Phys.org October 13, 2021 Unsaturated fatty acids contribute to urban cooking emissions and sea spray aerosols. The phase state of organic aerosols is a significant factor in determining aerosol reactivity, water uptake and atmospheric lifetime with wide implications for cloud formation, climate, air quality and human health. Researchers in the UK studied physical and chemical changes in crystalline acid–soap complex in acoustically levitated oleic acid–sodium oleate particles during exposure to humidity and the atmospheric oxidant ozone. It revealed a phase gradient consisting of a disordered liquid crystalline shell and crystalline core. Ozonolysis is significantly slower in the crystalline phase compared […]
Category Archives: Air pollution
Bacteria-sized robots take on microplastics and win by breaking them down
EurekAlert June 9, 2021 Currently sunlight-driven photocatalysis is the most energy-efficient strategy for plastic degradation; however, attaining efficient photocatalyst–plastic interaction and thus an effective charge transfer in the micro/nanoscale is very difficult. As a proof of concept a team of researchers in the Czech Republic introduced an active photocatalytic degradation procedure based on intelligent visible-light-driven microrobots with the capability of capturing and degrading microplastics “on-the-fly” in a complex multichannel maze. The robots with hybrid powers carry built-in photocatalytic (BiVO4) and magnetic (Fe3O4) materials allowing a self-propelled motion under sunlight with the possibility of precise actuation under a magnetic field inside […]