Sustainable chemical applications need to be able to employ renewable energy sources, renewable raw materials, and Earth-abundant elements. However, to date many techniques have only been possible with the use of expensive precious metals or rare earth metals, the extraction of which can have serious environmental impacts. An international team of researchers led by Professor…
Rice engineers find a way to turn water pollution into valuable chemicals
“Agricultural fertilizer runoff is contaminating ground and surface water, which causes ecological effects such as algae blooms as well as significant adverse effects for humans, including cancer, hypertension, and developmental issues in babies,” said Wong, professor and chair of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering in Rice’s Brown School of Engineering. “I’ve been very…
New function for plant enzyme could lead to green chemistry
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have discovered a new function in a plant enzyme that could have implications for the design of new chemical catalysts. The enzyme catalyzes, or initiates, one of the cornerstone chemical reactions needed to synthesize a wide array of organic molecules, including those found in lubricants,…
Mass Photometry: revolutionary biotech by Refeyn Ltd. wins prestigious awards
Refeyn Ltd., a spinout from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Oxford, has been recognized by two prestigious science and innovation awards for its revolutionary mass photometry technology. Refeyn’s first instrument, the Refeyn OneMP, enables users to measure the mass of single molecules in solution – quickly, simply and accurately. The company’s proprietary…
Optibrium Announce the Release of StarDrop™ 6.6
Optibrium™, a developer of software for drug discovery, today announced the introduction of StarDrop™ 6.6, the latest version of this comprehensive software platform for small molecule design, optimisation and data analysis. The enhanced software will introduce new in silico modelling approaches, ensuring scientists can easily link two- and three-dimensional structural information, identify potential liabilities and…
Horizon Discovery divests animal models business to Envigo
Animal model operations to be transferred to Envigo ownership Divestment in line with Horizon’s corporate strategy to focus on its core markets Envigo, a leading global research model supplier, enters the gene-edited research model field with the addition of Horizon’s business Horizon and Envigo to collaborate on providing CRISPR screening services Horizon Discovery Group plc (LSE:…
Nobel Prize in Chemistry Goes to John Goodenough of The University of Texas at Austin
John B. Goodenough, professor in the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, has been awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in chemistry — jointly with Stanley Whittingham of the State University of New York at Binghamton and Akira Yoshino of Meijo University — “for the development of lithium-ion batteries.” In the…
Binary Solvent Mixture Boosting High Efficiency of Polymer Solar Cells
Tremendous progress of organic solar cells (OSCs) has been exemplified by the use of non-fullerene electron acceptors (NFAs) in the past few years. Compared with fullerene derivative acceptors, NFAs show a multitude of advantages including tunable energy levels, broad absorption spectrum and strong light absorption ability, as well as high carrier mobility. To further improve…
Research Reveals Sustainable Method to Produce Lifesaving Opiate Antidotes at Reduced Cost
Researchers Develop New Technique to Produce Amino Acid Chains in the Lab
The process of chaining together the amino acids needed to build the new protein molecules for drug and biomaterial development is often very long and complex for scientists. However, a research team from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has created a faster, easier and cheaper technique to produce new amino acid chains called polypeptides,…
Accurate Probing of Magnetism With Light
Probing magnetic materials with extreme ultraviolet radiation allows to obtain a detailed microscopic picture of how magnetic systems interact with light – the fastest way to manipulate a magnetic material. A team of researchers led by the Max Born Institute has now provided the experimental and theoretical groundwork to interpret such spectroscopic signals. The results…
Why a Deeper Knowledge of Chemistry is Needed to Drive Biologic Drug Innovation
Celebrating the Invention of Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry
I left graduate school hoping never to see a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) ever again. My thesis project of more than 30 years ago required the analytical power promised by the combination of chromatographic separation and positive identification with a mass spectrometer. That power was embodied in a frequently temperamental, relatively high-maintenance early benchtop instrument…
Chemists Build a Better Cancer-Killing Drill
An international team of scientists is getting closer to perfecting molecule-sized motors that drill through the surface of cancer cells, killing them in an instant. Researchers at Rice University, Durham (U.K.) University and North Carolina State University reported their success at activating the motors with precise two-photon excitation via near-infrared light. Unlike the ultraviolet light…
Synthesis of Helical Ladder Polymers
Ladder polymers — molecules made of adjacent rings sharing two or more atoms — are challenging to synthesize, because they require highly selective, quantitative reactions to avoid the formation of branching structures or of interruptions in the ring sequence in the polymer chain. Moreover, most existing strategies for the synthesis of ladder polymers suffer from…
Investigating the Metabolic Impact of Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals
Applying Precious Metal Catalysts Economically
Researchers at Ruhr-Universität Bochum and the Fritz Haber Institute Berlin have developed a new method of using rare and expensive catalysts as sparingly as possible. They enclosed a precious metal salt in outer shells, tiny micelles, and had them strike against a carbon electrode, thus coating the surface with nanoparticles of the precious metal contained…
Research Team Leads the Way in a Green Chemistry Breakthrough For Renewables
Driving Chemical Reactions With Light
New Digital Filter Approach Aims to Improve Chemical Measurements
New Polymer Films Conduct Heat Instead of Trapping It
Polymers are usually the go-to material for thermal insulation. Think of a silicone oven mitt, or a Styrofoam coffee cup, both manufactured from polymer materials that are excellent at trapping heat. Now MIT engineers have flipped the picture of the standard polymer insulator, by fabricating thin polymer films that conduct heat — an ability normally…
Squid Skin Inspires Creation of Next-Generation Space Blanket
Drawing design inspiration from the skin of stealthy sea creatures, engineers at the University of California, Irvine have developed a next-generation, adaptive space blanket that gives users the ability to control their temperature. The innovation is detailed in a study published today in Nature Communications. “Ultra-lightweight space blankets have been around for decades – you…
Coffee Machine Helped Physicists to Make Ion Traps More Efficient
Scientists from ITMO University have developed and applied a new method for analyzing the electromagnetic field inside ion traps. For the first time, they explained the field deviations inside nonlinear radio-frequency traps. This allows to reconsider the prospects nonlinear traps applications, including ion cooling and studies of quantum phenomena. The results are published in the…
Green Plastic Production Made Easy
A one-step method enables scalable and more environmentally friendly production of plant-derived plastic monomers, paving the way towards the mass production of a sustainable alternative to petroleum-based materials. An international team, including Kiyotaka Nakajima of Hokkaido University, Japan, and Emiel Hensen of Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands, has developed an energy-efficient method to synthesize…
New Method Inverts the Self-Assembly of Liquid Crystals
In liquid crystals, molecules automatically arrange themselves in an ordered fashion. Researchers from the University of Luxembourg have discovered a method that allows an anti-ordered state, which will enable novel material properties and potentially new technical applications, such as artificial muscles for soft robotics. They published their findings in the scientific journal Science Advances. The…