News tagged with hydrocarbon

Easing Atmospheric CO2 Levels Using Nanotubes and Sunlight

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at The Pennsylvania State University have determined a way to use arrays of nanotubes in a solar-based process to convert carbon dioxide and water into methane and other hydrocarbon ...

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created Feb 16, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (23) | comments 32 feature

Hybrid copper-gold nanoparticles convert CO2

Copper -- the stuff of pennies and tea kettles -- is also one of the few metals that can turn carbon dioxide into hydrocarbon fuels with relatively little energy. When fashioned into an electrode and stimulated ...

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created Apr 11, 2012 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (7) | comments 7 | with audio podcast

New catalyst for safe, reversible hydrogen storage

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at the Brookhaven National Laboratory and collaborators have developed a new catalyst that reversibly converts hydrogen gas and carbon dioxide to a liquid under very mild conditions. ...

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Mar 18, 2012 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (15) | comments 34 | with audio podcast

New study argues against conclusion that bacteria consumed Deepwater Horizon methane

A technical comment published in the current (May 27) edition of the journal Science casts doubt on a widely publicized study that concluded that a bacterial bloom in the Gulf of Mexico consumed the methane discharged from t ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created May 26, 2011 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (8) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Bees helping to monitor air quality at German airports

(PhysOrg.com) -- Air quality around eight airports in Germany is being monitored with the help of bees, whose honey is tested regularly for toxins.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Jul 01, 2010 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast report

New Biofuel Technique Could Have Huge Impact on Chemical Industry

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new method of converting biomass feedstock into sustainable fuel developed by researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and University of Minnesota has the potential to have a profound effect ...

Chemistry / Other

created Apr 21, 2010 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (11) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Borexino experiment detects geo-neutrinos

(PhysOrg.com) -- The Borexino collaboration of about 80 scientists from six countries, who have been working with a detector buried 1.5 km beneath the Gran Sasso mountain near l'Aquila in Italy have detected ...

Physics / General Physics

created Mar 16, 2010 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (15) | comments 3 | with audio podcast report

Hydrocarbon superconductor created

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists from Okayama University in Japan have discovered that the hydrocarbon picene can be made to superconduct when potassium atoms are interspersed with the picene crystals and the doped ...

Physics / Superconductivity

created Mar 10, 2010 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (13) | comments 6 | with audio podcast report

Titan's lakes could be explored by boat

(PhysOrg.com) -- If a suggestion to be made to NASA comes to fruition, vast lakes thought to be filled with liquid hydrocarbons near the north pole of Saturn's moon Titan, may one day be explored by boat.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 22, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (15) | comments 1 weblog

New Sulfur- and Coking-Tolerant Material Could Expand Applications for Solid Oxide Fuel Cells

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new ceramic material described in this week's issue of the journal Science could help expand the applications for solid oxide fuel cells - devices that generate electricity directly from a ...

Physics / Condensed Matter

created Oct 01, 2009 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (11) | comments 4

Hydrocarbons in the deep Earth?

The oil and gas that fuels our homes and cars started out as living organisms that died, were compressed, and heated under heavy layers of sediments in the Earth's crust. Scientists have debated for years ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Jul 26, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (43) | comments 27

Subterranean oceans on Saturn's moon Titan

(PhysOrg.com) -- Saturn's largest moon, Titan, may have a subterranean ocean of hydrocarbons and some topsy-turvy topography in which the summits of its mountains lie lower than its average surface elevation, ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Apr 06, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (16) | comments 7

New nanoporous material has highest surface area yet

(PhysOrg.com) -- University of Michigan researchers have developed a nanoporous material with a surface area significantly higher than that of any other porous material reported to date.

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created Mar 09, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (7) | comments 4

Cassini Finds Hydrocarbon Rains May Fill Titan Lakes

(PhysOrg.com) -- A region on Saturn's moon Titan's southern latitudes appears to have been flooded by a summer cloudburst of hydrocarbon rain, as seen in images from NASA's Cassini spacecraft taken before ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Jan 30, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (14) | comments 0

Study reveals unprecedented impact of Deepwater Horizon on deep ocean

Scientists report they have "compelling evidence" that the Deepwater Horizon oil spill has impacted deep-sea corals. Their study, published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences utiliz ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Mar 26, 2012 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (11) | comments 6 | with audio podcast

Hydrocarbon

In organic chemistry, a hydrocarbon is an organic compound consisting entirely of hydrogen and carbon. With relation to chemical terminology, aromatic hydrocarbons or arenes, alkanes, alkenes and alkyne-based compounds composed entirely of carbon or hydrogen are referred to as "pure" hydrocarbons, whereas other hydrocarbons with bonded compounds or impurities of sulfur or nitrogen, are referred to as "impure", and remain somewhat erroneously referred to as hydrocarbons.

Hydrocarbons are referred to as consisting of a "backbone" or "skeleton" composed entirely of carbon and hydrogen and other bonded compounds, and have a functional group that generally facilitates combustion.

The majority of hydrocarbons found naturally occur in crude oil, where decomposed organic matter provides an abundance of carbon and hydrogen which, when bonded, can catenate to form seemingly limitless chains.

For more information about Hydrocarbon, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.