Informal Learning ? Blog Archive ? Kitchen Addition 91423

We?ll let you sort by way of endless possibilities of layouts, styles, lighting, fixtures, accessories and even more ? transforming your home kitchen into a masterpiece that you simply and your household will love forever. A kitchen renovation is really a complex job that is hinged on many distinct variables, involving everything from workspace preparing and color scheme choice to time and budget factors.

There are several factors that need considering before beginning to remodel a Kitchen, including proper planning, budgeting, and execution during the whole process. Sherman Oaks Kitchen remodeling is as simple as painting walls and replacing a faucet, or it may involve tougher tasks such as taking out the walls and installing new and improved facilities such as a heated floor.

We make selecting a qualified, expert Kitchen remodeling specialists easy! Allow us to help you with any project. Our experts in Sherman Oaks can design, renovate, and put in a Kitchen for your household! CA Kitchen Remodeling makes remodeling projects simple! Simply request a totally free estimate and make your kitchen you have always wanted!

Remodeling your kitchen area is often a great answer to update the inside look in your home to make your kitchen room area a better match for your lifestyle and personal needs. With there being numerous actions to some kitchen?s remodeling undertaking that will become difficult, it is important for you to make detailed decisions before you start. When it comes to kitchen?s remodeling, cautious and detailed preparing must be essential.

Our Licensed Kitchen Contractors perform every Kitchen Remodeling services in Sherman Oaks

Contact us for a quote Today!! (888)804-5822 assist you to sort by way of endless possibilities of layouts, styles, lighting, fixtures, accessories and more ? transforming your home kitchen in to a masterpiece that you simply as well as your household will cherish for years. A kitchen renovation is actually a complex job that?s hinged on many distinct variables, involving anything from workspace preparing and color scheme choice to time and finances considerations.

Remodeling your kitchen area in Sherman Oaks doesn?t have to cost a lot. Whether you would like to assemble & install the kitchen cabinets yourself, or have us do all the work, CA Kitchen Remodeling Sherman Oaks enables you to definitely change your kitchen with beautiful all-wood cabinets at a lower price. That?s lower than the home improvement stores. You can expect a lot of options of kitchen cabinet sizes, styles, colors and accessories. We would like to enable you to build a kitchen of beauty and functionality.

walmart black friday sales michelle obama booed at nascar polio cutler amas music awards 2011 music awards 2011

Nasdaq shareholders mum on Facebook IPO

[ [ [['A picture is worth a thousand words', 5]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/why-facebook-bought-instagram-4-theories-160400376.html', '[Related: Why Facebook bought Instagram: 4 theories]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['He was in shock and still strapped to his seat', 9]], 'http://contributor.yahoo.com/join/yahoonews_virginiabeach', '[Did you witness the jet crash? Share your story with Yahoo! News]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['A JetBlue flight from New York to Las Vegas', 3]], 'http://yhoo.it/GV9zpj', '[Related: View photos of the JetBlue plane in Amarillo]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['Dick Clark', 11]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/dick-clark-dies-at-82-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/c/21/c217c61aa2d5872244c08caa13c16ec5.jpeg', '500', ' ', 'Reuters', ], [ [['the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who shot and killed', 15]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/white-house-stays-out-of-teen-s-killing-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120411/martinzimmermen.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['Titanic', 7]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/titanic-anniversary/', ' ', 'http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/b/4e/b4e5ad9f00b5dfeeec2226d53e173569.jpeg', '550', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['He was in shock and still strapped to his seat', 6]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/navy-jet-crashes-in-virginia-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120406/jet_ap.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['xxxxxxxxxxxx', 11]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/russian-grannies-win-bid-to-sing-at-eurovision-1331223625-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/1/56/156d92f2760dcd3e75bcd649a8b85fcf.jpeg', '500', ' ', 'AP', ] ]

