News tagged with oxidation
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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
May 31, 2012 |
4.7 / 5 (26) |
58
|
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.
May 29, 2012 |
5 / 5 (5) |
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
May 22, 2012 |
5 / 5 (3) |
1
|
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 ...
May 21, 2012 |
5 / 5 (4) |
1
|
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 ...
May 18, 2012 |
4.3 / 5 (4) |
7
|
Copper chains: Study reveals Earth's deep-seated hold on copper
Earth is clingy when it comes to copper. A new Rice University study this week in the journal Science finds that nature conspires at scales both large and small -- from the realms of tectonic plates down t ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Apr 05, 2012 |
4 / 5 (3) |
0
|
3-D, after-the-fact focus image sensors invented
(PhysOrg.com) -- At the heart of digital photography is a chip called an image sensor that captures a map of the intensity of the light as it comes through the lens and converts it to an electronic signal.
Apr 03, 2012 |
3.8 / 5 (4) |
0
|
Ultrafast laser pulses shed light on elusive superconducting mechanism
An international team that includes University of British Columbia physicists has used ultra-fast laser pulses to identify the microscopic interactions that drive high-temperature superconductivity.
Mar 29, 2012 |
5 / 5 (7) |
0
|
An optical diode made with silicon technology can be used for quantum information
(PhysOrg.com) -- Transistors, resistors, capacitors, and diodes. All of these are examples of common electrical circuit elements that can be found on a computer motherboard, for instance. Billions of transistors ...
Mar 23, 2012 |
4.6 / 5 (5) |
1
|
Cyborg snail produces electricity
(PhysOrg.com) -- First it was grapes, then cockroaches, and now snails have become the latest organism to generate electricity through an implanted biofuel cell. The process works similarly in all three situations: ...
Nanotrees harvest the sun's energy to turn water into hydrogen fuel
(PhysOrg.com) -- University of California, San Diego electrical engineers are building a forest of tiny nanowire trees in order to cleanly capture solar energy without using fossil fuels and harvest it for ...
Mar 07, 2012 |
5 / 5 (21) |
4
|
A single cell endoscope: Researchers use nanophotonics for optical look inside living cells
(PhysOrg.com) -- An endoscope that can provide high-resolution optical images of the interior of a single living cell, or precisely deliver genes, proteins, therapeutic drugs or other cargo without injuring ...
Dec 20, 2011 |
5 / 5 (10) |
1
|
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.