CAER News Archive: January 2007
Monday, January 29, 2007
The Winter 2007 issue of Odyssey Magazine is devoted to articles on green energy research at the university. It features three stories on CAER's work. The first story on "Biomass to Bio-Oil" describes the collaborations of Mark Crocker* and UK Biosystems and Ag. Engr. professor Czarena Crofcheck. An article entitled, "Packaging Green Energy: the Fine Coal/Sawdust Briquette," features the work of Darrell Taulbee* and BK Parekh*, along with Rick Honaker of UK's Department of Mining Engineering. Lastly, "Solar Cells on the Cheap," highlights acting director Rodney Andrews* and John Anthony of the Dept. of Chemistry, and their joint work on creating plastic solar cells with nanotubes.All articles maybe be viewed at: http://www.research.uky.edu/odyssey/winter07/contents.html
*CAER staff members
Posted by Marybeth McAlister [Link]
Volume 18, issue number 1 of the CAER's Energiea Newsletter has been published and can be viewed from the CAER website .... http://www.caer.uky.edu/energeia/volumes18.shtml. The feature article was "Spanish Jet: Seomthing More Than a Gemstone with Magical Properties" authored by I. Suarez-Ruiz and M.J. Iglesias. This issues's commentary, "What are CCPs?" was authored by Dave Goss.
The newest edition (November-December 2006) of CAER's "Real Time" online report is now available from the CAER website. Darryl McLean, Santa's Helper is the feature article. Highlights include a link to to four part series on coal's potential as a transportation fuel in which the Dr. Burt Davis, CAER Scientist was extensively interviewed.
Monday, January 8, 2007
Title:
Unusual Three Stage Multilayer Formation during Adsorption of an Anionic Fluorinated Surfactant onto Germanium
Speaker:
Rong Xing, Chemical and Materials Engineering Department,
University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY
Date:
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
10:00 am
Ben Bandy Conference Room
UK Center for Applied Energy Research
Abstract:The adsorption of surfactants and formation of surface aggregates at solid/liquid interface play an important role in many industrial processes. This work deals with investigations into the adsorption kinetics and layers formation of fluorinated surfactant tetraethylammonium perfluorooctylsulfonate (TEA-FOS) from aqueous solution onto hydroxylated germanium using in situ polarized attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR). The adsorption is monitored at a series of bulk solution concentrations spanning from well below to above the critical micelle concentration (CMC; 1.0 mM). The kinetics of adsorption is followed by monitoring the intensity of the fluorocarbon bands. The orientation of the fluorocarbon director with respect to the germanium surface is determined by circular dichroism measurements of CF2 stretching bands. At bulk concentrations ranging from 10 % of the CMC to at least 500 % of the CMC, the adsorption occurs in an unusual sequence of three stages leading to multilayer formation. AFM images of either quenched film or in situ multilayer growth on mica indicate a multilayer formation mechanism consisting of growth of submonolayer, discrete nucleation of hydrophobic patches and coalescence of adsorbed aggregates. Based on the ATR-FTIR and AFM results, the mechanism of three stage multilayer formation was proposed.
Posted by Marybeth McAlister [Link]
Thursday, January 4, 2007
In 2006, the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Vanderbilt University donated a collection of over 150 coal and solid bitumen samples to the University of Kentucky Center for Applied Energy Research. Coordinating the effort at Vanderbilt was Dr. Brendan R. Bream. Alma Paty, executive director of the American Coal Foundation and a geology graduate of both Vanderbilt and the University of Kentucky, played a significant role in directing the collection to the CAER. The Vanderbilt University Coal Collection is stored in the Applied Petrology Laboratory, room 141, at the CAER. For more information, contact Jim Hower.
WYMT, of Hazard, Kentucky recently ran a four-part series on coal's potential as a transportation fuel. Dr. Burt Davis of CAER was extensively interviewed and consulted as an expert on coal-to-liquids research.
Rocky Adkins, Majority Floor Leader, Kentucky House of Representatives (and a CAER Advisory Board member) was also featured in a separate half hour interview on "Issues and Answers --- The Mountain Edition."
Video of News Stories and Interview
Wednesday, January 3, 2007
Since August of 2002 scientists from the CAER have devised and conducted hands-on science experiments with 4th grade students at Russell Cave Elementary School in Lexington, Kentucky. The students have created invisible ink, made generators and thermometers, extraced color from leaves, studied energy and much, much more.
This is a way for our scientists to share their expertise with the students of the community. As a next step, we placed some of these experiments on-line for others to use. The experiments are formatted in PowerPoint and are downloadable. Educators are encouraged to integrate these experiments into their classrooms. These materials may be used for educational, non-commercial use only. Go to: http://www.caer.uky.edu/education/experiments.shtml to see the experiments.
Posted by Marybeth McAlister [Link]
