Nanoburgers with promising flaws

DESY team finds surprising defects in tiny metal particles, which could stimulate the development of more efficient catalysts

27-Jun-2025 - Catalysts are indispensable in many industries: they speed up chemical reactions, making them economically viable. They often consist of tiny particles, just a few nanometres across, to which molecules attach themselves, making it easier for them to form a bond with another reagent. The catalysts ...

Sustainable synthesis of biomolecules and pharmaceuticals

Chemists develop a procedure that makes external catalysts superfluous

27-Jun-2025 - In future, it may be possible to produce bioactive molecules and pharmaceuticals without reverting to using enzymes or metals as external catalysts. Chemists at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) have developed a procedure during which an in situ-formed organoautocatalyst ...

Small but Mighty: Miniaturized Hydrogen Production

“We asked the biologically somewhat crazy question of whether we can’t just find a shortcut and let ferredoxin produce hydrogen”

19-Jun-2025 - Researchers have created a miniature biocatalyst for hydrogen production. It works efficiently with electrons from photosynthesis. Natural hydrogen-producing enzymes are large and extremely sensitive to oxygen. This makes it difficult to use them for the applied production of green hydrogen. ...

Precision landing in the atomic lattice - new ways to improve catalysis and gas detection

Innovative combination of methods allows precise localization of individual atoms in ultra-thin materials

12-Jun-2025 - A research team from the University of Vienna and Vienna University of Technology has succeeded in incorporating individual platinum atoms into an ultra-thin material in a targeted manner - and for the first time, has been able to demonstrate with atomic precision which position they occupy in ...

Memory matters for quantum atomic motion on metals

New findings with implications for heterogeneous catalysis and energy storage

05-Jun-2025 - George Trenins and Mariana Rossi of the Lise Meitner Group at the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD) have developed an efficient technique for simulating the impact of electronic friction on quantum atomic motion at metallic interfaces. Applying it to hydrogen ...

hte and Heraeus Precious Metals collaborate on catalytic ammonia cracking

22-May-2025 - hte and precious metals specialist Heraeus Precious Metals signed a R&D service agreement. The main focus of this collaboration is the screening of different materials for catalytic ammonia cracking in order to obtain hydrogen. As part of this screening project, a cutting-edge, state-of-the-art ...

Heat- and Oxygen-Stable Biocatalyst for Hydrogen Production

Newly detected [FeFe]-hydrogenase from a thermophilic bacterium is not degraded by oxygen

15-May-2025 - In the absence of air, microorganisms produce hydrogen using an enzyme called [FeFe]-hydrogenase, one of the most efficient hydrogen-producing biocatalysts known and a promising tool for green hydrogen energy. However, these enzymes are rapidly destroyed when exposed to air, which has so far ...

Enhancing the Sustainability of Plastics Using Sulphur Waste

07-May-2025 - Researchers at the University of Bayreuth have found a way to make plastics more sustainable by utilizing sulphur waste from the petroleum refining process. They have developed a method that allows so-called dynamic sulphur bonds to be easily integrated into polyesters. Their findings have been ...

The smallest test tube in the world

Prof. Dr. Helmut Schwarz receives the "BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award"

17-Apr-2025 - Prof. Dr. Helmut Schwarz, Emeritus Professor at TU Berlin, was awarded the 17th BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Basic Sciences, together with Prof. Dr. Avelino Corma (Universitat Politècnica de València-CSIC, Spain) and Prof. Dr. John F. Hartwig (University of California, ...

Proton-coupled electron transfer: Deciphered with high pressure

New findings could drive forward new technologies for converting and storing chemical energy

27-Mar-2025 - Chemists reveal method for differentiating PCET mechanisms – a key step for steering fundamental energy conversion and redox catalysis processes. Redox reactions form the basis of many fundamental processes of life. Without them, neither cellular respiration nor photosynthesis could take place. ...