Zeolites for efficient oil-water separation

‘Forensic fingers’ for crime scene investigation

A team of scientists in the United States has developed a wearable fingertip sensor to enable crime scene investigators to rapidly detect explosives and gunshot residue. Traditional forensic analysis is typically carried out in a central laboratory, which requires time-consuming processes s ... 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

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

Chemical sensing with 2D materials

During the last decade, two-dimensional materials (2DMs) have attracted great attention due to their unique chemical and physical properties, which make them appealing platforms for diverse applications in opto-electronic devices, energy generation and storage, and sensing. Among their vari ... more

Atomic hydrogen interactions with gas-phase coronene cations: hydrogenation versus fragmentation

Sequential hydrogenation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) cations drives a gradual transition from a planar to a puckered geometry and from an aromatic to an aliphatic electronic structure. The resulting H-induced weakening of the molecular structure together with the exothermic nat ... more

Silver(I)-catalyzed sequential hydroamination and Prins type cyclization for the synthesis of fused benzo--sultams

An intramolecular annulation strategy has been developed for the synthesis of tetrahydrobenzo[e]pyrano[4,3-c][1,2]thiazine derivatives by means of coupling of aldehydes with 2-(4-hydroxybut-1-yn-1-yl)-N-arylsulfonamides using a catalytic amount of silver hexafluoroantimonate in toluene at 8 ... more

Radical approach for brighter LEDs

Scientists have discovered that semiconducting molecules with unpaired electrons, termed 'radicals' can be used to fabricate very efficient organic-light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), exploiting their quantum mechanical 'spin' property to overcome efficiency limitations for traditional, non-radi ... more

Porous salts for fuel cells

Scientists have developed a new class of crystalline porous organic salts with high proton conductivity for applications such as proton-exchange membranes for fuel cells. Polar channels that contain water play a critical role in proton conduction. At about 60 °C and high humidity, their pro ... more

MOF-polymer composite membranes to enhance proton conductivity in fuel cells

Nafion (a perfluorosulfonic acid membrane) is widely used in fuel cells to conduct protons, but Nafion membranes are prone to rapid dehydration at low humidity, which results in a loss of conductivity. To overcome this problem, scientists in China have made a metal-organic framework (MOF) co ... more