New insight into how long-banned chemicals unleash their toxicity inside the body

28-Nov-2022 - Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were widely used in industrial and commercial products including plastics, paints, electronic equipment and insulating fluids. Their manufacture was extensively banned from the late 70s onwards due to their toxicity, however large amounts still remain in our ...

Key to chemical industries’ sustainable future?

The world’s first industrial model of a flow photo-on-demand synthesis system

25-Nov-2022 - Various chemical products, such as polymers and pharmaceutical intermediates, are currently synthesized with phosgene as their precursor or raw material. However, phosgene is highly toxic and this usage poses safety risks. Thus, there is demand for the development of new methods and substitutes ...

Simplified process shines light on new catalyst opportunities

23-Nov-2022 - Theory-guided development of an easier, more versatile process for synthesizing unsymmetric ligands provides new avenues of exploration in transitional metal catalysis. Researchers at the Institute for Chemical Reaction Design and Discovery (WPI-ICReDD) have discovered the key to synthesizing a ...

Material separates water from … water

A flipping action in a porous material facilitates the passage of normal water to separate it out from heavy water

11-Nov-2022 - A research group led by Susumu Kitagawa of Kyoto University’s Institute for Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS), Japan and Cheng Gu of South China University of Technology, China have made a material that can effectively separate heavy water from normal water at room temperature. Until now, this ...

Nanoporous intermetallic compounds that boost hydrogen production

20-Oct-2022 - Hydrogen has the highest energy density (120 MJ/kg) of all known substances, approximately three times more than diesel or gasoline, meaning it could play a pivotal role in sustainable energy systems. But the efficient production of hydrogen by simple water splitting requires highly performing ...

New cheaper positive electrode material improves all-solid-state sodium batteries

Expected to improve high-capacity rechargeable batteries and make them cheaper by using common materials

14-Oct-2022 - The demand for high energy density rechargeable batteries, such as lithium-ion batteries, increases every year, as society shifts toward becoming carbon neutral. Sodium-ion batteries—which have a resource advantage over lithium-ion batteries—are attracting more attention, as cheap new ...

Success in synthesizing biodegradable plastic materials using sunlight and CO₂

80% yield!

12-Oct-2022 - Tremendous effort has been put into making plastics not only durable and convenient but also environmentally-friendly materials for everyday products. Osaka Metropolitan University scientists made a significant advance in this journey with their innovative artificial photosynthesis technology ...

New upcycling system for commercial polyesters

Using commonly available materials and a simple mixing and heating process, polyesters can be transformed into highly recyclable, high-value materials

28-Sep-2022 - While plastics or synthetic polymers have many useful properties, their mismanagement has resulted in widespread pollution that chokes up our ecosystems. As a solution to this, many synthetic polymers are sent for reprocessing and recycling; polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is one of the most ...

Wrapping of nanosize copper cubes can help convert carbon dioxide into other chemicals

26-Sep-2022 - Researchers found a new way to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by wrapping copper nanocubes with an organic layer, solving instability and selectivity problems with copper nanocubes in catalysis, and improving how this electrocatalyst converts CO2 into organic molecules. As the need to ...

Damage-free way to gauge the health of next-gen batteries for electric vehicles

Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy shows how solid-state lithium metal batteries degrade

20-Sep-2022 - Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have demonstrated that electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) can be a powerful non-destructive tool to study the degradation mechanisms of all-solid-state lithium metal batteries. They studied ceramic-based all-solid-state Li metal batteries ...