Engineering

The novel chemistry behind ultra-high power density batteries

Mohammad Asadi, assistant professor of chemical engineering at Illinois Institute of Technology, has published a paper in the journal Science describing the chemistry behind his novel lithium-air battery design. The insights ...

Energy & Green Tech

Getting hydrogen out of banana peels

As the world's energy demands increase, so does our consumption of fossil fuels. The result is a massive rise in greenhouse gases emissions with severely adverse environmental effects. To address this, scientists have been ...

Engineering

Implantable sensor decomposes when its usefulness ends

A team of researchers based at Stanford University has developed a new kind of implantable strain and pressure sensor that decomposes harmlessly when its usefulness ends. In their paper published in the journal Nature, the ...

Engineering

Reclaiming carbon fibers from discarded composite materials

Minimizing energy consumption is a fundamental element in our journey towards sustainable societies, and advanced materials play a key role in this regard. Carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics (CFRPs) and carbon-fiber-reinforced ...

Decomposition

Decomposition (or rotting) is the process by which organic material is broken down into simpler forms of matter. The process is essential for recycling the finite matter that occupies physical space in the biome. Bodies of living organisms begin to decompose shortly after death. Although no two organisms decompose in the same way, they all undergo the same sequential stages of decomposition. The science which studies decomposition is generally referred to as taphonomy from the Greek word taphos, meaning tomb.

One can differentiate abiotic and biotic decomposition or biodegradation. The former one means "degradation of a substance by chemical or physical processes, eg hydrolysis). The latter one means "the metabolic breakdown of materials into simpler components by living organisms", typically by microorganisms.

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