SCI-FI-TEK

Fusion model hot off the wall 

Predicting molecular rotational temperature for enhanced plasma recombination

Peer-Reviewed Publication

KYOTO UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: ROTATIONAL TEMPERATURES OF HYDROGEN MOLECULES DESORBED FROM PLASMA-FACING SURFACE WAS MEASURED IN THREE DIFFERENT TOKAMAKS; THE INCREASES OF THE TEMPERATURE DUE TO COLLISIONAL-RADIATIVE PROCESSES IN THE PLASMAS WERE ALSO EVALUATED. view more 

CREDIT: KYOTOU GLOBAL COMMS/TAIICHI SHIKAMA

Kyoto, Japan -- Humans may never be able to tame the Sun, but hydrogen plasma -- making up most of the Sun's interior -- can be confined in a magnetic field as part of fusion power generation: with a caveat. 

The extremely high temperature plasmas, typically as high as 100 million degrees Celsius, confined in the tokamaks -- donut-shaped fusion reactors -- cause damage to the containment walls of these mega devices. Researchers inject hydrogen and inert gases near the device wall to cool the plasma by radiation and recombination, which is the reverse of ionization. Heat load mitigation is critical to extending the lifetime of future fusion device. 

Understanding and predicting the process of the vibrational and rotational temperatures of hydrogen molecules near the walls could enhance the recombination, but effective strategies have remained elusive. 

An international team of researchers led by Kyoto University has recently found a way to explain the rotational temperatures measured in three different experimental fusion devices in Japan and the United States. Their model evaluates the surface interactions and electron-proton collisions of hydrogen molecules.

"In our model, we targeted the evaluation on the rotational temperatures in the low energy levels, enabling us to explain the measurements from several experimental devices," adds corresponding author Nao Yoneda of KyotoU's Graduate School of Engineering. 

By enabling the prediction and control of the rotational temperature near the wall surface, the team was able to dissipate plasma heat flux and optimize the devices' operative conditions.

"We still need to understand the mechanisms of rotational-vibrational hydrogen excitations," Yoneda reflects, "but we were pleased that the versatility of our model also allowed us to reproduce the measured rotational temperatures reported in literature."

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The paper "Spectroscopic measurement of increases in hydrogen molecular rotational temperature with plasma-facing surface temperature and due to collisional-radiative processes in tokamaks" appeared on 27 July 2023 in Nuclear Fusion, with doi: 10.1088/1741-4326/acd4d1
 
About Kyoto University
Kyoto University is one of Japan and Asia's premier research institutions, founded in 1897 and responsible for producing numerous Nobel laureates and winners of other prestigious international prizes. A broad curriculum across the arts and sciences at undergraduate and graduate levels complements several research centers, facilities, and offices around Japan and the world. For more information, please see: http://www.kyoto-u.ac.jp/en

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JOURNAL

Nuclear Fusion

DOI

10.1088/1741-4326/acd4d1 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Spectroscopic measurement of increases in hydrogen molecular rotational temperature with plasma-facing surface temperature and due to collisional-radiative processes in tokamaks

 

Manchester scientists caught Hofstadter’s butterfly in one of the most ancient materials on Earth

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER

 

IMAGE: GRAPHITE BUTTERFLY. IMAGE CREDIT: PROF. JUN YIN (CO-AUTHOR OF THE PAPER) view more 

CREDIT: IMAGE CREDIT: PROF. JUN YIN (CO-AUTHOR OF THE PAPER)

Researchers in the National Graphene Institute (NGI) at The University of Manchester have revisited one of the most ancient materials on Earth – graphite, and discovered new physics that has eluded the field for decades.

Despite being made entirely of layers of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb pattern, natural graphite is not as simple as one may think. The manner in which these atomic layers stack on top of one another can result in different types of graphite, characterised by different stacking order of consecutive atomic planes.   The majority of naturally appearing graphite has hexagonal stacking, making it one of the most “ordinary” materials on Earth. The structure of graphite crystal is a repetitive pattern. This pattern gets disrupted at the surface of the crystal and leads to what's called 'surface states', which are like waves that slowly fade away as you go deeper into the crystal. But how surface states can be tuned in graphite, was not well understood yet.

