Carbon

A new reactor converts carbon monoxide into acetic acid, using tiny copper cubes as a catalyst. The device is relatively simple and can operate for long periods, allowing the unwanted waste gas to be turned into an industrially useful product.

While 3D-printed aluminum parts are becoming increasingly common in the aerospace industry, any weaknesses in those parts can cause them to fail catastrophically. A new additive could help, by making the aluminum 1.5 times harder.

Researchers have grown “forests” of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) longer than ever before. Using a new method, the team grew bunches of nanotubes up to 14 cm (5.5 in) long, which should help make it easier to scale up production of this versatile material.

Silicon has been the material of choice for electronics for decades, but it’s beginning to bump up against efficiency limits. Now engineers at UC Berkeley have created metallic graphene nanoribbons, which can make wires for all-carbon electronics.

A seven-year global effort has used almost 15,000 samples from a variety of sources to draw new, more accurate calibration curves to enable more precise radiocarbon dating of objects as old as 55,000 years.

Carbon dioxide is an all too common waste product of industry, belched into the air from smokestacks. Now, researchers have developed a new type of fluorinated membrane that can selectively filter CO2 out of flue gas at the point of release.

Technology could really use some more sustainable sources, and now researchers at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) have turned to an unusual one. The team has shown that human hair from barber shops can be used to create OLED displays.

The world of atoms and molecules is tricky to study, not just because it’s so small but because events occur so quickly at that scale. Now, researchers have captured slow motion video of the movements of single molecules at 1,600 frames per second.

Computer modeling has shown that an energy storage system based on diamond nanothread bundles could store three times as much energy as lithium-ion batteries. And because it stores energy mechanically rather than chemically, it would be much safer.

Graphene may be versatile, but it’s not all that good at dispersing in water. Now, researchers at Umeå University have found a relatively simple way to do it – use graphene oxide instead, which can then be used as a kind of graphene paint.

Ordinarily, when composite items are being manufactured, huge ovens and autoclaves have to be utilized. The production process could soon be much simpler, cheaper and more energy-efficient, however, thanks to the use of carbon nanotube films.

Researchers have created bacteria that can effectively eat air. By carefully directing the evolution of E. coli in the lab, the team managed to wean them off their preferred diet of sugar, and make the switch to carbon dioxide in the air around them.