Electrospun polymer fibres better than non-woven polymer fibres at mopping up oil from oil spills

Low-carbon hybrid energy systems -- China's future energy solutions

A low-carbon solution to high-carbon energy resources such as coal is proposed by their high efficient integration with either nuclear or renewable energy, which may figure out the strategic solution to China's future energy development. Coal dominated energy resource and consumption struct ... more

Materials: The first graphene-based chiral sensor

A reusable, natural and cheap amylose-functionalised graphene sensor was developed for highly sensitive and visual fluorescent chiral sensing by a team in China.The team found that the sensor’s detection sensitivity toward L-tryptophan was over 100 times higher than that of recently reporte ... more

Hard or soft: at the touch of a button New nano material switches properties as required

A world premiere: a material which changes its strength, virtually at the touch of a button. This transformation can be achieved in a matter of seconds through changes in the electron structure of a material; thus hard and brittle matter, for example, can become soft and malleable. What mak ... more

Electrospun polymer fibres better than non-woven polymer fibres at mopping up oil from oil spills

Electrospun polystyrene shell/polyurethane core fibres made by scientists in China have absorption capacities 2-3 times higher than reported for non-woven polypropylene fibres (widely used to clean up oil spills). Electrospun fibres are an ideal candidate for soaking up oil, as their struct ... more

High-performance epoxy resin adhesives from renewable green starting materials

A series of epoxy resins has been synthesised by a team of chemists from Germany, who used renewable starting materials for a more environmentally friendly approach than conventional methods. The resulting epoxy resins have highly desirable mechanical properties, such as high stiffness, tha ... more

Cheap, simple and efficient molybdenum carbide electrocatalysts for hydrogen production

US scientists have made an efficient catalytic system to split water that uses molybdenum carbide nanoparticles on a carbon nanotube support. Molybdenum and carbon are both low cost and abundant elements. Water splitting using sustainable energy sources, such as solar and wind power, has be ... more

NHC-catalyzed reactions of enals with water as solvent

Water is demonstrated as a suitable solvent for NHC-catalyzed reactions of enals. The use of D2O as solvent allows for effective incorporation of deuterium isotopes to organic molecules. more

Series of novel 3D microporous heterometallic 3d-4f coordination frameworks with (5, 6) -connected topology: Synthesis, crystal structure and magnetic properties

The hydrothermal reaction of rare earth nitrates, CuCN, 1H-1,2,3-triazole-4,5-dicarboxylic acid (H3tda), and isonicotinic acid (Hina) resulted in the formation of a new series of 3d-4f heterometallic coordination polymers [LnCu(tda)(ina)2(H2O)]•3H2O (Ln= Eu(1),Tb(2)Gd,(3),Dy(4),Ho(5)], H3td ... more

Structural Modifications of (Z)-3-(2-aminoethyl)-5-(4-ethoxybenzylidene)thiazolidine-2,4-dione that Improve Selectivity for the Inhibition of Melanoma Cells Containing Active E ...

The extracellular signal-regulated kinase-1 and 2 (ERK1/2) proteins are ubiquitous and essential mediators of cellular responses to extracellular signals. However, constitutive activation of ERK1/2 occurs in many forms of cancer due to mutations in upstream regulators and is observed in dru ... more