[ [ [[' the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who shot and killed', 4]], '28924649', '0' ], [ [['because I know God protects me', 14], ['Brian Snow was at a nearby credit union', 5]], '28811216', '0' ], [ [['The state news agency RIA-Novosti quoted Rosaviatsiya', 6]], '28805461', '0' ], [ [['measure all but certain to fail in the face of bipartisan', 4]], '28771014', '0' ], [ [['matter what you do in this case', 5]], '28759848', '0' ], [ [['presume laws are constitutional', 7]], '28747556', '0' ], [ [['has destroyed 15 to 25 houses', 7]], '28744868', '0' ], [ [['short answer is yes', 7]], '28746030', '0' ], [ [['opportunity to tell the real story', 7]], '28731764', '0' ], [ [['entirely respectable way to put off the searing constitutional controversy', 7]], '28723797', '0' ], [ [['point of my campaign is that big ideas matter', 9]], '28712293', '0' ], [ [['As the standoff dragged into a second day', 7]], '28687424', '0' ], [ [['French police stepped up the search', 17]], '28667224', '0' ], [ [['Seeking to elevate his candidacy back to a general', 8]], '28660934', '0' ], [ [['The tragic story of Trayvon Martin', 4]], '28647343', '0' ], [ [['Karzai will get a chance soon to express', 8]], '28630306', '0' ], [ [['powerful storms stretching', 8]], '28493546', '0' ], [ [['basic norm that death is private', 6]], '28413590', '0' ], [ [['songwriter also saw a surge in sales for her debut album', 6]], '28413590', '1', 'Watch music videos from Whitney Houston ', 'on Yahoo! Music', 'http://music.yahoo.com' ], [ [['keyword', 99999999999999999999999]], 'videoID', '1', 'overwrite-pre-description', 'overwrite-link-string', 'overwrite-link-url' ] ]

rhodes scholar cranberry sauce recipe mls cup amas 2011 black friday elliot elliot

Obamacare small business tax credit falling just a little short of ...

posted at 12:01 pm on May 22, 2012 by Morgen Richmond

Throughout the debate over ObamaCare, proponents of the bill touted over and over again a provision they claimed would help millions of small businesses, by providing a tax credit to offset the cost of insuring their employees. The President repeatedly made this pitch himself and the White House web site still claims that 4 million small businesses are eligible for this tax credit. Based on a new report from the GAO, they are going to need to revise this number down just a bit (via The Hill):

Fewer small employers claimed the Small Employer Health Insurance Tax Credit in tax year 2010 than were estimated to be eligible. While 170,300 small employers claimed it, estimates of the eligible pool by government agencies and small business advocacy groups ranged from 1.4 million to 4 million. The cost of credits claimed was $468 million. Most claims were limited to partial rather than full percentage credits (35 percent for small businesses) because of the average wage or full-time equivalent (FTE) requirements. 28,100 employers claimed the full credit percentage. In addition, 30 percent of claims had the base premium limited by the state premium average.

One factor limiting the credit?s use is that most very small employers, 83 percent by one estimate, do not offer health insurance. According to employer representatives, tax preparers, and insurance brokers that GAO met with, the credit was not large enough to incentivize employers to begin offering insurance. Complex rules on FTEs and average wages also limited use. In addition, tax preparer groups GAO met with generally said the time needed to calculate the credit deterred claims. Options to address these factors, such as expanded eligibility requirements, have trade-offs, including less precise targeting of employers and higher costs to the Federal government.

If the quality of the Administration?s economic analysis hadn?t already proven to be nearly worthless the discrepancy here would be stunning. With only 170K small businesses benefiting from this tax credit, that?s barely 4% of the number touted by the White House. They were off by over 95%!

While I suppose this is a good thing for those worried about the cost of ObamaCare, it?s yet another example of how the law was misrepresented to the public during the legislative process. Because the ineffectiveness of this tax credit would have been obvious to anyone with a small business background, or common sense for that matter. The problem is nicely illustrated by the table below from the GAO (click to enlarge). The law provides for a maximum tax credit of 35%, but only businesses with fewer than 10 employees and with an average wage of less than $25K per year are eligible for the full amount. The tax benefit scales down rapidly for larger businesses, or for business whose employees earn more on average.

