Merck Generates Profitable Growth in Q3 2019

15-Nov-2019 - Merck generated strong organic sales growth and benefited from positive foreign exchange effects in the third quarter of 2019. EBITDA pre increased even more strongly than net sales in the three-month period from July to September. Following the closing of the Versum Materials (Versum) ...

Five-fold boost in formaldehyde yield

15-Nov-2019 - Environmentally benign methods for the industrial production of chemicals are urgently needed. LMU researchers recently described such a procedure for the synthesis of formaldehyde, and have now improved it with the aid of machine learning. Formaldehyde is one of the most important feedstocks ...

Light at the end of the nanotunnel for future catalysts

14-Nov-2019 - Using a new type of nanoreactor, researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, have succeeded in mapping catalytic reactions on individual metallic nanoparticles. Their work could help improve chemical processes, and lead to better catalysts and more environmentally friendly chemical ...

Carbon nanotubes show a love/hate relationship with water

14-Nov-2019 - Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are valuable for a wide variety of applications. Made of graphene sheets rolled into tubes 10,000 times smaller than a human hair, CNTs have an exceptional strength-to-mass ratio and excellent thermal and electrical properties. These features make them ideal for a range of ...

LANXESS with stable development also in third quarter

Realignment of organometallics business

13-Nov-2019 - Specialty chemicals company LANXESS performed well again in the third quarter of 2019 – despite further deterioration of the economic environment. As expected, earnings in the third quarter were only slightly weaker than in the previous year. At EUR267 million, EBITDA pre exceptionals was 3.6 ...

A cheaper way to scale up atomic layer deposition

13-Nov-2019 - Atomic layer deposition (ALD) involves stacking layers of atoms on top of each other like pancakes. The atoms come from a vaporized material called a precursor. ALD is a well-established technique for manufacturing microelectronics like semiconductors and magnetic heads for sound recording, as ...

New catalyst efficiently produces hydrogen from seawater

13-Nov-2019 - Seawater is one of the most abundant resources on earth, offering promise both as a source of hydrogen - desirable as a source of clean energy - and of drinking water in arid climates. But even as water-splitting technologies capable of producing hydrogen from freshwater have become more ...

'Messy' production of perovskite material increases solar cell efficiency

13-Nov-2019 - Scientists at the University of Cambridge studying perovskite materials for next generation solar cells and flexible LEDs have discovered that they can be more efficient when their chemical compositions are less ordered, vastly simplifying production processes and lowering cost. The surprising ...

Lab in hollow MOF capsules beyond integration of homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis

12-Nov-2019 - Homogeneous molecular catalysts are highly active and selective as they possess well-tailored structures and accessible sites. Unfortunately, the difficulty related to catalyst recovery impedes their practical application. The encapsulation of them inside hollow porous solid materials is a ...

Chemists' surprising discovery of nanoconfined reactions could aid catalytic design

12-Nov-2019 - Georgia State University chemistry researchers have unlocked one of the mysteries of catalytic reactions on a microscopic scale, allowing for the design of more efficient industrial processes. Catalysts -- which speed up chemical reactions in everything from the digestion of food to combustion ...