News tagged with precious metals

Where does all the gold come from?

Ultra high precision analyses of some of the oldest rock samples on Earth by researchers at the University of Bristol provides clear evidence that the planet's accessible reserves of precious metals are the ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Sep 07, 2011 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (24) | comments 36 | with audio podcast

Nanotechnology promises better catalytic converter

(PhysOrg.com) -- Control over material properties would reduce the amount of platinum needed.

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created Sep 27, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Big, bad bacterium is an 'iron pirate'

(PhysOrg.com) -- Life inside the human body sometimes looks like life on the high seas in the 1600s, when pirates hijacked foreign vessels in search of precious metals.

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Feb 21, 2012 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Silver nanoparticles trap mercury

(PhysOrg.com) -- Anyone who thinks amalgams are limited to tooth fillings is missing something: Amalgams, which are alloys of mercury and other metals, have been used for over 2500 years in the production ...

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created Feb 16, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Fool's gold may prove an unlikely alternative to overexploited catalytic materials

Catalytic materials, which lower the energy barriers for chemical reactions, are used in everything from the commercial production of chemicals to catalytic converters in car engines. However, with current catalytic materials ...

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Feb 10, 2012 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (10) | comments 9 | with audio podcast

Electrochemical dissolution of platinum in an ionic liquid

(PhysOrg.com) -- Precious metals, especially platinum, are important catalytic materials for many chemical reactions. For example, platinum is used in some fuel cells; however, broad commercialization of such ...

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Jan 12, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Chinese researchers look at possibility of capturing asteroids in Earth orbit

(PhysOrg.com) -- In an interesting twist regarding the study of asteroids and what happens when they come close to our planet, Hexi Baoyin and his two colleagues, Yang Chen and Junfeng Li at Tsinghua University ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Sep 02, 2011 | popularity 4 / 5 (10) | comments 28 | with audio podcast weblog

Silver saver: Nanotechnology keeps the shine on silver

(PhysOrg.com) -- Anyone who's ever polished silver knows that keeping the tarnish at bay is never ending work. But, you may not know that polishing also rubs away some of the precious metal, whether it's your ...

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created Apr 12, 2011 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (3) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Japan deep-sea robots to seek minerals: report

Resource-poor Japan plans to use deep-sea mining robots to exploit rare earths and precious metals on the ocean floors around the island nation within a decade, according to a media report.

Electronics / Robotics

created Jan 07, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Researchers develop alternative to gold in electrical applications

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at the University of Connecticut, partnering with United Technologies Research Center (East Hartford, CT) engineers, have modeled and developed new classes of alloy materials for ...

Physics / Condensed Matter

created Oct 13, 2010 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (18) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Geologist says there's no need to fight over mineral resources

It's easy to be a pessimist in a world full of calamities. But for those worried about the continuing availability of natural resources, data from the ocean makes a good case for optimism, says economic geologist Lawrence ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Oct 07, 2010 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (13) | comments 18 | with audio podcast

Geologists point to outer space as source of the Earth's mineral riches

According to a new study by geologists at the University of Toronto and the University of Maryland, the wealth of some minerals that lie in the rock beneath the Earth's surface may be extraterrestrial in origin.

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Oct 18, 2009 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (11) | comments 5

Catalytic Catamarans: Common industrial catalyst sports rafts made of platinum

Catalysts convert useless or unwanted chemicals into useful or more desirable ones. Research in this week's Science reveals new, important details about a common catalyst: how rafts of chemically reactive platin ...

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Sep 24, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

A water splitter with a double role

(PhysOrg.com) -- There is a lot of hope invested in hydrogen, but it also presents some problems. It is energy-rich, clean and, as a constituent of water, of almost unlimited availability. However, so far ...

Physics / Soft Matter

created Mar 09, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (12) | comments 4

Colombia's tinted gold passes for precious stones

All that glitters is gold under a new thermochemical process developed by Colombian engineers for color-tinting the precious metal to make it look like sapphires, rubies or emeralds.

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Apr 08, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (4) | comments 1