Van der Waals technology and twistronics (stacking two 2D crystals at a twist angle to tune the properties of the resulting structure to a great extent, because of moiré pattern formed at their interface) are the two leading fields in 2D materials research. Now, the team of NGI researchers, led by Prof. Artem Mishchenko, employs moiré pattern to tune the surface states of graphite, reminiscent of a kaleidoscope with everchanging pictures as one rotates the lens, revealing the extraordinary new physics behind graphite.

In particular, Prof. Mishchenko expanded twistronics technique to three-dimensional graphite and found that moiré potential does not just modify the surface states of graphite, but also affects the electronic spectrum of the entire bulk of graphite crystal. Much like the well-known story of The Princess and The Pea, the princess felt the pea right through the twenty mattresses and the twenty eider-down beds. In the case of graphite, the moiré potential at an aligned interface could penetrate through more than 40 atomic graphitic layers.

This research, published in the latest issue of Nature, studied the effects of moiré patterns in bulk hexagonal graphite generated by crystallographic alignment with hexagonal boron nitride. The most fascinating result is the observation of a 2.5-dimensional mixing of the surface and bulk states in graphite, which manifests itself in a new type of fractal quantum Hall effect – a 2.5D Hofstadter’s butterfly.

Prof. Artem Mishchenko at The University of Manchester, who has already discovered the 2.5-dimensional quantum Hall effect in graphite said: “Graphite gave rise to the celebrated graphene, but people normally are not interested in this ‘old’ material. And now, even with our accumulated knowledge on graphite of different stacking and alignment orders in the past years, we still found graphite a very attractive system – so much yet to be explored”. Ciaran Mullan, one of the leading authors of the paper, added: “Our work opens up new possibilities for controlling electronic properties by twistronics not only in 2D but also in 3D materials”.

Prof. Vladimir Fal’ko, Director of the National Graphene Institute and theoretical physicist at the Department of Physics and Astronomy, added: “The unusual 2.5D quantum Hall effect in graphite arises as the interplay between two quantum physics textbook phenomena – Landau quantisation in strong magnetic fields and quantum confinement, leading to yet another new type of quantum effect”.

The same team is now carrying on with the graphite research to gain a better understanding of this surprisingly interesting material.

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JOURNAL

Nature

DOI

10.1038/s41586-023-06264-5 

ARTICLE TITLE

Mixing of moiré-surface and bulk states in graphite

 

Researchers identify the bottleneck of dual-atom catalysts for CO₂ reduction

Peer-Reviewed Publication

TOHOKU UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: COMPARISON OF CO FARADAIC EFFICIENCY FOR VARIOUS DACS REPORTED IN THE PAST THREE YEARS. THE EXPERIMENTAL DATA WERE EXTRACTED FROM PREVIOUS LITERATURE. view more 

CREDIT: HAO LI ET AL.

Researchers at Tohoku University have unraveled the reasons behind the underperformance of a promising field of catalysis known as dual atom catalysts (DACs). Published in the prestigious journal ACS Catalysis on July 10, 2023, their findings shed light on the challenges faced by DACs in converting carbon dioxide (CO2) into valuable multicarbon products.

Unlike traditional catalysts, metal-nitrogen-carbon (M-N-C) DACs have two isolated atom pairs that work in tandem to produce catalytic mechanisms. DACs could improve the efficiency and sustainability of catalytic processes, something essential for clean energy technologies.

DACs have been touted for their potential to convert CO2 into multicarbon products such as ethanol and ethylene. This is because of the presence of multimetal sites, which should enable carbon atoms to couple together (C-C coupling) easily, thus producing the CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR). Yet, recent experiments have failed to reach this outcome, showing that almost no DAC could produce a high quantity of multicarbon products.

"Given the large expectations placed on DACs, we wanted to uncover the causes of this failure," says Hao Li, associate professor at Tohoku University's Advanced Institute for Materials Research (WPI-AIMR) and corresponding author of the paper. "To do so, we probed the surface states of typical homonuclear and heteronuclear DACs and explored the reaction mechanisms of the CO2RR using advanced theoretical calculations."

Pourbaix analyses demonstrated that, contrary to the conventional hypothesis that C-C coupling occurs at the surface of the DACs, CO prefers to occupy the bridge site between the two metals, hindering the subsequent C-C coupling. This makes it challenging for the Co2RR reaction to happen both in terms of thermodynamics and kinetics. According to models, DACs preferentially develop CO in the CO2 reaction, which matches what has been observed in experiments.

