when it comes to water, some materials have a split personality - and some of these materials could hold the key to new ways of harnessing solar energy. these small assemblies of organic
1 have parts that are hydrophobic, or water-fearing, while other parts are hydrophilic, or water-loving. because of their schizoid nature, micelles organize themselves into spheres that have their hydrophilic parts turned out while their hydrophobic parts are shielded inside.
a new study from the u.s. department of energy's (doe's) argonne national laboratory has shown water can serve another
2 undiscovered role as these micelles
3 to spontaneously form long
5.
in a study led by argonne nanoscientist subramanian sankaranarayanan and chemist christopher fry, both of argonne's center for nanoscale materials, supercomputer simulations and as well as lab-based experiments showed that water serves as an invisible cage for the growth of the micelle
4.
the study could help scientists to understand how light-harvesting molecules are incorporated into the micelle fiber as it assembles, which would be a key step to understanding some forms of artificial
6.
"until now, trying to understand where the light-harvesting molecules
7 has been like trying to see how a square
8 can fit in a round hole," said sankaranarayanan. "by seeing the way in which the micelle fiber self-assembles, we can get a better understanding of how these kinds of light-harvesting systems are formed."
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