Energy storage breakthrough solves the fast-charging problem

Custom electrodes made from organic material prevent chemical breakdown at high voltages

18-Mar-2026 - Electrochemical capacitors, often called supercapacitors, are the sprinters of the energy world. They charge instantly and deliver massive bursts of power on demand. The trade-off, however, is their lack of endurance: they cannot store much total energy, and they tend to leak their charge quickly ...

Batteries from rust?

Carbon spheres filled with iron oxide deliver high storage capacity

06-Feb-2026 - Conventional lithium-ion batteries contain problematic substances such as nickel and cobalt, and the solvents used to coat the electrode materials are also toxic. Materials scientists at Saarland University are therefore working to develop environmentally friendly alternatives. By introducing ...

Several roadblocks identified on the way to a net-zero chemical industry

New report outlines barriers and points to solutions

04-Feb-2026 - A study published by the Renewable Carbon Initiative (RCI) reveals that existing EU policies continue to create significant barriers for renewable carbon-based chemicals and materials – despite growing political ambition to defossilise the European economy. The report pinpoints specific barriers ...

BASF and ExxonMobil Join Forces to Advance Low - Emission Hydrogen Through Methane Pyrolysis Technology

A demonstration plant is planned in Baytown, Texas, to validate the technology at scale

19-Nov-2025 - BASF and ExxonMobil have formed a strategic collaboration to advance methane pyrolysis technology, a next step toward delivering efficient, cost-competitive low-emission hydrogen solutions for industrial use. The companies have signed a joint development agreement to co-develop methane pyrolysis ...

Breaking the Bubbles of the Different Renewable Carbon Sectors to Enhance the Transformation of the European Chemical Industry

“Renewable Material of the Year 2025”: Three innovative start-ups lead the way in sustainable chemical industry

08-Oct-2025 - The Renewable Materials Conference (RMC) concluded with a sense of optimism and a clear strategy for transforming Europe’s chemical and materials industry. The key takeaway: Europe can pioneer a defossilised and competitive chemical industry by breaking down sector silos and implementing the ...

Wired by nature: precision molecules for tomorrow's electronics

26-Aug-2025 - Empa researchers have succeeded for the first time in binding organic porphyrin molecules with functional metal centers to a graphene nanoribbon with atomic precision. The resulting hybrid system is magnetically and electronically coupled, paving the way for a wide range of applications in ...

Humify – superfood for the soil

Fighting climate change with green chemistry: The start-up Humify has developed a technology that can reactivate soil as a carbon sink

05-Aug-2025 - Hot and humid temperatures, no light, no air and then that intense odour: when the high-pressure cooker is fired up in the start-up Humify's laboratory, it is hard to imagine that under such conditions the resulting product – a kind of black liquid sludge – could help to influence climate change ...

Connect Four: New Semiconductor for Future Computer Chips

For a long time, manufacturing such a material was thought to be virtually impossible

17-Jul-2025 - Researchers at Forschungszentrum Jülich and the Leibniz Institute for Innovative Microelectronics (IHP) have developed a material that has never existed before: a stable alloy of carbon, silicon, germanium, and tin. The new compound, abbreviated as CSiGeSn, opens up exciting possibilities for ...

Selective and reversible adsorption of gases

Things are much better under tension

08-Jul-2025 - Using an electrically switchable composite of carbon and silicon dioxide, a research team at TU Darmstadt has for the first time specifically removed gases such as carbon dioxide, nitrogen or argon from the gas phase - simply by applying an electrical voltage. The material stores the gases on its ...

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 ...