The researchers also discovered that double-side occupancy, i.e., where two molecules bind or occupy both sides of the carbon layer on the surface of the M-N-C DAC, becomes more favorable if the molecules can pass through a big gap in the carbon layer. This renders the formation of HCOOH more likely in the CO2RR.

Li and his team believe that their study provides essential understanding of the inner catalytic mechanisms of DACs and paves the way for future improvements. "Our analytical framework, which combines surface state analysis, activity modeling, and electronic structure analysis, has revealed why C-C coupling in the CO2RR remains difficult for DACs. Additionally, we have provided key insights into enhancing the catalyst's performance."

Further research and development based on these insights could lead to more effective and sustainable solutions for converting CO2 into valuable chemicals and fuels.

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JOURNAL

ACS Catalysis

DOI

10.1021/acscatal.3c01768 

ARTICLE TITLE

Why Is C-C Coupling in CO2 Reduction Still Difficult on Dual-Atom Electrocatalysts?

 

Cost of translating consent documents may serve as a barrier to participation of members of underrepresented groups in clinical trials

UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers say that relieving investigators of consent document translation costs could make studies more inclusive and results more accurate and generalizable

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - LOS ANGELES HEALTH SCIENCES

Cancer research centers conducting clinical trials could enroll more patients from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups by placing greater emphasis on relieving investigators of the costs of translating consent documents into languages other than English, according to a UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center study.

“We identified a readily addressable weakness in the clinical trial process, and we believe that overcoming this barrier, as we have begun to do, will ensure better representation of trial participants from traditionally underrepresented racial and ethnic groups, enabling researchers to provide more comprehensive, ‘generalizable’ study results,” said senior author of the study Dr. Edward Garon, a medical oncologist and a Director of the Signal Transduction and Therapeutics Program Area at the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Consent documents presented to potential clinical trial participants are required to be in a language understandable to the patient, and studies sponsored by pharmaceutical companies – about 70% of all randomized cancer clinical trials – typically have budgets that cover the costs of translating documents into languages appropriate for participants. In studies that are not sponsored by drug companies or device makers, investigators often operate on a fixed, per-patient budget provided by a grant, often from philanthropic organizations or governmental groups. As a result, an unexpected cost, such as the cost of consent document translation, often reduces the funds available for other potentially important aspects of the research.

The UCLA research team, which published its findings in Nature, theorized that these additional costs could discourage investigators from recruiting patients for whom consent document translation would be required, contributing to the disproportionately low rates of participants from traditionally underrepresented groups in clinical trials. Researchers analyzed “consent events” – situations in which consent documents were signed – and compared those for industry-sponsored studies versus studies not sponsored by industry. Each “event” did not necessarily represent a single patient, because some participants signed consent documents for multiple trials.

Garon and colleagues evaluated potential differences in the two types of trials based on participant primary language and English proficiency, basing their findings on more than 12,000 consent events that included 9,213 participants in trials at UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center between January 2013 and December 2018.

The differences were dramatic. The proportion of consent events for patients with limited English proficiency in studies not sponsored by industry was approximately half of that seen in industry sponsored studies. When patients from this group signed consent documents, the proportion of consent documents translated into the patient’s primary language in studies without industry sponsorship was approximately half of that seen in industry sponsored studies.

Among patients signing consent documents, 63.4% were non-Hispanic white, of whom only 1.6% had a primary language other than English. In contrast, 18.3% of participants from other racial and ethnic groups had a primary language other than English, the most common being Spanish with Chinese as the second most common.

“Results suggest that the cost of consent document translation in trials not sponsored by industry could be a potentially modifiable barrier to the inclusion of patients with limited English proficiency,” explained Dr. Maria Velez, a fellow in hematology and oncology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the lead author of the study.

“Removing this hurdle and increasing representation is important because efficacy, toxicity and clinical outcomes of a studied treatment may be different in different populations. Also, many studies focus on screening, prevention, survivorship, and quality of life issues – topics that can best be understood through the inclusion of a diverse patient population,” explained Dr. Beth Glenn, co-director for Community Outreach and Engagement at the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and co-author of the study.