The tax credit could have been the full 35% for all businesses in this chart and it wouldn?t have made much of a difference, except for businesses already providing insurance. And I?d wager that most of the 170K business claiming this credit already fall into this category. Because spending a dollar to save 35 cents is not a winning business proposition, especially in an economic climate where so many small businesses are struggling to get by. And small business owners aren?t stupid either. It?s not lost on them that this tax credit sunsets after a few years, while the cost of providing health insurance will only climb with all the coverage mandates included in ObamaCare.

This isn?t lost on larger businesses either and once government subsidies for the uninsured kick-in starting in 2014, expect more and more companies with low average wages to dump their employees on to the government-controlled insurances exchanges. With policies designed this poorly, some might wonder whether this was the intent all along.

day light savings day light savings daylight saving time 2012 grapes of wrath silent house nfl mock draft project m

MMA Marketplace: Frank Mir?s UFC 146 walkout shirt

Though Frank Mir's opponent changed for UFC 146, his sponsor didn't. He is still sponsored by the UFC, like Jon Jones. They gave him a walkout shirt that's low-key and collegiate-looking.

Plus, it has pretty stars and I'm a sucker for pretty stars. Buy it for $29.95.

Note: Junior dos Santos' walkout shirt for this weekend was not online, but you can buy this wall hanging depicting the champ, so ... win.

steve nash julianne hough bruins boston bruins michael pineda charles taylor calvin johnson

A Simple Guide To Understanding The Satellite TV System ...

Submit on Tuesday, May 22nd, 2012 16:11

More and more home owners these days prefer to equip their entertainment system with a satellite TV service. They have a good reason for making this decision because satellite TV services are jam packed with a huge collection of different programs like news, sports and even classic movies. And the most sought after movie like picture and sound quality makes your satellite TV viewing experience second to none.
Other Posts:How an HD DVR Receiver Can Transform Your Television ExperienceSpaceX conducts first multi-engine firing of Falcon 9 rocketSES Astra has first customer for new orbital slotDigitalGlobe Acquires GlobeXplorerAstra 1L, Galaxy 17 pre-launch detailsRecent EchoStar satellite anomaliesNew feeds on AMC-4 digital platformNew Russian dual-use communication satellite put into service

Other Posts:

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 22nd, 2012 at 4:11 pm and is filed under NEWS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

ray allen mega millions winners anthony davis palm sunday toure patti smith lottery winners

Social Bicycles announces availability by end of summer, we go hands-on (video)

Image

When last saw the Social Bicycles (SoBi), there wasn't a heck of a lot to report on. The whole thing was little more than a concept, a Kickstarter page and an early prototype. Flash forward just under a year later, and it's beginning to look a lot like a real, consumer-facing product. The New York startup showed off its bike and a couple of apps today at TechCrunch Disrupt. The concept here is not too dissimilar from a Zipcar -- you locate a bike using the Android or iOS app, find it on the street, enter your PIN, pull out the lock and you're good to go.

If you're feeling particularly enterprising, you can can pick up bikes to rent up for $1,300 a piece, if you order less than 50 or $1,100 per, if you go for more. The wireless data, meanwhile, runs $15 per bike, per month. The company has both consumer and business-facing apps. On the administrative side of things, you can track the bikes and set boundaries for return. Incentive programs are set up, giving customers credits, should they do something like get a bike from outside a designated hub and return it to one.

Continue reading Social Bicycles announces availability by end of summer, we go hands-on (video)

Social Bicycles announces availability by end of summer, we go hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 May 2012 11:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceSocial Bicycles  | Email this | Comments

crossbow airhead atherosclerosis steven tyler tropic thunder carnie wilson missing

US ranks No. 1 in wealth, not in happiness

By Allison Linn

Americans make more money and are slightly more satisfied with their lives, on average, than people in other countries, but here?s the catch: We live slightly shorter lives.

