and a nebulizer treatment soothes them…
Do you still know when the pain is real and the needs are legit? Or has the innocent playing turned into something more? You’ve always considered yourself a fetishist/kinkster or mayyybe a pretender/wannabe, but has that changed now? Because you’re using your ‘toys’ for more actual ailments now and wondering what it means to no longer be a ‘pretender.’
Are those braced mornings still recreational or have they become more of a necessity? You don’t have a chronic illness that’s ever been diagnosed, but it’s happening more often that medical aids & treatments are improving your quality of life. You’re using them now because you need to, not just because you wantto.
You ask yourself: are you okay with that? And you find yourself saying yes, because it’s helping, and it’s satisfying, and now you don’t have to only just pretend anymore. You don’t have to be ashamed of wanting to wear a brace or use a medical device because now you actually need it. You know you’ll feel better with it.
But the lines are blurry, and you still fight your conscience that says you shouldn’t enjoy needing these things; that there are sicker people than you, who need them more than you do, and who definitely don’t enjoy needing them to go about their lives… You still feel the shame. You still grapple with giving yourself permission to use what you need to. You still feel the stigma.
So for now you’re stuck in this limbo… in this purgatory… on the verge… of being ill, but not ill enough. You are. But you aren’t. You have needs… but do you really? Is it real… or is it all in your head? Can you accept this new normal or will the tightrope you’re now walking lead somewhere you don’t want it to? Or maybe… just maybe… it leads exactly where you’ve wanted to go all along.
Pretty in pink
On reels it had music clearly I’m not a master of this newfangled technology
Saturday afternoon combo: Aspen vista collar & HFNC ((high flow nasal cannula))
Perfect lazy Saturday set up… Notice anything new?
Sunday scene
A soft collar, oxygen, some braces & coffee. Perfect morning.
Oxygen ASMR
Woke up with a migraine this morning and decided to hook up my oxygen concentrator for a treatment. Feeling better after that and some meds.
Braced // Masked // Tubed
((Love these pics in black & white))
Happy World Oceans Day !
Every 8 June, we have an opportunity to raise global awareness of the benefits humankind derives from the ocean and our individual and collective duty to use its resources sustainably.
Future generations will also depend on the ocean for their livelihoods!
Together let’s celebrate all that the ocean gives us every day: from the oxygen we breathe to the inspiration that moves our poets.
“No Water, No Life. No Blue, no Green.”
Sylvia Earle
Aerial view of the Indian Ocean by Morgan Maassen
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SOME PEOPLE:
ME:
Oxygen
Everything needs it: bone, muscles, and even,
while it calls the earth its home, the soul.
So the merciful, noisy machine
stands in our house working away in its
lung-like voice. I hear it as I kneel
before the fire, stirring with a
stick of iron, letting the logs
lie more loosely. You, in the upstairs room,
are in your usual position, leaning on your
right shoulder which aches
all day. You are breathing
patiently; it is a
beautiful sound. It is
your life, which is so close
to my own that I would not know
where to drop the knife of
separation. And what does this have to do
with love, except
everything? Now the fire rises
and offers a dozen, singing, deep-red
roses of flame. Then it settles
to quietude, or maybe gratitude, as it feeds
as we all do, as we must, upon the invisible gift:
our purest, sweet necessity: the air.
—Mary Oliver
Michelle Williams to host The View tomorrow | Wed. / Jan. 7 / 11a/10c
DOWNLOADMichelle’s new album Journey To Freedomft/Beyonce, Kelly Rowland, Lecrae, Fantasia, Tye Tribbett, Chief Wakil and the singles; “If We Had Your Eyes”,“Fire”and#1 hit “Say Yes”
Tune into her new reality show,Fix My Choir10/9c | Wed | Oxygen.
Much more at →unexpectedmichelle.tumblr.com|
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