Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have used a new way to isolate and study an important intermediate in the epoxidation of olefins such as ethylene: They run the reaction in reverse. By starting with the final products (epoxides) and placing them on the surface of a model catalyst, the scientists are able to use surface chemistry techniques to “catch” the intermediate. Understanding this intermediate may ultimately help the scientists develop improved o

In an attempt to understand why ruthenium sulfide (RuS2) is so good at removing sulfur impurities from fuels, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have succeeded in making a model of this catalyst — nanoparticles supported on an inert surface — which can be studied under laboratory conditions. “If we can understand why this catalyst is so active, we might be able to make it even better, or use what we learn to design other highly efficient catalysts,” sa

Just like the manufacturers of silicon electronics, a team of Penn State chemical engineers wants to assemble circuit boards in place, but these circuits are made of conducting organic polymers that pose major fabrication roadblocks.

“We want to build electronic devices like transistors and flexible circuits,” says Dr. Seong Kim, assistant professor of chemical engineering.

Kim and Sudarshan Natarajan, graduate student in chemical engineering, looked at fabricating circuits from po

The rapidly increasing demands of today’s car buyers have placed a heavy burden on car manufacturers to constantly innovate. Building prototypes to test innovative car designs is a lengthy, not to mention expensive, process and one that companies keen to retain their competitive edge can ill afford. With contemporary simulation systems often falling short of R&D expectations, the eight-company-strong team of EUREKA project E! 1924 CARDS (Comprehensive Automobile Research and Development Simulator) s

Death and taxes may be unavoidable, but road tolls and car insurance could be made fairer if satellite-assisted distance pricing is implemented.

The European Space Agency (ESA) is funding Irish provider of location technology products Mapflow to undertake a feasibility study to look into the possibility of implementing a pan-European road tolling system. The research aims to establish whether satellite technology can be used to calculate the cost of motoring.

A plan exists to

Knowing how bacteria of different types swap genes is vitally important to regulators trying to decide how safe genetically modified organisms are, but so far the way genes are transferred naturally is poorly understood. Research presented today, Monday 8 September 2003, by scientists from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology at the Society for General Microbiology’s meeting at UMIST provides some of the missing information.

“We all know that bacteria have an incr