Those are among the findings of an updated study of well-being released Tuesday by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, which promotes economic and social satisfaction.

The OECD?s Better Life Index was launched in 2011 as a more nuanced way to gauge well-being in its 34 member countries, which include the United States. Besides the usual data points, such as income and education, the Better Life Index looks at things like work-life balance and life satisfaction.

In the updated version released Tuesday, the U.S. ranks well in several traditional and nontraditional areas, especially income, compared with the other 33 countries in Europe, Asia and the Americas.

Average earnings in the U.S. are higher than in many other member countries, although the OECD notes that the gap between rich and poor is relatively high. The U.S. rankes No. 1 in average household wealth, at $102,000. Only Switzerland comes close, with average household wealth of about $95,000.

The U.S. also gets high marks for housing. That ranking looks not just at the quality of housing ? including ?rooms per person and access to indoor plumbing ? but also relative cost. On average, Americans spend about 20 percent of their disposable income on housing, a little bit less than the 22 percent average, the index finds.

The United States also ranks above average in life satisfaction, with 76 percent of people reporting having more positive than negative experiences in an average day. That compares to 72 percent overall in the 34 countries.

But plenty of countries report higher levels of life satisfaction, including Denmark, Norway and Switzerland.

It might not be a surprise that we do less well in terms of work-life balance. People in most countries report a better balance between career and personal lives than we achieve, with Denmark, Belgium and Spain leading the way. Mexico, Turkey and Japan rank lower than the U.S.

In addition, the OECD reports that the average life expectancy in the United States is just under 79 years, lower than the OECD average of 80 years.

Related:

U.S. taxpayers get off easy, compared to some others

roseanne barr president green party day 26 gronkowski new hunger games trailer sasquatch david choe

Singer Robin Gibb, Bee Gees co-founder, dies at 62

LONDON (Reuters) - Bee Gees singer Robin Gibb, who with brothers Barry and Maurice helped define the disco era with their falsetto harmonies and funky beats on hits like "Stayin' Alive" and "Jive Talkin'", has died after a long fight with cancer. He was 62.

The singer had colon and liver cancer and, despite brief improvements in his health in recent months, passed away on Sunday evening.

Gibb died at the London Clinic surrounded by his second wife Dwina, sons Spencer and Robin-John and daughter Melissa. Officials at the clinic declined to comment on Monday.

Barry, now the last surviving member of the Bee Gees, had been in Britain in recent weeks to see his ailing brother, but was in the United States when he died.

Funeral arrangements are expected to be announced later this week, a spokesman said.

"The family have asked that their privacy is respected at this very difficult time," read a statement on Gibb's website.

Fans, fellow musicians and politicians paid tribute to the musician, and at the Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas late on Sunday the show stopped for a moment of silence to honor him.

Canadian rocker Bryan Adams was among the stars who took to Twitter to say farewell.

"Robin Gibb RIP. Very sad to hear about yet another great singer dying too young," he wrote, referring to the death on Thursday of another giant of the disco era, Donna Summer. She was 63.

In Britain, former Prime Minister Tony Blair, a friend, called Gibb "a highly intelligent, interested and committed human being.

"He was a great friend with a wonderful open and fertile mind and a student of history and politics. I will miss him very much," he said in a statement. "My thoughts and prayers are with Dwina and all the family."

Gibb spent much of a career spanning six decades pursuing solo projects. But it was his part in one of pop's most successful brother acts, the Bee Gees, that earned him fame and fortune.

Born in 1949 on the Isle of Man, located between England and Ireland, Robin and his family moved to Manchester where the brothers performed in local cinemas.

They went to live in Australia where the Bee Gees as a group was officially born, and in 1963 released the first single "The Battle Of The Blue And The Grey."

Believing their future lay in Europe, the Gibb brothers travelled to England to pursue a career in music and had their first British number one with "Massachusetts" in 1967.

TRAIN CRASH

The same year, Robin and wife-to-be Molly survived the Hither Green rail crash in south London that claimed around 50 lives. He later recalled that they probably would have been killed had they not been sitting in a first class carriage.