“In many respects, this work represents the importance of a collaborative environment among investigators focused on cancer care across a wide range of disciplines. Dr. Garon's research primarily focuses on clinical and translational studies while Dr. Glenn’s work focuses on engaging the population served by the Cancer Center. The published paper addresses a problem relevant to both investigators and integrates methodologies employed in both of their research efforts. Such cross-cutting efforts epitomize the power of interdisciplinary collaboration in advancing cancer research and care,” noted Dr. Amy Cummings, Director of Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) at the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Cummings, also a co-author, wrote an accompanying Clinical Brief for Nature.

“Although it is difficult to acknowledge that those of us involved in conducting clinical trials may bear some responsibility for the lack of enrollment of diverse populations, identifying the forces leading to these findings provides targets for improvement for ourselves and other cancer researchers,” explained Dr. Michael Teitell, director of the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, also a co-author. “We have since launched a program to help independent investigators have access to translation funding that will be supported by the cancer center and run by Dr. Cummings in her JEDI role to help ensure this disparity is addressed.”

“I am very appreciative that the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center was willing to investigate its own practices in order to identify areas for improvement, and I also appreciate their role in addressing this problem for our investigators,” added Garon. “However, nobody believes that these findings are unique to our institution. At the national level, we have begun to engage stakeholders to ensure that this impediment will no longer discourage inclusive enrollment in clinical trials anywhere in the United States.”

Authors: Garon is senior author. Maria A. Velez, MD, is first author. Co-authors include Beth A. Glenn, PhD; Maria Garcia-Jimenez, MD; Amy L. Cummings, MD, PhD; Aaron Lisberg, MD; Andrea Nañez, MD; Yazeed Radwan, BS; Jackson P. Lind-Lebuffe, BS; Paige M. Brodrick, BS; Debory Y. Li, MS; Arjan Gower, MD; Maggie Lindenbaum, BS; Manavi Hegde, MS; Jenny Brook, MS; Tristan Grogan, MS; David Elashoff, PhD; and Michael A. Teitell, MD, PhD, all of UCLA. Co-author Maria J. Fernandez-Turizo, MD, is with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Funding: This study was funded by the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center.

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JOURNAL

Nature

DOI

10.1038/s41586-023-06382-0 

ARTICLE TITLE

Consent document translation expense hinders inclusive clinical trial enrolment

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

2-Aug-2023

 

The cost of climate change: 2°C global warming target is not economically reasonable unless we make major changes 

Peer-Reviewed Publication

IOP PUBLISHING

 

IMAGE: THE COST OF CLIMATE CHANGE: ARE THE GLOBAL WARMING TARGETS SET OUT IN THE PARIS AGREEMENT ECONOMICALLY FEASIBLE? view more 

CREDIT: IOP PUBLISHING

Climate change goals set out in the Paris Agreement are only economically reasonable if non-market factors such as human health and loss of biodiversity are prioritised, according to a new study published by Dr Taikan Oki, former Senior Vice-Rector of United Nations University headquartered in Japan, in IOP Publishing’s academic journal Environmental Research Letters.  

A multi-disciplinary, collaborative effort from researchers at 23 institutions including The University of Tokyo, National Institute for Environmental Studies, and Kyoto University, the new study provides a cost-benefit analysis of climate change including previously neglected non-market factors such as biodiversity loss and the impact on human health. The team calculated the cost of climate change for varying priority systems, estimating the total cost including mitigation between 2010 and 2099 to be 46-230 trillion US dollars.  

The results show that the financial benefits of reducing climate change are often similar to the cost of mitigation efforts. The research team estimate the cost of additional mitigation efforts to be 45 to 130 trillion US dollars, while the financial benefits of these reduction efforts range from 23 to 145 trillion US dollars. They found that for the 2°C temperature goal to be economically feasible there must be a greater emphasis placed on the future impact of biodiversity and health factors, arguing that these factors will become ever more pressing in the future. 

The study shows that climate change would be best approached in an integrated manner with biodiversity and health issues considered side-by-side with economic factors. This is especially true when non-market values are taken into full account including health factors such as diarrhoeal diseases and malaria, and the decrease of species on Earth such as fish and insects.  

Dr Oki, who was formerly the Coordinating Lead Author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, says: “The world’s pursuit of climate goals is currently not on track. Our future will depend on how much importance we place on risks such as large-scale irreversible events, as well as how we accept and deal with them. One reason for this is that the costs of mitigation are often similar to, or in excess of, the economic benefits of reducing climate change. We must place a higher priority on non-monetary commodities such as human health and biodiversity and accelerate technological innovations to reduce the mitigation cost.” 

