Liquid Metals are Green

 


The University of Sydney has introduced a new way to reduce industrial emissions.

Liquid metals have an “atomic intelligence” and are capable of more sustainable chemical reactions. 

Chemical production still accounts for 10-15% of the greenhouse gas emissions. Also, more than 10% of the total energy for the world is used in chemical factories. Large amounts of energy is required to create the chemical reactions used to make a variety of different products. 

This information was originally published in Science during the month of July. It shows how chemical processing will be transformed by changing the nature in which reactions happen.

The head of the School of Chemical Engineering is named Kourosh Kalantar-Zadeh. He led the research into renewable energy and electrification. He reports “People often forget that chemical reactions are at the heart of all we have and use; almost all modern products are created using some sort of chemical reaction. From high-grade plastics for medical implements, through to ammonia for agriculture, the current process in which they are created requires significant amounts of energy, leading to growing greenhouse gas emissions.” 

Liquid metals can assist in making various reactions greener. These include green hydrogen production, creating chemicals with polymers used to make household products and the eventual decomposition of microplastics and forever chemicals. 

Kalantar-Zadeh reports “Using liquid metals for chemical reactions is still a very new concept; most chemical reactions still rely on a decades old process. Tapping into the ‘atomic intelligence’ of metals in liquid form to drive reactions remains largely unexplored but holds huge potential for transforming the future of chemical industries.”

Last year, his team began testing a technique that replaces large energy engineering processes that use solid catalysts. His team also displayed the possibility of using liquid metal alloys for hydrogen production.

The team discovered chemical reactions can be invoked at lower temperatures. This technique is unlike the current ways of production, which require metals to be heated to several thousand centigrade. 

Liquid metals dissolve catalytic metals, like tin, copper and nickel at low temperatures, making alloys that advance chemical reactions at low energy levels.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mike Giradi from Stereotimes commentary on Holostage Room Treatments

I have been  friends with Mike Giradi for a few years and he has helped me test numerous designs .    I was so honored a few weeks ago when he agreed to give these Holostages a few words.  From. Mike G. The sound was a little closed in at first, but then it really opened up to prove it is another great audio product. The noise floor is greatly reduced. I am hearing details I've never heard before. When it's in the recording, the soundstage widens in all directions. The timbre of each instrument is spot on. The six Holostages installed in my room aided in the C13 alignment of air molecules to a far greater extent than the Bybee IQSE devices I had previously been using. Every instrument had greater depth, pop and presence. Listening to classical music on movie soundtracks is incredible now. The Holostages installed on my BACCH4MAC and monoblocks was the answer to what was needed. The noise floor dropped significantly in both cases resulting in greater clarity and music...
Read more

Queen Bee 🐝

Image
  Bees hide an interesting secret. When the hive loses its queen, who alone is able to give life to the colony and maintain order in a perfectly organized society, all seems lost. The life of the hive slows down. Without new eggs, the future is lost. In a few weeks, the colony may be doomed. But the bees do not panic. Nor do they expect salvation from outside. Demonstrating extraordinary collective intelligence and profound instincts, they trigger spectacular emergency procedures, almost unimaginable in a world dominated by insects. --- ◆ The transformation begins with a simple but essential choice The worker bees choose common larvae - those who would normally be mere workers. They are nothing special. They are not born different. But their fate changes completely. They are chosen to receive a special food: royal jelly. A rare substance, produced by healthy bees, rich in proteins, vitamins and bioactive compounds. This is royal food in the purest sense of the word. The larvae fed ...
Read more

Novel Acoustic Wave Discovered

Image
  A new diffraction phenomenon was researched and published on January 14, 2025. The team was led by Tohoku University with collaboration from the Japan atomic energy agency and the RIKEN Center for emergent matter science. Surface acoustic waves (SAWs) are elastic vibrations. They travel along the surface of materials, not unlike ripples on a pond. SAWs are an important part of frequency filters used in every day devices like our cell phones. These devices change electrical signals in vibrations, or ripples. This occurs because of the piezoelectric  effect and it enables efficient signal processing. During this experiment, the team created a periodic array of magnetic nanoscale materials. The magnetic array is a sort of specialized grating that the waves passed through. The scientists were surprised. Instead of the usual symmetric defraction, the team saw something different. They observed a completely new, asymmetrical diffraction of SAWs called ‘non-reciprocal defraction’....
Read more