Hazardous ingredients in batteries

Trust, but verify! A long and winding road to an innovative method

29-Sep-2023 - Although strict limits exist, old types of batteries can still contain too many hazardous ingredients such as mercury, cadmium and lead. The Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) has therefore launched a control campaign. Empa has laid the foundations for this with a novel tailor-made method ...

Maternal exposure to chemicals linked to autistic-like behaviours in children

31-Mar-2021 - A new study by Simon Fraser University's Faculty of Health Sciences researchers found correlations between increased expressions of autistic-like behaviours in pre-school aged children to gestational exposure to select environmental toxicants, including metals, pesticides, polychlorinated ...

New test to better assess environmental impact of substances

Researchers developed a test that investigates whether substances can cause inheritable changes in the genome of multicellular organisms such as insects

24-Nov-2020 - Researchers of the Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre and the LOEWE Centre for Translational Biodiversity Genomics hope to increase the reliability of environmental impact tests of substances. To this end, they developed a test that investigates whether substances can cause ...

This bacterium gets paid in gold

Harvesting solar fuels through a bacterium's unusual appetite for gold

11-Oct-2018 - A bacterium named Moorella thermoacetica won't work for free. But UC Berkeley researchers have figured out it has an appetite for gold. And in exchange for this special treat, the bacterium has revealed a more efficient path to producing solar fuels through artificial photosynthesis. M. ...

All-in-one light-driven water splitting

10-Sep-2018 - Solar-powered water splitting is a promising means of generating clean and storable energy. A novel catalyst based on semiconductor nanoparticles has now been shown to facilitate all the reactions needed for “artificial photosynthesis”. In the light of global climate change, there is an urgent ...

Quantum Dot White LEDs Achieve Record Efficiency

16-Jul-2018 - Researchers have demonstrated nanomaterial-based white-light-emitting diodes (LEDs) that exhibit a record luminous efficiency of 105 lumens per watt. Luminous efficiency is a measure of how well a light source uses power to generate light. With further development, the new LEDs could reach ...

Don't Give the Slightest Chance to Toxic Elements in Medicinal Products

New high-accuracy reference solutions for the SI-traceable measurement

27-Mar-2018 - Lead, cadmium, mercury, and arsenic do not belong in medicinal products. International requirements for the quality of medicines have therefore become more stringent and introduced new control requirements. Hence, it makes sense to use high-accuracy reference solutions with defined contents of ...

Inspectors find phthalates in toys and asbestos in second-hand products

Hundreds of consumer products with illegal amounts of restricted chemicals

13-Feb-2018 - The project report shows a relatively high number of products on the European market containing chemicals that are restricted under REACH. Inspectors in 27 European countries checked 1 009 mixtures, 4 599 articles and 17 substances. Overall, out of 5 625 targeted product checks, 18 % did not ...

Engineers give optical switches the 'contrast' of electronic transistors

02-Feb-2018 - Current computer systems represent bits of information, the 1's and 0's of binary code, with electricity. Circuit elements, such as transistors, operate on these electric signals, producing outputs that are dependent on their inputs. As fast and powerful as computers have become, Ritesh Agarwal, ...

Drinking glasses can contain potentially harmful levels of lead and cadmium

07-Nov-2017 - Enamelled drinking glasses and popular merchandise can contain potentially toxic levels of lead and cadmium, a study has shown. Researchers at the University of Plymouth carried out 197 tests on 72 new and second-hand drinking glass products, including tumblers, beer and wine glasses, and ...