Chemists discover simple way to build bigger molecules – one carbon at a time

This breakthrough method could accelerate drug discovery and the design of complex chemical products

12-Jun-2025 - A team of chemists at the University of Cambridge has developed a powerful new method for adding single carbon atoms to molecules more easily, offering a simple one-step approach that could accelerate drug discovery and the design of complex chemical products. The research, recently published in ...

Renewable Materials Conference 2025: Nominees for the Innovation Award Unveiled

23-May-2025 - The Renewable Materials Conference (RMC), organised by the nova-Institute, will present leading solutions and innovations for replacing fossil carbon with biomass, CO₂ utilisation and recycling. The growing success of RMC demonstrates that its unique concept of presenting all solutions for ...

Structure of liquid carbon measured for the first time

Research team completes groundbreaking experiment at the European XFEL

23-May-2025 - With the declared aim of measuring matter under extreme pressure, an international research collaboration headed by the University of Rostock and the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) used the high-performance laser DIPOLE 100-X at the European XFEL for the first time in 2023. With ...

Unique molecule may lead to smaller, more efficient computers

A new type of molecule could offer a groundbreaking material for computer chips

12-May-2025 - Today, most of us carry a fairly powerful computer in our hand—a smartphone. But computers weren’t always so portable. Since the 1980s, they have become smaller, lighter, and better equipped to store and process vast troves of data. Yet the silicon chips that power computers can only get so ...

From Emissions to Solutions

CO2-Based Graphite, Plastics, and Methanol win big at “Best CO2 Utilisation 2025” Innovation Award

12-May-2025 - UP Catalyst, Far Eastern New Century Corporation, and Oxylus Energy were recognised at the “Best CO2 Utilisation 2025” Innovation Award for transforming carbon emissions into high-performance battery materials, sustainable plastics for footwear and textiles, and methanol fuel, marking major ...

How to Defossilise the Chemical Industry?

New report presents policy proposals for a Renewable Carbon Future

17-Apr-2025 - The European chemical industry, a cornerstone of manufacturing with significant economic impact and a key enabler for many other industries, is at a crossroads. The sector is facing an acute crisis due to global competition, rising energy costs and regulatory burdens. Once a leader in patents and ...

New, non-toxic synthesis method for “miracle material” MXene

No more toxic hydrofluoric acid

16-Apr-2025 - The nanomaterial MXene is used for battery technology or as a high-performance lubricant. Until now, its production was difficult and toxic. New methods have been developed at TU Wien. It is one of the most significant trends in materials science: materials that consist of only a single layer of ...

Oxygen for Mars

Direct splitting: electrochemical process uses carbon dioxide to produce oxygen

27-Mar-2025 - To mitigate global climate change, emissions of the primary culprit, carbon dioxide, must be drastically reduced. A newly developed process helps solve this problem: CO2 is directly split electrochemically into carbon and oxygen. As a Chinese research team reports in the journal Angewandte ...

A toolbox for quantum research

Quantum spin model made from nanographene molecules

18-Mar-2025 - Empa researchers from the nanotech@surfaces laboratory have experimentally recreated another fundamental theoretical model from quantum physics, which goes back to the Nobel Prize laureate Werner Heisenberg. The basis for the successful experiment was a kind of “quantum Lego” made of tiny carbon ...

New process to enable the conversion of CO2 into sustainable basic chemicals

13-Mar-2025 - The sustainable production of chemical base materials using CO2 as a carbon source is the goal of the "PKat4Chem" project. The project partners involved aim at further developing the process of low-temperature plasma catalysis so that gases produced from biomass can be converted into methanol or ...