news

Researchers at Freie Universität Berlin developed new approach for producing phosgene Scientists at Freie Universität Berlin have developed a new type of process for the industrial production of basic chemicals. They found a new approach to phosgene, opening up completely new possibilities in the production of raw materials.

Grant to Rice enables expansion of discovery that produced graphene from food, plastic Where others see a pile of trash, Rice chemist James Tour sees a figurative gold mine. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers agrees, and it will work with Tour and his collaborators through a $5.2 million, four-year grant to reclaim valuable materials from waste through flash Joule heating.

Researchers have identified a key mechanism responsible for the lower efficiencies of organic solar cells and shown a way that this hurdle might be overcome. Organic solar cells can do lots of things that inorganic solar cells can't, but their commercial development has plateaued in recent years, in part due to their inferior efficiency Alexander Gillett The researchers, led by the , identified a loss pathway in organic solar cells which makes them less efficient than silicon-based cells at converting sunlight into electricity.

Chemists demonstrate new approach to self-assembly of colloidal nanoparticles Sometimes even small forces can make comparatively big things happen: In a study in "Angewandte Chemie", scientists from the Faculty of Chemistry at the University of Vienna showed how short peptides can trigger the self-assembly of comparatively large nanoparticles into new structures on the micrometre scale.

Chemists at the University of Jena developed a way of melting normally unmeltable metal-organic framework compounds - so-called MOFs. This allows the melt-based production of glass components for applications in energy and environmental technology. Glasses are an indispensable part of everyday life.

A new method of exploring chemical space could help create scientific breakthroughs in areas including drug design and discovery, its creators say. The concept, known as assembly theory, is outlined in a new paper published today Advances by a team from the University of Glasgow's School of Chemistry.

The "gene scissors" CRISPR/Cas9 can be used to precisely modify genes in order to study their function in an organism. A researcher at Eawag has now succeeded for the first time in establishing the gene scissors for a fish cell line of rainbow trout. This means that, as of now, genetically modified cell lines can be produced.

09/23/2021 Poxviruses have found a unique way of translating their genes into proteins in the infected organism. A team of researchers from Würzburg shows for the first time how the molecular machinery involved works at an atomic level. The last case of smallpox worldwide occurred in Somalia in October 1977.

Quantum physics opens our eyes to the holistic nature of reality. Nothing can be observed in isolation - and everything is governed by chance. We generally assume that the objects around us exist independently of us and of other objects. We can observe a glass as a well-defined object and investigate its chemical or physical properties in the lab.

Rice engineers find more efficient models to analyze contrast agents that find disease Gadolinium -based contrast agents , the gold standard in  magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to determine the health of a patient, can be improved, according to Rice University engineers who are refining models they first used to enhance oil and gas recovery.

Quickly and precisely determining the flavor profile of cocoa samples Because a plethora of flavor compounds contribute to the distinctive taste of cocoa, its composition is difficult to analyze. Now, scientists at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the Leibniz Institute of Food Systems Biology (LSB) have developed a new methodology that quickly, easily, and precisely quantifies the flavor profile of cocoa samples.

New ALMA study reveals the many molecular faces of protoplanetary disks Scientists connect the dots between where planets form and what they're made of An international group of scientists, including University of Michigan astronomers, has mapped the chemical composition of protoplanetary disks surrounding five nearby young stars-an effort that will allow the astronomers to search the disks for planet formation in real time.

09/14/2021 Researchers from the Cluster of Excellence ct.qmat-Complexity and Topology in Quantum Matter-have recently conceived and realized a new quantum material. The research results have appeared Communications. Researchers from the Würzburg-Dresden Cluster of Excellence ct.qmat-Complexity and Topology in Quantum Matter - have conceived and realized a new quantum material: "Indenene".

Scientists have developed a chemical method for targeting the effects of cancer-fighting immunotherapy drugs only to the tumor tissue, making the drugs less toxic to the rest of the human body. Immunotherapy drugs are promising new weapons in the fight against cancer, but they are so strong that they can be toxic to the rest of the human body.

An international research team with participation of the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI has revealed a secret about a marine animal's shell: The researchers have deciphered why the protective cover of the brachiopod Discinisca tenuis becomes extremely soft in water and gets hard again in the air. The study appears today .

UChicago, NYU research could have applications in medicine, pollution cleanup The need to carry things around is as old as humanity itself-we may have evolved to walk upright in part to carry tools-but transporting microscopic cargo has proved more challenging for scientists. However, scientists from the University of Chicago and New York University have created a way to make tiny mechanical capsules that can pick up, carry, and release cargo on cue.

Researchers have made a tiny camera, held together with 'molecular glue' that allows them to observe chemical reactions in real time. This platform is a really big toolbox - it opens up lots of new possibilities for imaging chemical reactions Kamil Sokolowski The device, made by a team from the University of Cambridge, combines tiny semiconductor nanocrystals called quantum dots and gold nanoparticles using molecular glue called cucurbituril (CB).

Scientists have developed a new system that addresses two top priorities of the energy transition: clean hydrogen production and large-scale energy storage. Their technology could be particularly useful in transportation applications. The need for reliable renewable energy is growing fast, as countries around the world - including Switzerland - step up their efforts to fight climate change, find alternatives to fossil fuels and reach the energy-transition targets set by their governments.

New findings could lead to carbon-neutral chemical fuels for vehicles Porous carbon is a well-established class of materials with significant potential in wide-ranging applications - from water purification and gas separation to energy storage devices and thermal insulation. A class of first-year graduate students is also full of potential - especially if those among them have already been part of an international research team whose work could impact technology needed for reduced-carbon or carbon-free chemical fuels for vehicles.

Research led by The University of Manchester has found that ions diffuse 10,000 times faster inside atomically thin clays than in bulk clay crystals. Clays are used in a wide variety of membrane applications, so this result offers the potential to achieve vastly improved desalination or fuel cell performance simply by switching to ultra-thin clays when producing the membranes.