He will study catalytic processes
of oxygen evolution and CO2 reduction using ab initio calculations.
Catalysis
of the oxygen evolution reaction in strongly acidic electrolytes with earth - abundant crystalline nickel - manganese antimonate B. Brunschwig, N. Lewis, C. MacFarland, I. Moreno - Hernandez, K. Papadantonakis, C. Read
«There are not many known photocatalysts capable
of oxygen evolution, and this work expands the space of such materials in non-incremental fashion,» Neaton says.
Oxygen electrochemistry plays a key role in renewable energy technologies such as fuel cells and electrolyzers, but the slow kinetics
of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) limit the performance and commercialization of such devices.
Not exact matches
The elevated availability
of nutrients and bolstered
oxygen also likely fueled
evolution's greatest lunge forward.
The spate
of big hits at the end
of the Archean coincides with the buildup
of oxygen in the atmosphere and the
evolution of the first multicellular organisms.
Researchers working in Papua New Guinea think they may have been wiped out when the level
of oxygen in the oceans rose dramatically, stimulating the
evolution of oxygen - hungry fish that simply out - competed the ammonites for resources.
«People previously thought that you needed some threshold level
of oxygen for
evolution to work really well,» says Carl Simpson, a paleobiologist at the University
of Colorado in Boulder who was not involved in the work.
Indeed, the «Cambrian explosion» — the burst
of evolution about 540 million years ago that included the birth
of most
of the major animal groups we know today — was enabled by
oxygen deprivation, the researchers say.
«Low level
of oxygen in Earth's middle ages delayed
evolution for two billion years: A low level
of atmospheric
oxygen in Earth's middle ages held back
evolution for 2 billion years, raising fresh questions about the origins
of life on this planet.»
A low level
of atmospheric
oxygen in Earth's middle ages held back
evolution for 2 billion years, raising fresh questions about the origins
of life on this planet.
Thanks to
evolution, the animals living there have adapted to these conditions and will have little chance to adjust when the combination
of warming and lower
oxygen levels hits.
Rice University scientists have created an efficient, simple - to - manufacture
oxygen -
evolution catalyst that pairs well with semiconductors for solar water splitting, the conversion
of solar energy to chemical energy in the form
of hydrogen and
oxygen.
«That's what his advance is pointing towards,» he says, «finding an alternative catalyst that will allow us to do
oxygen evolution (breaking the bonds
of water or H2O and forming
oxygen) in concert with hydrogen» on a grand scale.
Results
of the study, which the researchers report online today in the Proceedings
of the National Academy
of Sciences, show that for the first 170 million years or so
of flying - insect
evolution, wing length grew and shrank in step with variations in average
oxygen concentration.
After about two billion years, it enabled the
evolution of the many higher organisms that respire on
oxygen, including us.
Professor Andrew Scott, one
of the lead authors, said: «High
oxygen levels in the atmosphere at this time has been proposed for some time and may be why there were giant insects and arthropods at this time but our research indicates that there was a significant impact on the prevalence and scale
of wildfires across the globe and this would have affected not only the ecology
of the plants and animals but also their
evolution.»
In addition, the connection between iron levels and
oxygen production found here will help researchers to reconstruct the long - term processes behind the
evolution of animals — which need high levels
of oxygen.
«We found a catalyst that is very good at driving both the opposing
oxygen evolution reaction and the
oxygen reduction reaction,» said senior author Ho Nyung Lee
of ORNL's Materials Science and Technology Division.
The performance
of the new catalyst was better than that
of platinum, a noble metal that is known to excel at driving both
oxygen evolution and reduction reactions.
A new study led by University
of California, Riverside astronomers casts light on how young, hot stars ionize
oxygen in the early universe and the effects on the
evolution of galaxies through time.
If the enzyme is an evolutionary predecessor
of Photosystem II, then
evolution borrowed an enzyme that was originally used for chlorophyll synthesis and used it to evolve an enzyme that could produce
oxygen, which ultimately led to changes in Earth's atmosphere,» said Bryant.
«The next logical step is to ask how this delayed the
evolution of oxygen - demanding life forms,» says Swanner.
«Using
oxygen as a tracer
of galactic
evolution.»
One was the
evolution of photosynthesis in microbes, the ability to convert sunlight into energy, giving off
oxygen.
