Author: Nauka v Sibiri (Science m Siberia), 1999 Prepared by Arkady MALTSEV One of this country's leading centers of research in the field of new materials and their properties is the Institute of Catalysis (named after Academician Sergei Boreskov) which belongs to the Siberian branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Its researchers are making a study of sophisticated problems, e.g. thermodynamic properties and volumetric effects in electrolyte solutions placed into the pores of various substances of definite geometry. The importance and promising nature of this research have been confirmed by a special grant offered to an Institute team for its study: "Investigation of Thermodynamic Properties and Structure of Solutions and Crystallohydrates of Inorganic Salts Dispersed in Monodispersive Nanopores: Dimensional Effects". Dr. Mikhail Tokarev, a staff member of the Laboratory of Energy-Accumulating Processes and Materials of the Institute, takes a closer look. One major problem facing researchers specializing in this field is what accounts for changes in the properties of substances during their transition from a solid, or integral state into an ultra-dispersive condition. Studied in sufficient detail thus far are the properties of minor metallic clusters (fragments consisting of a few scores of atoms) and fine films, and also the lowering of the freezing temperature of water, or organic solvents, in fine capillaries. But much less is known about what is called the multicomponent ultradispersive systems, such as electrolyte solutions. Studying the dimensional effects in such solutions, scientists rely on what they call selective sorbents of water (SSW) which have been developed at the Laboratory of Energy-Accumulating Processes and Materials of the Institute. In outline these materials can be described as a matrix into the pores of which a highly hydroscopic, or moisture-absorbing substance is introduced-usually some inorganic salt. New materials produced in t ... Читать далее