Archive for November, 2009
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November 30th, 2009
Memorable research papers
According to the BBC, The Royal Society, one of the world’s oldest scientific institutions, is marking the start of its 350th year by putting 60 of its most memorable research papers online. The archive will include work by Sir Issac Newton, Benjamin Franklin and Stephen Hawking. I haven’t yet been able to establish whether Michael Faraday’s early work on gold colloid will be included, but don’t worry……you can read the late David Thompson’s account of this seminal piece of research here in Gold Bulletin.
As David explain’s, in the paper in Philosophical Transactions entitled ‘Experimental relations of gold (and other metals) to light’, which was based on Faraday’s Bakerian lecture to the Royal Society in London on 5 February 1857, it is clear that Michael Faraday was fascinated by the ruby colour of colloidal gold. This paper is definately worth a read……
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November 27th, 2009
L’Oreal award for gold work
Great to see another award going to researchers working on gold. This time it is to Dr Zarina Aspanut Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur who has received one of three L’Oreal Malaysia For Women in Science National Fellowships for 2009. Each year, a jury panel chooses three recipients, who each receive RM20,000 as financial assistance to pursue their research work in Malaysia. The programme is jointly conducted with the Malaysian National Commission for Unesco and supported by the Academy of Sciences Malaysia and Higher Education Ministry.
Dr Aspanutf is looking at the fabrication and characterisation of embedded gold nanoparticles in silicon dioxide thin film for solar cell and sensor applications.
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November 25th, 2009
Excellent nano website
I came across this excellent website whilst researching a paper I am writing, and thought I would plug it in a quick blog. There is so much mis-information out there about science generally, particularly in emerging fields such as nanotechnology it is nice to see a clear, well-written and easily navigated source of information for experts and novices alike. Well worth a look!
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November 23rd, 2009
Alkaline fuel cell membranes
Alkaline fuel cells have been around for years. The Space Shuttle fuel cells (and fuel cells used on the Apollo missions before them) have all used alkaline fuel cells. This is interesting for us working in precious metals because the commonly used Nafion fuel cell membrane operates under acid conditions and requires the use of platinum electrocatalysts. However, under alkaline conditions the chemistry of the fuel cell is obviously very different and it means that the platinum group metals are not necessarily the best electrocatalysts in the fuel cell. For example, World Gold Council sponsored work a couple of years ago that showed gold electrocatalysts were very promising alternatives for oxygen reduction in fuel cells operating under alkaline conditions. However, in order to exploit this what is needed is a reliable alkaline alternative to nafion i.e. an anion exchange membrane.
In a recent development Yushan Yan, chemical and environmental engineering professor at the University of California, Riverside, and his team have developed an alkaline membrane, which contains the polymeric ionomer TPQPOH with a tris(2,4,6-trimethoxyphenyl)phosphonium unit. TPQPOH is very soluble in low-temperature water-soluble solvents, and has high ionic conductivity and alkaline stability. The membrane works on the basis of hydroxide ion exchange rather than hydrogen ion exchange. We’ll be keeping an eye on this development and what it may mean for gold in fuel cells…..
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November 20th, 2009
A couple of things catching the eye today….
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November 18th, 2009
Another excellent thought leadership article
We’ve highlighted a couple of AzoNanos excellent ’nanotechnology thought leadership’ articles over the last few months here on the Gold Innovations Blog, and the quality of them is certainly not diminishing with time. The latest offering discusses the work of Professor Thomas Bjørnholm of the Nano-Science Center, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. As ever, if you have any interest in nanotechnology this thought leadership article is well worth 5 minutes of your time.
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November 17th, 2009
Google Library and Gold Usage
Yesterday’s post got me thinking about the various books that have been published on gold and specifically those concerned with the science and technology of gold. The ‘classic’ reference book is Gold Usage by Bill Rapson and T. Groenewald (Academic Press, 1978, ISBN 0-12-581250-7). It is absolutely packed full of high quality chapters on both the fundamental technical properties of gold and the specific applications. The big problem with this book is it is out of print, having been published in the 1970′s. Could Google Library be the answer to this problem? This article published in today’s Times describes the background to Google’s plan to digitise out of print materials like Gold Usage. There are both merits and problems with Google’s approach (which I won’t delve into) but if it does materialise, we will be sure to link to the various chapters. -
November 16th, 2009
The Ages of Gold
Most of you who read this blog are interested in scientific and technological uses of gold, as are we. However, if you are curious to know a little more about the metal you could do a lot worse then checking out the recently published book ‘The Ages of Gold‘ by Timothy Green. This fantastic book tells the tale of gold, right from the ancient world through to the space age. -
November 13th, 2009
Small journal big on gold
Small, the highly regarded nanotechnology journal, often carries gold-related articles but the latest issue really is a bumper crop. Subjects include generating nano-gaps in gold wires, cancer diagnostics and the front cover highlight detailing the new application of gold nanoparticles in the PCR process. A great issue, well worth a look… -
November 12th, 2009
Another Thought Leader
Last month we highlighted AZoNano’s excellent Thought Leaders series. Here’s another one about the use of engineered membranes, including those using gold nanoparticles…..
Richard Holliday
Trevor Keel
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