Issue 4 Chemical Technology 2005

Cover image for Highlights in Chemical Technology

Chemical technology news from across RSC Publishing.

Issue 4

Fueling the future

Generally hailed as a clean, efficient technology, commercial application of fuel cells has been hindered by high cost and unreliability. Focusing on two of the most widely used cells, proton exchange membrane fuel cells and solid oxide fuel cells, Frank de Bruijn, from the Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands, discusses the current status of this green technology for mobile and stationary uses. Environmental benefits include energy savings and decreased emissions of air pollutants such as NOx and SOx

Metal vapour generation

The mechanism of chemical vapour generation (CVG) of transition and noble metals may be more complex than previously thought, according to researchers in Canada and Italy. CVG is widely used for sample introduction in atomic spectrometric analysis, and CVG of metals was thought to be a two-step process. Now Ralph Sturgeon at the National Research Council Canada and colleagues, have proposed a multistep mechanism involving unstable complexes. The new mechanism helps to explain some of the complex results seen during CVG experiments.

Alignment of mesochannels

Tetsu Tatsuma and colleagues from the University of Tokyo, Japan, have patterned gold surfaces with enzymes and algal cells. Using a combination of techniques the group have successfully fabricated super-hydrophobic/super-hydrophilic patterns, for lab-on-a-chip devices. Electrodeposition was used to create a gold surface which was modified with a self-assembled monolayer of a hydrophobic thiol. Super-hydrophilic patterns were generated via photocatalytic lithography. Enzymes or algal cells could then be immobilised on the hydrophilic surface.

Keeping an eye on your chips

A team of scientists from the University of Twente, The Netherlands, have developed a device for following the progress of lab-on-a-chip reactions. Willem Verboom and colleagues have integrated a monitoring port into a microfluidic system to allow longer reaction and measuring times. The window added to the apparatus permits laser desorption ionisation, using MALDI (matrix-assisted laser desorption ionisation), to allow measurements to be made directly from the reaction medium.

Essential Elements

The final countdown...

The final countdown to the launch of the RSC's two new interdisciplinary journals, Molecular BioSystems and Soft Matter, has begun! Readers can now sample the first articles online...

Cocktails for ChemComm

200 people gathered at a reception in the San Diego Marriot Hotel on 13th March to celebrate ChemComm's 40 successful years of publication.

And finally......

Staff from the RSC's publishing and membership divisions have just returned from an extensive two-week tour of China.