2008 JUL 14 - (VerticalNews.com) -- According to recent research from Portugal, "We report in this article the use of thermosensitive water-dispersible polymer brush-grafted polymeric particles as carriers for Pd nanoparticles for the catalysis of hydrogenation of styrene in an aqueous/organic biphasic system. Thermoresponsive poly(methoxytri(ethylene glycol) methacrylate) brushes were grown from initiator-functionalized core-shell cross-linked poly(t-butyl acrylate) (PtBA) particles via surface-initiated atom-transfer radical polymerization. ...read more

  2008 JUL 14 - (VerticalNews.com) -- According to recent research from the United States, "A cheap gas-liquid-solid method to prepare a nanodeposition of iron on the surface of a micrometer-size flaky graphite powder is described."

  "This method is suited not only for spherical, but also nonspherical small substrates. The method is only a one-step process, in which decomposition of iron pentacarbonyl is induced by nitrogen gas in a 90 degrees C reactor," wrote E.C. Rowell and colleagues, Texas A&M University ...read more

  2008 JUL 14 - (VerticalNews.com) -- "This report describes the preparation of Pt-nanoparticle-coated gold-nanoporous film (PGNF) on a gold substrate via a simple ''green'' approach. The gold electrode that has been anodized under a high potential of 5 V is reduced by freshly prepared ascorbic acid (AA) solution to obtain gold nanoporous film electrode," scientists in the United States report.

  "Then the Pt nanoparticle is grown on the electrode by cyclic voltammetry (CV). The resulting PGNF electrode has highly ordered arrangement and large surface area, as verified by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and CV, suggesting that the nanoporous gold film electrode provides a good matrix for obtaining PGNF with high surface area. Furthermore, the as-prepared PGNF electrode exhibited high electrocatalytic activity toward methanol oxidation in a 0.5 MH2SO4 solution containing 1.5 M methanol," wrote M. Voineagu and colleagues, Northwestern University ...read more