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News tagged with oxidation

New small solid oxide fuel cell reaches record efficiency

Individual homes and entire neighborhoods could be powered with a new, small-scale solid oxide fuel cell system that achieves up to 57 percent efficiency, significantly higher than the 30 to 50 percent efficiencies ...

Technology / Energy & Green Tech

created May 31, 2012 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (26) | comments 58 | with audio podcast

Copper-nickel nanowires could be perfect fit for printable electronics

While the Statue of Liberty and old pennies may continue to turn green, printed electronics and media screens made of copper nanowires will always keep their original color.

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created May 29, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Light-induced delivery of nitric oxide eradicates drug-resistant bacteria

Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, have developed a novel approach for eradicating drug-resistant bacteria from wounds and skin infections, using light to trigger the controlled release of nitric oxide. ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created May 30, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Under the influence of magnetic drugs

(Phys.org) -- For more than three decades scientists have been investigating magnetic nanoparticles as a method of drug delivery. Now by combining three metals - iron, gold and platinum - pharmacists at the ...

Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine

created May 31, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Availability of hydrogen controls chemical structure of graphene oxide

A new study shows that the availability of hydrogen plays a significant role in determining the chemical and structural makeup of graphene oxide, a material that has potential uses in nano-electronics, nano-electromechanical ...

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created May 22, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Reversible doping: Hydrogen flips switch on vanadium oxide

If you are not a condensed matter physicist, vanadium oxide (VO2) may be the coolest material you've never heard of. It's a metal. It's an insulator. It's a window coating and an optical switch. And thanks ...

Physics / Condensed Matter

created May 21, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

High-speed method to aid search for solar energy storage catalysts

Eons ago, nature solved the problem of converting solar energy to fuels by inventing the process of photosynthesis.

Chemistry / Materials Science

created May 25, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

An unlikely route to ferroelectricity

(Phys.org) -- Ferroelectricity, which was first observed in the 1940s, is an interesting phenomenon involving the spontaneous (non-induced) formation of charge polarization (separation of charge) in certain ...

Physics / Condensed Matter

created May 18, 2012 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (4) | comments 7 | with audio podcast

'Metamaterials,' quantum dots show promise for new technologies

(Phys.org) -- Researchers are edging toward the creation of new optical technologies using "nanostructured metamaterials" capable of ultra-efficient transmission of light, with potential applications including ...

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created May 24, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (7) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

New silicon memory chip developed

(Phys.org) -- The first purely silicon oxide-based 'Resistive RAM' memory chip that can operate in ambient conditions – opening up the possibility of new super-fast memory - has been developed by researchers ...

Technology / Semiconductors

created May 18, 2012 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (32) | comments 16 | with audio podcast

Quantum dot LEDs get brighter, more efficient

(Phys.org) -- While quantum dot-based light-emitting diodes (QLEDs) are not made of organic materials, they share many of the same advantages as organic LEDs (OLEDs). For instance, both QLEDs and OLEDs outshine ...

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created Apr 20, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (14) | comments 11 | with audio podcast feature

Physicists discover 'magnetotoroidic effect'

(PhysOrg.com) -- For many years, scientists have known about the magnetoelectric effect, in which an electric field can induce and control a magnetic field, and vice versa. In this effect, the electric field has always been ...

Physics / General Physics

created Sep 26, 2011 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (16) | comments 6 | with audio podcast feature

New finding may hold key to Gaia hypothesis of Earth as living organism

(Phys.org) -- Is Earth really a sort of giant living organism as the Gaia hypothesis predicts? A new discovery made at the University of Maryland may provide a key to answering this question. This key of sulfur ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created May 15, 2012 | popularity 3.4 / 5 (33) | comments 164 | with audio podcast

Energy storage device fabricated on a nanowire array

In a vivid demonstration of the progress being made in miniaturizing energy storage devices, a team of engineers from Rice University in Houston, Texas, has fabricated an energy storage device where all essential ...

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Aug 01, 2011 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (14) | comments 0 | with audio podcast feature

X-ray laser uncovers secrets of complex oxide material

(Phys.org) -- An international team of researchers has used SLAC’s Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) to discover never-before-seen behavior by electrons in complex materials with extraordinary properties.

Physics / Condensed Matter

created May 17, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 7 | with audio podcast

Redox

Redox (shorthand for reduction-oxidation reaction) describes all chemical reactions in which atoms have their oxidation number (oxidation state) changed. This can be either a simple redox process such as the oxidation of carbon to yield carbon dioxide or the reduction of carbon by hydrogen to yield methane (CH4), or it can be a complex process such as the oxidation of sugar in the human body through a series of very complex electron transfer processes.

The term redox comes from the two concepts of reduction and oxidation. It can be explained in simple terms:

Though sufficient for many purposes, these descriptions are not precisely correct. Oxidation and reduction properly refer to a change in oxidation number — the actual transfer of electrons may never occur. Thus, oxidation is better defined as an increase in oxidation number, and reduction as a decrease in oxidation number. In practice, the transfer of electrons will always cause a change in oxidation number, but there are many reactions that are classed as "redox" even though no electron transfer occurs (such as those involving covalent bonds).

Non-redox reactions, which do not involve changes in formal charge, are known as metathesis reactions.

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