Rather than build on the early successes, the Bee Gees almost threw away the promising career they had worked so hard to achieve.

After recording the double-LP set "Odessa," the siblings fell out over which track should be the single and Robin walked out. Two years later the Gibbs were back together, and the 1970s was to belong to them.

Early in the decade they released the ballads "Lonely Days" and "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart," which topped the U.S. charts in 1971.

They struggled to maintain the momentum and critics felt the brothers had become stale until, in 1975, the Bee Gees changed course with an emphasis on dance-friendly tunes featuring high harmonies on their 13th album "Main Course."

It produced the catchy chart-topper "Jive Talkin'," which then led to an invitation to contribute to the soundtrack for the upcoming movie "Saturday Night Fever."

The Bee Gees' contributions would prove the pinnacle of their fame - "Stayin' Alive," "How Deep Is Your Love," "Night Fever" and "More Than a Woman" are all among their most recognizable songs, featuring the band's distinctive high vocals and harmonies, disco beats and slower romantic ballads.

The combination of the movie, starring John Travolta as the white-suited dance king Tony Manero, and the accompanying hits, helped launch the disco phenomenon the world over.

LONG BATTLE WITH ILLNESS

The Bee Gees achieved superstardom with album sales estimated today at up to 200 million, putting them in the same league as the likes of the Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd.

Explaining their success, Bruce Elder of the All Music Guide wrote: "The group ... managed to meld every influence they'd ever embraced, from the Mills Brothers and the Beatles and early-'70s soul, into something of their own that was virtually irresistible."

Gibb's death was on the lips of Londoners and tourists in the streets of the British capital.

Emilie Cohen, a 47-year-old holidaymaker from New York, said the music of the Bee Gees immediately evoked memories of the glitz, glamour and hours of dancing with her friends.

"I was 12 or 13 years old when Saturday Night Fever came out so my friends and I played that record over and over again," Cohen told Reuters.

"That whole era just felt so glamorous and different."

The magic did not last, however, and with the disco era waning Robin and his brothers faded quickly into obscurity, concentrating in the 1980s on producing and writing for other acts including Diana Ross.

A 1987 comeback album "E.S.P." was moderately successful and included the hit "You Win Again," although in the 1980s Robin was actively pursuing his solo career.

In 1988 Andy Gibb, the youngest brother who was also a pop star and teen idol, died aged 30. Maurice passed away in January 2003, at 53, of complications from a twisted intestine, a condition that plagued Robin towards the end of his life.

According to online reports, in 2010, Robin had surgery for a blocked intestine and suffered further stomach pains last year forcing him to cancel a series of shows in Brazil.

During surgery a tumor was discovered and he was diagnosed with cancer of the colon and, subsequently, the liver.

His gaunt, frail appearance led to media speculation that he was seriously ill, but in February he spoke of a "spectacular" recovery and later that month performed on stage for the last time in a charity concert in London.

He fell ill again and was unable to attend the world premiere of "The Titanic Requiem," his first classical work written with son Robin-John.

Robin-John told Reuters at the event that his father had contributed much of the requiem to the famous shipping disaster while in hospital.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, Piya Sinha-Roy, Bob Tourtellotte, Stephen Addison and Li-mei Hoang; writing by Mike Collett-White; editing by Paul Casciato)

nfl draft picks 2012 space shuttle enterprise ryan leaf ryan leaf luke kuechly brad miller chandler jones

HumanRightsFilms.com ? The need for Health care insurance

No matter what ability that they function in, aetna california managers have to be continuously conscious of alterations in medical engineering , which includes therapy improvements, enhanced products and also data processing enhancements. They have to additionally pay attention to adjustments in health-related coverage, including regulations, health insurance sector priorities. Now that you know a few of the critical info about this brilliant medical program, you now will know why most people are thus thankful with it. Thus, in the event that simply by just about any possibility you will have problem in your current medical costs, you know what direction to go. There are many selections for carrying on with your current training and completing a aetna california that?s best for you. The actual medical field is actually rapidly growing as well as the calls for for physicians tend to be raising. Doctors are making a positive affect in all aspects of medical including wellness promotion, training, supply and administration at every stage.