Co-author Professor Tim Lenton
of the University
of Exeter adds: «We already think this cycle was key to helping stabilise atmospheric
oxygen during the Phanerozoic (the last 542 million years)-- and that
oxygen stability is a good thing for the
evolution of plants and animals.
The finding challenges the standard view that the
evolution of animals was delayed by a lack
of sufficient
oxygen for them to breathe — and fits with a theory that the first animals may have helped raise
oxygen levels.
Another clue that the newly identified enzyme could represent an early stage in the
evolution of photosynthesis is that the enzyme requires light to catalyze its reaction and may not require
oxygen, as scientists had previously suspected.
«Lots
of oxygen does not necessarily lead to the
evolution of advanced life.»
«Interactions between
oxygen and iron dictate Earth's formation, differentiation — or the separation
of the core and mantle — and the
evolution of our atmosphere, so naturally we were curious to probe how such reactions would change under the high - pressure conditions
of the deep Earth,» said Mao.
Early land plants had already started leaking
oxygen into the atmosphere, creating soils and providing food and shelter for animals, and the
evolution of trees upped the pace
of change.
If
oxygen was a driver
of the early
evolution of animals, only a slight bump in
oxygen levels facilitated it, according to a multi-institutional research team that includes a Virginia Tech geoscientist.
In a paper published last week in the journal Science, the research team presented an
oxygen evolution catalyst that worked in harsh conditions and beat all
of its competitors.
Jaramillo and his collaborators sought to develop a catalyst for the
oxygen evolution reaction, the notoriously slow half
of the water - splitting process.
«Amber provides new insights into the
evolution of Earth's atmosphere: Low
oxygen levels for dinosaurs.»
Tappert now suggests to reconsider these theories: «We do not want to negate the influence
of oxygen for the
evolution of life in general with our study, but the gigantism
of dinosaurs can not be explained by those theories.»
The researchers are now working to make their
oxygen evolution catalyst more efficient and less expensive, as well as teasing out the physics
of what makes the material work so well.
The discovery builds upon the researchers» creation
of a simple
oxygen -
evolution catalyst revealed earlier this year.
This newly established lab is capable to design and fabricate a wide variety
of advanced materials for
oxygen reduction, hydrogen oxidation, water oxidation, and hydrogen
evolution, among others.
The resulting oxygenation
of Earth's atmosphere profoundly affected the
evolution of life, leading to more complex organisms that consumed
oxygen, which were the ancestors
of all modern
oxygen - breathing creatures including humans.
In this way, such an impeccable system was complete where living organism generates
oxygen and the ozone layer, and as a result
of it, creatures make further
evolution.
«In this new study we report data from the S3 (2 - flash) and S0 (3 - flash) states, which are the intermediate states directly before and after the
evolution of the
oxygen molecule.
High throughput, multi-pH evaluation
of earth - abundant pseudo-quaternary metal oxide catalysts for the
oxygen evolution reaction J. Haber, D. Guevarra, R.J.R. Jones, K. Kan, J. Gregoire
By integrating theory and experiment, we validate our approach and develop important new insights into structure - property relationships for TMOs for
oxygen evolution photocatalysts, paving the way for use
of first - principles data - driven techniques in future applications.
Jeffrey Neation, «High - Throughput Discovery
of Electrochemically Stable Photocatalysts for
Oxygen Evolution»
Reprinted with permission from Klaus, S., Cai, Y., Louie, M. W., Trotochaud, L. & Bell, A. T. Effects
of Fe Electrolyte Impurities on Ni (OH) 2 / NiOOH Structure and
Oxygen Evolution Activity.
This not only suggests that liquid - ordered membranes may be common outside the Domain Eukarya, but it decouples the
evolution of this trait from the requirement for molecular
oxygen.
Haber, J. A., Guevarra, D., Jung, S. H., Jin, J. & Gregoire, J. M. Discovery
of New
Oxygen Evolution Reaction Electrocatalysts by Combinatorial Investigation
of the Ni - La - Co - Ce Oxide Composition Space.
The group exhibition «
OXYGEN — FRAGMENTED CITIES+IDENTITIES» in Bogota, examines how every human being lives relating himself to the built and unbuilt geographical contexts, the cities as result
of human
evolution.
«Nature Chemistry,» publish the idea from Professor Lee Cronin and Mark Symes
of Glasgow University in a paper called, «Decoupling Hydrogen and
Oxygen Evolution During Electrolytic Water Splitting Using a Proton - Coupled Electron Buffer.»