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JOURNAL

Environmental Research Letters

DOI

10.1088/1748-9326/accdee 

ARTICLE TITLE

Total economic costs of climate change at different discount rates for market and non-market values

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

1-Aug-2023

Dune patterns reveal environmental change on Earth and other planets

Peer-Reviewed Publication

STANFORD UNIVERSITY

Dunes, the mounds of sand formed by the wind that vary from ripples on the beach to towering behemoths in the desert, are incarnations of surface processes, climate change, and the surrounding atmosphere. For decades, scientists have puzzled over why they form different patterns.

Now, Stanford researchers have found a way to interpret the meaning of these patterns. Their results, published in Geology Aug. 1, can be used as a new tool for understanding environmental changes on any planetary body that harbors dunes, including Venus, Earth, Mars, Titan, Io, and Pluto.

“When you look at other planets, all you have is pictures taken from hundreds to thousands of kilometers away from the surface. You can see dunes – but that’s it. You don’t have access to the surface,” said senior study author Mathieu Lapôtre, an assistant professor of Earth and planetary sciences in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. “These findings offer a really exciting new tool to decipher the environmental history of these other planets where we have no data.”

The scientists analyzed satellite images of 46 dune fields on Earth and Mars and studied how the dunes interact, or exchange sand. Physically, dune interactions manifest themselves as locations where the crestlines of two dunes get very close to each other. Through such interactions, dunes evolve toward a pattern that is free of defects, reflecting a state of equilibrium with local conditions. Thus, the researchers hypothesized that a high number of interactions, in turn, must signal recent or local changes in those boundary conditions. To test their hypothesis, they used data from Earth and Mars to verify how known changes in environmental conditions, such as wind direction or the amount of sand available, affected dune interactions in the dune fields. 

Finding a pattern

In a part of China’s Tengger Desert, researchers once flattened a dune field to have a baseline for understanding its subsequent reformation. The study authors analyzed satellite images of the dune field from 2016 to 2022 to see how it grew from a flat bed to large dunes in equilibrium with their environment.

“When the dunes and their patterns were not in equilibrium with their current conditions, the interaction density was high, and through time we could see it decreased consistently, as is expected from our hypothesis,” Lapôtre said. 

Next, they investigated dunes migrating through a valley in the Namib Desert to see how changes in the wind conditions, triggered by topography, impacted dune patterns. They found that dunes outside the valley displayed few defects in their patterns, but as they migrated through the valley – which starts very wide, then narrows, then becomes wide again – dunes interacted more with each other.

“As both sand and winds get funneled into the valley, the dunes feel a change in their boundary conditions, and their pattern needs to adjust,” said lead study author Colin Marvin, a PhD student in Earth and planetary sciences. “They move into the portion outside the valley and they again readjust to their unconfined conditions, and we see a drop in the number of interactions. This trend is exactly what we expected to see.”

They also found that pattern to be true on Mars, where a big dune field occurs around the north pole. There, the migrating dunes have settled into their current conditions – they’re well spaced, they look the same, they’re the same size – and because of that, they interact very little with one another. But further downwind, the winds become more variable and frost locally makes it harder for grains to be blown away. There, the dunes react to that change until they have migrated far enough into these new conditions for their pattern to have once again matured, decreasing the number of dune interactions.

Testing the tool

“We have an upper bound on the time that it takes for a given dune to adjust to changes in environmental conditions, and that is the time it takes for a dune to migrate by a distance of one dune length,” Marvin said. “We can use this to diagnose recent changes in environmental conditions on planetary bodies where we don’t have any information other than images taken from orbit or radar for example.” 

Understanding the recent climate of Mars by analyzing current dune patterns could possibly help scientists better pinpoint, for example, the latitudes and depth where future astronauts might be able to find water ice in the subsurface, Lapôtre added. The study also informs experts about the mechanics of dunes on Earth, which can help them better interpret Earth’s rock record, and thus, our planet’s distant past. On Saturn’s moon Titan, this approach could reveal information about topography around the equator and tropics, which is near where the Dragonfly Mission is going to land in the mid 2030s. 