auto insurance az estimates, in the event that wisely drafted, can easily appeal to people to find the appropriate vehicle insurance plan. Whether or not 1 has a new car, Pickup, Truck, or even several automobiles, a proper picture of the items they?re going in with regard to, when going for a policy, is actually outlined in the car insurance estimates provided by numerous organizations on the internet, free of charge. Car insurance is one of the many looked topics on the internet right now. All of us are consistently looking for ways that will aid people stretch your budget on our own vehicle insurance cost. It?s no extended a difficult job to collect a lot of cheap car insurance in az rates. Nevertheless, many of us don?t know how to pull off the operation of making a choice from those rates. We need to assess car insurance rates getting particular crucial guidelines into consideration, to make the correct option. A basic idea of these kind of important variables can make it a breeze that compares car insurance quotes. Car insurance insurance was created to support economically protect prospective auto-related problems, damage as well as accidental injuries. It may help shield a person, your own travellers, other drivers, people, other people?s home plus your automobile. It can also help safeguard an individual in the event of an automobile-related legal action.

low cost health insurance is surely an annoying subject for many people because it is sophisticated, pricey as well as crucial. However, it is very important know that car insurance is really a unfortunate requirement in us that will shields our personal finances any time misfortune strikes. affordable health insurance provider Allstate notes a number of mothers and fathers could possibly have trouble instructing and find getting one more reliable grownup advise his or her teen is often a more sensible choice. When speaking, mothers and fathers should make certain they provide brand new motorists the ability to consider and proper their particular blunders along with compliment these people permanently overall performance as well as mentioning defects in their child?s driving. Talking to a teen a lot of can also serve as a great unintended thoughts. Don?t choose a low cost health insurance that won?t cover all your medical expenses.

a christmas story prime rib ny knicks prime rib recipe norad santa tracker vince carter sweet potato casserole

Study shows availability of hydrogen controls chemical structure of graphene oxide

[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 22-May-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: John Toon
jtoon@gatech.edu
404-894-6986
Georgia Institute of Technology Research News

Metastable material

A new study shows that the availability of hydrogen plays a significant role in determining the chemical and structural makeup of graphene oxide, a material that has potential uses in nano-electronics, nano-electromechanical systems, sensing, composites, optics, catalysis and energy storage.

The study also found that after the material is produced, its structural and chemical properties continue to evolve for more than a month as a result of continuing chemical reactions with hydrogen.

Understanding the properties of graphene oxide and how to control them is important to realizing potential applications for the material. To make it useful for nano-electronics, for instance, researchers must induce both an electronic band gap and structural order in the material. Controlling the amount of hydrogen in graphene oxide may be the key to manipulating the material properties.

"Graphene oxide is a very interesting material because its mechanical, optical and electronic properties can be controlled using thermal or chemical treatments to alter its structure," said Elisa Riedo, an associate professor in the School of Physics at the Georgia Institute of Technology. "But before we can get the properties we want, we need to understand the factors that control the material's structure. This study provides information about the role of hydrogen in the reduction of graphene oxide at room temperature."

The research, which studied graphene oxide produced from epitaxial graphene, was reported on May 6 in the journal Nature Materials. The research was sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) at Georgia Tech, and by the U.S. Department of Energy.

Graphene oxide is formed through the use of chemical and thermal processes that mainly add two oxygen-containing functional groups to the lattice of carbon atoms that make up graphene: epoxide and hydroxyl species. The Georgia Tech researchers began their studies with multilayer expitaxial graphene grown atop a silicon carbide wafer, a technique pioneered by Walt de Heer and his research group at Georgia Tech. Their samples included an average of ten layers of graphene.

