chalcogenides.com

By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A new porous material can soak up heavy metals from liquids like a sponge, U.S. researchers said on Thursday, offering a host of potential uses including removing pollutants such as mercury or lead from water.

The material is an aerogel, a type of rigid foam made from a gel in which most of the liquid has been replaced by gas.

"What we've made is a new kind of aerogel that is made of the same stuff that semiconductors are made of," said Mercouri Kanatzidis, a researcher with Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, and the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory.

Classical aerogels -- which are made of silica or carbon -- have been around for many decades. "They are white and colorless and don't absorb any light," Kanatzidis said in a telephone interview.

Kanatzidis has made aerogels from chalcogenides, which are used in semiconductors.

"These new aerogels absorb light and they can be changed in composition from one kind to another," said Kanatzidis, whose work appears in the journal Science.

Read the article here:
http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSN2618995520070726

Hyo, Joong Lee (Department of Chemistry, Center for Integrated Molecular Systems, Pohang University of Science and Technology); Kim, Dae-Young; Yoo, Jung-Suk; Bang, Jiwon; Kim, Sungjee; Park, Su-Moon Source: Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society, v 28, n 6, Jun 20, 2007, p 953-958

Finsterbusch, Klaus (Centre for Ultrahigh-Bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems (CUDOS), School of Physics, University of Sydney); Baker, Neil J.; Ta'eed, Vahid G.; Eggleton, Benjamin J.; Choi, Duk-Yong; Madden, Steve; Luther-Davies, Barry Source: Journal of the Optical Society of America B: Optical Physics, v 24, n 6, June, 2007, p 1283-1290

Seddon, A.B. (Novel Photonic Glasses Group, Nottingham Univ., UK); Pan, W.J.; Furniss, D.; Rowe, H.; Miller, C.A.; Loni, A.; Sewell, P.; Benson, T.M. Source: Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids, v 353, n 13-15, 15 May 2007, p 1302-6

Teteris, J. (Inst. of Solid State Phys., Univ. of Latvia, Riga, Latvia); Reinfelde, M. Source: Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids, v 353, n 13-15, 15 May 2007, p 1450-3

Interfaces of chalcogenide solar cells: a study of the composition at the Cu(In,Ga)Se2/CdS contact
Schulmeyer, T. Hunger, R. Fritsche, R. Jackel, B. Jaegermann, W. Klein, A. Kniese, R. Powalla, M.

A. Klein. Darmstadt University of Technology, Institute of Materials Science, Petersenstrasse 23, 64287 Darmstadt, Germany

Copyright (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V.

ABSTRACT
The chemical composition of the Cu(In,Ga)Se2/CdS interface is studied using photoelectron spectroscopy, with monochromatized Al Kα and synchrotron radiation as excitation source. The samples were prepared by the decapping of Se layers, yielding a Cu-poor surface composition... more

Characterisation of chalcogenide 2D photonic crystal waveguides and nanocavities using silica fibre nanowires
Smith, C. (Centre for Ultrahigh-Bandwidth Devices for Opt. Syst., Univ. of Sydney, NSW, Australia); Grillet, C.; Tomljenovic-Hanic, S.; Magi, E.C.; Moss, D.; Eggleton, B.J.; Freeman, D.; Madden, S.; Luther-Davies, B. Source: Physica B, v 394, n 2, 15 May 2007, p 289-92