“Topography can tell you about a lot of different things; for example, the geological history of the planet: Does Titan have tectonics? How does the interior of Titan work, and how is it coupled with the surface? Is there significant erosion?” Lapôtre said. “Interpretations of dune patterns could trigger kind of a chain reaction, where you provide a new constraint, and it’s going to be useful to a bunch of people to make a bunch of discoveries down the line.”

Because other planets have various sizes, gravities, temperatures, and compositions, their geological processes will differ. Compared with a rover that lands on one point of a planet to collect information, the satellite data of entire dune fields can greatly increase scientists’ understanding of these extraterrestrial bodies and how they can inform our understanding of Earth.

“If we want to understand what happened in the past, or if we want to predict what will happen in the future, it’s hard to do when all you have to create those models is one data point, or just one planet,” Lapôtre said. “Ultimately, this kind of information allows us to make much better interpretations of Earth’s past and also predictions of Earth’s future.”

Study co-authors are from Monash University, the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Southwest Research Institute. The research was supported by a National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping seed grant and partly supported by NASA.

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JOURNAL

Geology

DOI

10.1130/G51264.1 

ARTICLE TITLE

Dune interactions record changes in boundary conditions

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

1-Aug-2023

 

UTokyo researchers imagine future see-through objects

Business Announcement

INSTITUTE OF INDUSTRIAL SCIENCE, THE UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO

 

IMAGE: PROJECT RESEARCHER NAOTO TAKAYAMA, YU UCHIKURA, AND PROFESSOR MILES PENNINGTON OF DLX DESIGN LAB AT INSTITUTE OF INDUSTRIAL SCIENCE, THE UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO (HEREINAFTER DLX DESIGN LAB ), IN COLLABORATION WITH PROFESSOR TETSU TATSUMA, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR TAKUYA ISHIDA AND PROJECT RESEARCH ASSOCIATE SEUNG HYUK LEE OF INSTITUTE OF INDUSTRIAL SCIENCE, THE UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO (HEREINAFTER IIS), HAVE PRODUCED A FIVE-MINUTE VIDEO SUMMARISING THE TECHNOLOGY FOR CREATING NANOPARTICLES USING AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH WITH LIGHT AND THE FUTURE POSSIBILITIES IT OFFERS. THE VIDEO INTRODUCES IN AN EASY-TO-UNDERSTAND MANNER HOW THESE TINY PARTICLES MAY IN THE FUTURE LEAD TO NEW MATERIALS CALLED 'METAMATERIALS' THAT CAN FREELY MANIPULATE LIGHT AND PERFORM UNIQUE PROPERTIES, SUCH AS MAKING MATERIALS APPEAR TRANSPARENT. THE VIDEO WAS PRODUCED AS PART OF DLX DESIGN LAB TREASURE HUNTING PROJECT, WHICH AIMS TO COMMUNICATE THE VALUE AND FUTURE POTENTIAL OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC. view more 

CREDIT: INSTITUTE OF INDUSTRIAL SCIENCE, THE UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO

Researchers from the Institute of Industrial Science（IIS）, The University of Tokyo, conducts a wide range of research, including physics, chemistry and biology. In this context, DLX Design Lab carries out activities aimed at fusing science, technology, and design. One of these activities is the Treasure Hunting Project, which aims to inform the general public about the value and potential of scientific research. As part of this project, in 2022-2023, DLX Design Lab produced a video introducing future 'metamaterials' in cooperation with Tatsuma laboratory (hereinafter Tatsuma Lab) at IIS.

At the beginning of the video, we introduce the 'Future Window', which would allow people to see outside from their basements. We also show the special nanoscale particles that are necessary to achieve this conceptual product.

Next, we introduce technology for easily creating these special particles with light, through work being done in the Tatsuma Lab. In summary, the particles are grown spontaneously by light using a chemical method.

A model is used to illustrate how, if special nanoparticles are created and well aligned, they could make it possible to bend light at will.

The DLX Design Lab and Tatsuma Lab collaborated to design a roadmap for the realisation of the 'Future Window'. The first step is to create particles, which must then be arranged in planes and even three-dimensionally. 

It is predicted that development of the 'Future Window' will also derive light absorbent solar panels without reflection and translucent walls and columns that allow only certain colours of light to penetrate. One day, there may be a ‘Future Window’ that transmits full colour and even heat. The ‘Future Window’ will have the same effect as looking directly at what is outside the window, rather than seeing an image as on an LCD or other display. Sunlight shines through and shadows are created. You can look in, and even bask in the sun.

