Polar emitters are used in a proposal to realize single-photon sources in the terahertz regime, promising optical tunability of the frequency of emission and its nonclassical statistics.

Prof. Polshettiwar’s group at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai has developed a novel “plasmonic reduction catalyst stable in air,” defying the common instability of reduction catalysts in the presence of air. The catalyst merges platinum-doped ruthenium clusters, with “plasmonic black gold.” This black gold efficiently harvests visible light and generates numerous hot spots due to plasmonic coupling, enhancing its catalytic performance.

The team describes their work in a paper published in the journal Nature Communications.

What sets this catalyst apart is its remarkable performance in the semi-hydrogenation of acetylene, an important industrial process. In the presence of excess ethene, and using only visible light illumination without any external heating, the catalyst achieved an ethene production rate of 320 mmol g⁻¹ h⁻¹ with around 90% selectivity. This efficiency surpasses all known plasmonic and traditional thermal catalysts.

Sun Somei continues sharing behind-the-scenes sneak peeks at their new commercial.

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The author utilized facial capture data to set up the eye animations.

Bacteria choose to swarm based on what happened to their great-grandmothers.

Paleontologists have made a startling discovery in South Africa which suggests that it was not humans who created the world’s oldest known burial site.

The researchers have found remains of small-brained distant relatives of humans in the burial site, which has hinted at them being the creators. These mammals were known to be incapable of complex behaviour.

The researchers, headed by renowned paleoanthropologist Lee Berger, in June announced that several specimens of Homo naledi have been discovered by them. These remains of Stone Age hominids, who were good at tree-climbing, were found buried around 30 meters (100 feet) underground in a cave system inside the Cradle of Humankind, which is a designated UNESCO world heritage site close to Johannesburg.