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 structure means the oil can fit into the voids between fibres, not just be adsorbed on a surface. The materials are also recyclable, showing comparable oil sorption capacity to polypropylene fibres even after five sorption cycles. Applications could be in oil spill remediation and in removing discarded edible oils from the wastewater system.
Scientists from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have demonstrated the use of controllably synthesized single-atom catalysts (SACs) to depict the relationship between electrocatalytic nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) performance and single-atom (S ... more
Titanium hosts record high superconductivity for elements superconductors
Element superconductors are important either for superconducting mechanism studies or for potential applications because of the single composition. However element superconductor (SC) usually show very low transition temperature (Tc) typically below 10K. Recently Prof. Changqing Jin’s team ... more
Graphene as 'the philosopher’s stone’: turning waste into gold
Throughout history, alchemists believed in the existence of the philosopher’s stone: a substance that could turn cheap substances into precious gold. Now scientists from The University of Manchester, Tsinghua University in China and the Chinese Academy of Sciences have shown that graphene c ... 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
Researchers from France have developed a new type of sunscreen. The sunscreen is made from latex that traps a UVB filter chemical within its structure. The team designed the sunscreen to protect wounded skin, which conventional sun creams are ineffective for. The sun-shielding films were ab ... 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
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