While the technology behind this concept is promising, the ‘Future Window’ is still in the realm of science fiction. As this video shows, by drawing a concrete image of the future (even if it is still science fiction) researchers become keenly aware of what they need to do to get closer to that future.

DLX Design Lab's Treasure Hunting Project has so far given form to the various research results produced at IIS, and through exhibitions and workshops has communicated the excitement and potential of science to the general public. However, it is not always easy to give form to research that deals with objects not seen by the human eye such as nanomaterials and molecules, or research that is far from being applied or realised. Using moving images to visualise the future and express it in a multifaceted and easy-to-understand manner is considered very effective in communicating to the general public about the significance of research that is difficult to give form to immediately.

DLX Design Lab will continue to use various forms and means, including these videos, to contribute to communicating the "treasures" of humanity - the results of scientific research - to society.

 

What is DLX Design Lab?:

DLX Design Lab is an international design team established in 2016 within the Institute of Industrial Science at The University of Tokyo. Our mission is to “Create Value Through Design”. The goal of DLX Design Lab is to develop innovative prototypes of products and services through close collaboration between designers, researchers, engineers, or other diverse disciplines. DLX Design Lab also focuses on disseminating knowledge and nurturing future talent by organizing classes, forums, exhibitions, and workshops to share design-led innovation methods with academia, industry, government agencies and the general public.

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Video information:

https://vimeo.com/845226045

 

Interactive networks for capturing gas with high selectivity

Soft metal-organic polymer networks can adsorb selected molecules from gas mixtures by opening pores when the molecules bind.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

KYOTO UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: RESEARCHERS DEVELOPED A NEW FLEXIBLE POROUS MATERIAL THAT OPENS GATES AND ADSORBS ONLY CARBON DIOXIDE AMONG VARIOUS SIMILAR GAS MOLECULES. view more 

CREDIT: MINDY TAKAMIYA/KYOTO UNIVERSITY ICEMS

“Our work demonstrates exceptional molecule recognition and separation performance by deliberately organizing the pore geometry, structural flexibility, and molecular-level binding sites within a porous coordination polymer (PCP),” says chemist Susumu Kitagawa, leader of the research team at Kyoto University’s Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences.

PCPs, also known as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), have metal ions or clusters held together by organic (carbon-based) linker groups. Choosing different metallic components and adjusting the size and structure of the organic groups can create a huge variety of crystalline materials containing pores with finely controlled sizes, structures and chemical binding capabilities. The new work goes beyond that, however, with pores that adapt when desired molecules bind to them.

“We designed a flexible PCP with a corrugated channel system that can interact with and adsorb CO2 molecules by selectively opening pores that acts as gates, allowing only the CO2 to pass through,” says Ken-ichi Otake, also of the Kyoto team. Capturing CO2 is particularly challenging, he explains, due to the molecule’s relatively small size and low affinity for many adsorptive materials.

The technical term for what the interaction between the CO2 and the PCP achieves is exclusion discrimination gating. This means that binding of molecules chosen as the extraction target, in this case CO2, initiates a synergistic structural change that enhances the binding and opens up the solid phase structure to let the bound molecule enter.

The team demonstrated the power of their system by using it to gather CO2 from mixtures containing many industrially significant molecules, including nitrogen, methane, carbon monoxide, oxygen, hydrogen, argon, ethane, ethene and ethyne.

The process is significantly more energy efficient than existing options, over a full cycle of selective gas capture and regeneration. This could be important for the development of more sustainable gas separation technologies that can support low-carbon industrial processes. Energy efficiency will also be vital for any large-scale climate engineering efforts to extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. These will not be practical options if they require the generation of large amounts of energy to power the cycle of extraction, release and storage.

“By building on this initial success, future research will hopefully achieve more versatile breakthroughs in a wide range of selective gas extraction processes, says postdoctoral researcher Yifan Gu, first author of the research report.
 

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Paper:
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-39470-w

 

About Kyoto University’s Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS):
At iCeMS, our mission is to explore the secrets of life by creating compounds to control cells, and further down the road to create life-inspired materials.
https://www.icems.kyoto-u.ac.jp/

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JOURNAL

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-023-39470-w 

ARTICLE TITLE

Soft corrugated channel with synergistic exclusive discrimination gating for CO2 recognition in gas mixture