After oxidizing the thin films of graphene using the established Hummers method, the researchers examined their samples using X-ray photo-emission spectroscopy (XPS). Over about 35 days, they noticed the number of epoxide functional groups declining while the number of hydroxyl groups increased slightly. After about three months, the ratio of the two groups finally reached equilibrium.

"We found that the material changed by itself at room temperature without any external stimulation," said Suenne Kim, a postdoctoral fellow in Riedo's laboratory. "The degree to which it was unstable at room temperature was surprising."

Curious about what might be causing the changes, Riedo and Kim took their measurements to Angelo Bongiorno, an assistant professor who studies computational materials chemistry in Georgia Tech's School of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Bongiorno and graduate student Si Zhou studied the changes using density functional theory, which suggested that hydrogen could be combining with oxygen in the functional groups to form water. That would favor a reduction in the epoxide groups, which is what Riedo and Kim were seeing experimentally.

"Elisa's group was doing experimental measurements, while we were doing theoretical calculations," Bongiorno said. "We combined our information to come up with the idea that maybe there was hydrogen involved."

The suspicions were confirmed experimentally, both by the Georgia Tech group and by a research team at the University of Texas at Dallas. This information about the role of hydrogen in determining the structure of graphene oxide suggests a new way to control its properties, Bongiorno noted.

"During synthesis of the material, we could potentially use this as a tool to change the structure," he said. "By understanding how to use hydrogen, we could add it or take it out, allowing us to adjust the relative distribution and concentration of the epoxide and hydroxyl species which control the properties of the material."

Riedo and Bongiorno acknowledge that their material based on epitaxial graphene may be different from the oxide produced from exfoliated graphene. Producing graphene oxide from flakes of the material involves additional processing, including dissolving in an aqueous solution and then filtering and depositing the material onto a substrate. But they believe hydrogen plays a similar role in determining the properties of exfoliated graphene oxide.

"We probably have a new new form of graphene oxide, one that may be more useful commercially, although the same processes should also be happening within the other form of graphene oxide," said Bongiorno.

The next steps are to understand how to control the amount of hydrogen in epitaxial graphene oxide, and what conditions may be necessary to affect reactions with the two functional groups. Ultimately, that may provide a way to open an electronic band gap and simultaneously obtain a graphene-based material with electron transport characteristics comparable to those of pristine graphene.

"By controlling the properties of graphene oxide through this chemical and thermal reduction, we may arrive at a material that remains close enough to graphene in structure to maintain the order necessary for the excellent electronic properties, while having the band gap needed to create transistors," Riedo said. "It could be that graphene oxide is the way to arrive at that type of material."

###

Beyond those already mentioned, the paper's authors included Yike Hu, Claire Berger and Walt de Heer from the School of Physics at Georgia Tech, and Muge Acik and Yves Chabal from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Texas at Dallas.

This research was supported by the National Science Foundation under grants CMMI-1100290, DMR-0820382 and DMR-0706031, and by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Basic Energy Sciences under grants DE-FG02-06ER46293 and DE-SC001951. The content is solely the responsibility of the principal investigators and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Science Foundation or the Department of Energy.



[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 22-May-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: John Toon
jtoon@gatech.edu
404-894-6986
Georgia Institute of Technology Research News

Metastable material

A new study shows that the availability of hydrogen plays a significant role in determining the chemical and structural makeup of graphene oxide, a material that has potential uses in nano-electronics, nano-electromechanical systems, sensing, composites, optics, catalysis and energy storage.

The study also found that after the material is produced, its structural and chemical properties continue to evolve for more than a month as a result of continuing chemical reactions with hydrogen.

Understanding the properties of graphene oxide and how to control them is important to realizing potential applications for the material. To make it useful for nano-electronics, for instance, researchers must induce both an electronic band gap and structural order in the material. Controlling the amount of hydrogen in graphene oxide may be the key to manipulating the material properties.

"Graphene oxide is a very interesting material because its mechanical, optical and electronic properties can be controlled using thermal or chemical treatments to alter its structure," said Elisa Riedo, an associate professor in the School of Physics at the Georgia Institute of Technology. "But before we can get the properties we want, we need to understand the factors that control the material's structure. This study provides information about the role of hydrogen in the reduction of graphene oxide at room temperature."

