Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory have discovered a metal-free carbon-based catalyst that has the potential to be much less expensive and more efficient for many industrial concerns, including manufacturing of bio and fossil fuels, electrocatalysis and fuel cells. At their most fundamental, these industry processes involve splitting strong chemical bonds, like…
Dow to showcase new products Display Week 2020 that improve display assembly, reliability and performance
Dow (NYSE: Dow) will showcase two advanced products and four new technologies for next-generation consumer electronics and automotive displays at the virtual Display Week 2020 show, Aug.3-7, 2020. The products include new generation DOWSIL VE-6001UV-T Optical Bonding material for high-reliability displays in harsh environments, and DOWSIL VE-8001 Flexible Silicone Adhesive for flexible and foldable displays.…
SwRI, UTSA researchers receive grant to reduce cost of malaria treatment
Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) and The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) are working to synthesize novel highly potent derivatives of the antimalarial drug artemisinin with the goal of creating a powerful, cost-effective malaria treatment. Led by Dr. Shawn Blumberg of SwRI’s Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Division and Dr. Doug Frantz of the Department…
Digitizing chemistry with a smart stir bar
Miniaturized computer systems and wireless technology are offering scientists new ways to keep tabs on reactions without the need for larger, cumbersome equipment. In a proof-of-concept study in ACS Sensors, researchers describe an inexpensive new device that functions like a conventional magnetic stir bar, but that can automatically measure and transmit information on a solution’s…
Dow launches new DOWSIL VE-8001 Flexible Silicone Adhesive with low temperature curing for flexible, foldable displays
Dow (NYSE: Dow) introduced today new DOWSIL VE-8001 Flexible Silicone Adhesive for flexible and foldable displays, smartphones, wearables, laptops, televisions and many other types of electronic devices. This two-part primerless silicone adhesive is applied directly to thin metal surfaces and forms an elastic layer, or inner hinge, that helps to protect the display from damage caused…
Carbon-loving materials designed to reduce industrial emissions
By Ashley Cuff Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, are advancing gas membrane materials to expand practical technology options for reducing industrial carbon emissions. Results published in Chem demonstrate a fabrication method for membrane materials that can overcome current bottlenecks in selectivity and permeability, key…
Chemistry innovator widening, quickening uses of spectrometry
By Sarah Olson Michel The clock is ticking when a neurosurgeon is trying to remove a brain tumor but also determining its malignancy and type. Instead of sending samples to a lab where the necessary testing equipment resides to answer those questions, a Purdue scientist is working on shrinking that equipment for use in the…
Nanomaterial gives robots chameleon skin
By Jules Bernstein A new film made of gold nanoparticles changes color in response to any type of movement. Its unprecedented qualities could allow robots to mimic chameleons and octopi — among other futuristic applications. Unlike other materials that try to emulate nature’s color changers, this one can respond to any type of movement, like…
Developing a data-driven chemical industry
By Nina Kaun, Director of Product Management at Elsevier For the chemicals industry, research and development is big business – over $51 billion is invested in R&D every year and two-thirds of CEOs are pursuing new products and services to drive revenue. Given the high cost of development, company leaders need to be strategic about…
Neural networks facilitate optimization in the search for new materials
By David L. Chandler | MIT News Office When searching through theoretical lists of possible new materials for particular applications, such as batteries or other energy-related devices, there are often millions of potential materials that could be considered, and multiple criteria that need to be met and optimized at once. Now, researchers at MIT have…
Powering the future with revolutionary lithium extraction technique
An international research team has pioneered and about to patent a new filtration technique that could one day slash lithium extraction times and change the way the future is powered. The world-first study, published today in the prestigious international journal Nature Materials, presents findings that demonstrate the way in which Metal-Organic Framework (MOF) channels can…
Metrohm expands its pharmaceutical Raman portfolio
With the recent expansion of Metrohm Spectroscopy products through the acquisition of B&W Tek, Metrohm has added the B&W Tek QTRam system to its line of pharmaceutical spectroscopy tools. The QTRam is a proven alternative to time and material intensive wet-chemistry methods for content uniformity measurements. Metrohm’s full portfolio of pharmaceutical spectroscopy products includes benchtop…
Polymers get caught up in love-hate chemistry of oil and water
Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee achieved a rare look at the inner workings of polymer self-assembly at an oil-water interface to advance materials for neuromorphic computing and bio-inspired technologies. Results published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society provide new insights on the way molecules pack and order themselves into “tunable”…
Turning up the heat on antibacterial-resistant diseases
Photothermal therapy (PTT)–a proposed treatment for diseases such as antibacterial-resistant infections and cancer–makes use of a chemical agent that absorbs the light of an infrared laser and dissipates that energy as local heat capable of killing cells, including cancer cells. But most of the chemical agents used for PTT are toxic to human cells and…
Novel SwRI software tool extracts important chemical exposure data
Southwest Research Institute is introducing Floodlight™, a novel software tool that efficiently discovers the vast numbers of chemical components—previously known and unknown—present in the food, air, drugs and products we are exposed to every day. This cheminformatics machine learning tool integrates algorithms with analytical chemistry software to provide deep analysis of gas chromatography mass spectrometry…
Scientists in Mainz develop a more sustainable photochemistry
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,…