Electrochemical water splitting, VPNs and exploding rockets
Surface Ventures
Not-for-profit providing world-class surface science webinars for academics and industry professionals
In partnership with Lubrication, Maintenance and Tribotechnology (LUBMAT 2023) conference.
Hello all,
Hope you've all had a great couple of weeks. I will be glad of the long weekend we will be having in the UK with the early May bank holiday after 2 weeks away. It's been a great couple of weeks, however. My paper on using mechanical properties to predict fretting wear resistance of DLC coatings was published recently in Tribology International. The publishing process isn't easy but it feels great to see your article available for all to read!
Research highlights: Highly cited
Hydrogen is one of the most promising sources of clean and renewable energy. The biggest issue is generating it efficiently though; electrochemical methods involving catalysts is fast becoming the go-to method for generation. Novel catalysts are required to increase the viability of using this method. Metallic nanostructures with low dimensionality for electrochemical water splitting by Li et al. reviews the challenges and perspectives for the development of these technologies.
Research Resources: Article summaries
AI tools for augmenting writing are emerging at an increasing pace. genei recently caught my attention for its ability to summarise background reading. Its main features are extracting keywords and definitions, semantic searching across documents and the headlining ability to summarise entire documents. I'm very impressed by the application of these natural language models for research applications but time will tell how widespread they will become and how they may affect the research landscape.
Interesting Infographics
The history of spacecraft development is full of explosive lessons in how not to engineer rockets. Most recently SpaceX's Starship exploded shortly after launch but this is to be expected considering the innovative nature of the launch system. The size alone is impressive as shown in the infographic below from the Visual Capitalist. It's even bigger than the gargantuan Saturn V!
From our Partner
The ninth event in the LUBMAT conference series offers delegates an opportunity to meet at the academic/industry interface to discuss research and commercial developments in lubrication, maintenance, and Tribotechnology.
Tracks cover:
The conference includes plenary presentations, parallel sessions, student competitions (3 Minute Thesis / Poster Competition), exhibition and networking activities. All activities, refreshments, networking events and evening food are included in the fee.
Plenary presentations:
For postgraduate students:
Two evening networking activities:
Exhibition: Fee (￡950/￡1250) includes refreshments/activities / exhibition space and commercial presentation.
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Conference website: https://www.uclan.ac.uk/events/listing/lubmat
Email enquiries: [email protected]
The latest and upcoming from Surface Ventures
Our webinars are free to attend. Forever.
Notable and quotable
"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." – Thomas Edison
What we’re reading
News about fossil fuels and climate change is often full of doom but a recent BBC article purports that this year will be the first ever annual drop in the use of coal, oil or gas to generate electricity, outside of a global recession or pandemic. Ember, an independent think-tank advocating for the shift to clean energy, has revealed that wind and solar now produce 12% of global electricity. Read the whole report from energy analysts Ember here.
An app a day
VPNs (virtual private networks) are important tools for safety and privacy on the web as well as accessing location-specific content on streaming services. I've recommended VPNs before (namely ProtonVPN) but on my recent trip to China I found that ExpressVPN allowed me to keep up regular access to my regular Google services and keep in touch with my friends and family. With a month's trial available, it's great for a short trip.
The lighter side of research
The internet has allowed many to pose questions that few think to ask. Paying a quick visit to Reddit will highlight that very quickly but this link comes from a friend who loves to send me unusual things they find. This article is from Charles Petzold who has examined how far from true North are the avenues of Manhattan.
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Curated By Dr Samuel McMaster
Event Manager – Surface Ventures