The research, which studied graphene oxide produced from epitaxial graphene, was reported on May 6 in the journal Nature Materials. The research was sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) at Georgia Tech, and by the U.S. Department of Energy.

Graphene oxide is formed through the use of chemical and thermal processes that mainly add two oxygen-containing functional groups to the lattice of carbon atoms that make up graphene: epoxide and hydroxyl species. The Georgia Tech researchers began their studies with multilayer expitaxial graphene grown atop a silicon carbide wafer, a technique pioneered by Walt de Heer and his research group at Georgia Tech. Their samples included an average of ten layers of graphene.

After oxidizing the thin films of graphene using the established Hummers method, the researchers examined their samples using X-ray photo-emission spectroscopy (XPS). Over about 35 days, they noticed the number of epoxide functional groups declining while the number of hydroxyl groups increased slightly. After about three months, the ratio of the two groups finally reached equilibrium.

"We found that the material changed by itself at room temperature without any external stimulation," said Suenne Kim, a postdoctoral fellow in Riedo's laboratory. "The degree to which it was unstable at room temperature was surprising."

Curious about what might be causing the changes, Riedo and Kim took their measurements to Angelo Bongiorno, an assistant professor who studies computational materials chemistry in Georgia Tech's School of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Bongiorno and graduate student Si Zhou studied the changes using density functional theory, which suggested that hydrogen could be combining with oxygen in the functional groups to form water. That would favor a reduction in the epoxide groups, which is what Riedo and Kim were seeing experimentally.

"Elisa's group was doing experimental measurements, while we were doing theoretical calculations," Bongiorno said. "We combined our information to come up with the idea that maybe there was hydrogen involved."

The suspicions were confirmed experimentally, both by the Georgia Tech group and by a research team at the University of Texas at Dallas. This information about the role of hydrogen in determining the structure of graphene oxide suggests a new way to control its properties, Bongiorno noted.

"During synthesis of the material, we could potentially use this as a tool to change the structure," he said. "By understanding how to use hydrogen, we could add it or take it out, allowing us to adjust the relative distribution and concentration of the epoxide and hydroxyl species which control the properties of the material."

Riedo and Bongiorno acknowledge that their material based on epitaxial graphene may be different from the oxide produced from exfoliated graphene. Producing graphene oxide from flakes of the material involves additional processing, including dissolving in an aqueous solution and then filtering and depositing the material onto a substrate. But they believe hydrogen plays a similar role in determining the properties of exfoliated graphene oxide.

"We probably have a new new form of graphene oxide, one that may be more useful commercially, although the same processes should also be happening within the other form of graphene oxide," said Bongiorno.

The next steps are to understand how to control the amount of hydrogen in epitaxial graphene oxide, and what conditions may be necessary to affect reactions with the two functional groups. Ultimately, that may provide a way to open an electronic band gap and simultaneously obtain a graphene-based material with electron transport characteristics comparable to those of pristine graphene.

"By controlling the properties of graphene oxide through this chemical and thermal reduction, we may arrive at a material that remains close enough to graphene in structure to maintain the order necessary for the excellent electronic properties, while having the band gap needed to create transistors," Riedo said. "It could be that graphene oxide is the way to arrive at that type of material."

###

Beyond those already mentioned, the paper's authors included Yike Hu, Claire Berger and Walt de Heer from the School of Physics at Georgia Tech, and Muge Acik and Yves Chabal from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Texas at Dallas.

This research was supported by the National Science Foundation under grants CMMI-1100290, DMR-0820382 and DMR-0706031, and by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Basic Energy Sciences under grants DE-FG02-06ER46293 and DE-SC001951. The content is solely the responsibility of the principal investigators and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Science Foundation or the Department of Energy.



[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


project m rubio colts colts big ten tournament 2012 dennis quaid bruce weber fired