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

Scientists develop low-temperature resisting aqueous zinc-based batteries

Aqueous zinc-based batteries (ZBBs) are widely used for portable and grid-scale applications due to their high safety, low cost and high energy density. However, the inhomogeneous zinc deposition on anode during charging and the zinc dendrite formation decrease the cycling stability of ZBBs ... more

Manganese single-atom catalyst boosts performance of electrochemical CO2 Reduction

Electrochemical CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) is a promising approach to convert CO2 into useful chemicals. A research team led by Prof. ZHANG Suojiang from the Institute of Process Engineering (IPE) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences prepared a manganese (Mn) single-atom catalyst (SAC) wi ... more

Fluorine enables separation-free 'chiral chromatographic analysis'

Researchers from the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences recently developed a new platform for rapid chiral analysis, producing chromatogram-like output without the need for separation. The study was published in Cell Reports Physical Science. Molecule ... more

‘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

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

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