Alloys comprised of a refined microstructure, ultrafine or nano scaled, that when reacted with water or any liquid containing water will spontaneously and rapidly produce hydrogen at ambient or elevated temperature are described. These metals, termed here as aluminum based nanogalvanic alloys will have applications that include but are not limited to energy generation on demand. The alloys may be composed of primarily aluminum and other metals e.g. tin bismuth, indium, gallium, lead, etc. and/or carbon, and mixtures and alloys thereof. The alloys may be processed by ball milling for the purpose of synthesizing powder feed stocks, in which each powder particle will have the above mentioned characteristics. These powders can be used in their inherent form or consolidated using commercially available techniques for the purpose of manufacturing useful functional components.

A photocatalyst electrode decomposes water with light to generate gas. The photocatalyst electrode has a laminate including a substrate, a conductive layer provided on a surface of the substrate, and a photocatalyst layer provided on a surface of the conductive layer, and a first co-catalyst electrically connected to the photocatalyst layer. The light is incident from the surface side of the photocatalyst layer of the laminate, and in a case where a region where the light is incident on the surface of the photocatalyst layer and above the surface is defined as a first region and the region other than the first region is defined as a second region, the first co-catalyst is provided at least in the second region. The first co-catalyst and the photocatalyst layer are electrically connected to each other by at least one of a transparent conductive layer provided on the surface of the photocatalyst layer or a wiring line.

An electrochemical reactor suitable for reducing dye to leucodye, comprises at least four electrolytic cells, wherein the electrolytic cells are provided in the form of at least two stacks of at least two electrolytic cells each such that one stack at a time can be separated for cathode or anode regeneration during suspension preparation.

An electrochemical reactor suitable for reducing dye to leucodye, comprises at least four electrolytic cells, wherein the electrolytic cells are provided in the form of at least two stacks of at least two electrolytic cells each such that one stack at a time can be separated for cathode or anode regeneration during suspension preparation.

Compositions comprising hydrogenated and dehydrogenated graphite comprising a plurality of flakes. At least one flake in ten has a size in excess of ten square micrometers. For example, the flakes can have an average thickness of 10 atomic layers or less.

Compositions comprising hydrogenated and dehydrogenated graphite comprising a plurality of flakes. At least one flake in ten has a size in excess of ten square micrometers. For example, the flakes can have an average thickness of 10 atomic layers or less.

An electrolysis device comprising a cell containing a solution, a pair of electrodes installed in the cell, and a voltage application device connected to the pair of electrodes. One electrode of the pair of electrodes is a small electrode, and another electrode of the pair of electroeds is a large electrode. An area of a liquid-contacting portion of the small electrode with the solution is smaller than an area of a liquid-contacting portion of the large electrode with the solution. In a state in which the solution is contained in the cell, only the solution is present between the liquid-contacting portion of the small electrode and a liquid surface of the solution vertically above the liquid-contacting portion of the small electrode.

An electrolysis device including a cell that contains a solution and a pair of electrodes installed in the cell. One electrode of the pair of electrodes is a carbon electrode, and a liquid-contacting portion of the carbon electrode that makes contact with the solution in the cell is configured by only a three-dimensional curved face.

The present invention generally relates to nanofabrication and, in some embodiments, to methods of synthesizing selectively binding patched nanoparticles and the devices that can be made from them. In some embodiments, the invention relates to methods of assembling arbitrarily shaped structures from patched nanocubes and the devices and uses that follow. For example, nanocube building blocks may be patched by stamping their faces with a selectively binding chemical species (e.g. DNA, antibody-antigen pairs, etc.), or by using self-assembly to attach to the nanocubes multiple selectively binding patch species whose immiscibility can be preprogrammed. Arbitrarily shaped structures can then be designed and assembled by deciding which faces will be bonded to each other in some target structure and combining nanocubes that have selectively binding patches on those faces. Other aspects of the invention are also directed to methods of making such nanocubes or other nanoparticles, methods of forming such nanocubes.

Compositions comprising hydrogenated and dehydrogenated graphite comprising a plurality of flakes. At least one flake in ten has a size in excess of ten square micrometers. For example, the flakes can have an average thickness of 10 atomic layers or less.