Chemistry Nexus
by WebElements: the periodic table on the web
Might future fuel cells be nickel based?
There seems to be a possibility that nickel compounds might help in the electrolysis of water, the reaction at the centre of hydrogen fuel cells. Researchers at the Joseph Fourier University in Grenoble, and at the French Atomic Energy Commission in Gif-sur-Yvette and attached a nickel compound that mimics hydrogenase enzymes (catalysts) and attached it to the surface of carbon nanotubes.
WebElements December 12th, 2009
Posted In: Catalysis, Chemistry
Tags: Hydrogen, hydrogenase, Nickel, Oxygen, water
Water on Mars
A NASA press release claims that the Opportunity rover “has demonstrated some rocks on Mars probably formed as deposits at the bottom of a body of gently flowing saltwater.”
“Bedding patterns in some finely layered rocks indicate the sand-sized grains of sediment that eventually bonded together were shaped into ripples by water at least five centimeters (two inches) deep, possibly much deeper, and flowing at a speed of 10 to 50 centimeters (four to 20 inches) per second,” said Dr.
WebElements March 23rd, 2004
Posted In: Atmospheric chemistry, Chemistry
Carbonate minerals on Mars
A NASA press release indicates that NASA’s Spirit, the first of two Mars Exploration Rovers on the surface within Mars’ Gusev crater, has identified carbonate minerals “in the rover’s first survey of the site with its infrared sensing instrument, called the miniature thermal emission spectrometer or Mini-TES. Carbonates form in the presence of water, but it’s too early to tell whether the amounts detected come from interaction with water vapor in Mars’ atmosphere or are evidence of a watery local environment in the past, scientists emphasized.”
WebElements January 9th, 2004
Posted In: Analytical chemistry, Chemistry