Opportunities for a "new" chemistry

20-Apr-2022

Chemical syntheses in liquids and gases take place in three-dimensional space. Random collisions between molecules have to result in something new in an extremely short time. But there is another way: on a gold surface under ultrahigh vacuum conditions, molecules lying still next to each other ...

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Electrostatic influences the movement of drops on surfaces

20-Apr-2022

Something as simple as the motion of water drops on surfaces should actually be understood - one would think. In fact there are still numerous unanswered questions about the forces acting on a sliding droplet. A team of researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research in ...

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Airplane wings that don't ice up or solar cells that generate electricity even in winter - ice-free surfaces are important for many applications

07-Mar-2022

A team of scientists led by Konrad Meister, professor at the University of Alaska Southeast and group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, has now studied an Antarctic scallop species that opposes the icing process with the help of its shell surface. Due to their special ...

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How water-repellent coatings can reduce foaming in industrial processes

21-Jan-2022

While foam is certainly desirable in the bathtub or on beer, preventing foam - for example in industrial processes - is a much-discussed topic. Often, oils or particles are added to liquids to prevent foaming. If these are harmful to health or the environment, they must be removed again using ...

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How water surfaces can be used to produce functional materials

19-Oct-2021

The production of high-quality monolayers – i.e. only one molecule high - is highly relevant for optoelectronic components such as organic light-emitting diodes used today in modern cell phones: Both lifetime and energy efficiency can be increased. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for ...

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30-Mar-2021

There are worlds between the Zuse Z3, the first functioning digital computer from 1941, and modern microprocessors - both in terms of speed and size. But the further miniaturization of current silicon-based electronics is reaching its limits due to fabrication methods. Paving the way to the ...

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Max Planck spin-off aims to further develop research into microtechnology-based plant protection products

18-Mar-2021

Every year, fungal diseases of grapevines cause a loss of one billion euros. Conventional plant protection agents are largely powerless in combating them. A planned spin-off of the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research (MPI-P) is now to further develop research into sustainable, ...

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If and how a polymeric solution will flow in a nanoporous material

18-Dec-2020

Printing with an ink-jet printer is part of daily life, but the same technology finds more complex applications in electronics and in protein separation. These applications, considered futuristic only few decades ago, rely on the quality of the printing process which depends on the flow of the ...

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New insights into how and how quickly the energy stored in a bent water molecule is dissipated into heat

11-Dec-2020

The water on Earth makes our planet inhabitable. It absorbs the Sun’s energy and releases it in the form of heat. An international research collaboration headed by the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research (MPI-P) has now shown how and how fast the stored energy in the water molecules is ...

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Scientists have found a way to generate electricity from nylon, raising hopes that the clothes on our backs will become an important source of energy

10-Nov-2020

Researchers have found a way to produce nylon fibres that are smart enough to produce electricity from simple body movement, paving the way for smart clothes that will monitor our health through miniaturised sensors and charge our devices without any external power source. This discovery - a ...

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