Chemically functionalized polymer nanoparticles reduce friction on steel surfaces

03-Feb-2023

Mineral oil lubricants protect engine parts from wear, and this effect is enhanced by adding polymer nanoparticles to the lubricating oil. A UK team has now discovered that epoxy functionalization of these nanoparticles further promotes friction reduction on metal surfaces. As the team reports in ...

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Micro and macro X-ray analysis detects lead formate in Rembrandt's Night Watch

31-Jan-2023

Rembrandt van Rijn was one of the most important Dutch painters of the 17th century. Probably his most famous painting is The Night Watch from 1642, which can be admired today in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. An international team has now identified lead formate in several areas of the Night ...

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New milestone: researchers recycle Nylon-6 at mild temperatures and without toxic chemicals

21-Dec-2022

Nylon-6 is a tough, non-biodegradable plastic that cannot be recycled by conventional methods. A new way has now been introduced by a team from the USA in the journal Angewandte Chemie: with an easily accessible lanthanum trisamido catalyst, Nylon-6 can be depolymerized highly selectively, nearly ...

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Organic dyes with persistent delayed fluorescence and ultralong phosphorescence

20-Dec-2022

A team of researchers from Lithuania has developed organic dyes showing a particularly long afterglow after being excited by light. Doping a polymer with newly synthesized diboraanthracene dyes resulted in an intense red or blue–green dual afterglow, which was composed of persistent thermally ...

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Using boron radicals to convert nitrogen to ammonia in solution

16-Dec-2022

Ammonia is obtained industrially using the Haber–Bosch process, which requires a lot of energy and hydrogen gas. A much milder approach has now been reported by a team of researchers in the journal Angewandte Chemie. According to this research, reactive boron compounds can efficiently target ...

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Bioengineered microbial community working together to store carbon

14-Dec-2022

Photosynthesis is a valuable natural system for sequestering carbon dioxide. However, simply forming biomass does not fully exploit this system. A Chinese team of researchers, whose study is published in the journal Angewandte Chemie, has now genetically engineered a microbial community which ...

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Fungi convert polyethylene waste into pharmacologically useful metabolic products

30-Nov-2022

Plastic waste is one of the most significant ecological and economic problems of our time. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, a research team has now introduced a chemical–biological method for upcycling polyethylene waste: catalytic cleavage is used to make carboxylic diacids that are ...

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Some reactions in the reverse Krebs cycle can also be run under meteorite catalysis

25-Nov-2022

Naturally occurring chemical reactions may have evolved into the biochemical processes we know today. A team of researchers has now discovered that a reaction sequence from the so-called reverse Krebs cycle—a fundamental biochemical process—can also take place without enzymes. The team writes in ...

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Low toxicity, high efficiency: ZnSe/ZnS quantum dots as photocatalysts

15-Nov-2022

Chemistry is increasingly making use of the trick plants can do with photosynthesis: driving chemical reactions that run poorly or do not occur spontaneously at all with light energy. This requires suitable photocatalysts that capture light energy and make it available for the reaction. In the ...

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A synthetic sulfide mineral with thermoelectric properties

10-Nov-2022

To convert heat into electricity, easily accessible materials from harmless raw materials open up new perspectives in the development of safe and inexpensive so-called thermoelectric materials. A synthetic copper mineral acquires a complex structure and microstructure through simple changes in ...

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