Researchers identified synthetic polymers that induce biofilm formation in E. coli, a bacterium commonly used in biocatalysis

04-Aug-2022

Birmingham scientists have revealed a new method to increase efficiency in biocatalysis, in a paper published in Materials Horizons. Biocatalysis uses enzymes, cells or microbes to catalyse chemical reactions, and is used in settings such as the food and chemical industries to make products that ...

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High-speed synchrotron X-ray tomography ‘photograph’ the changing crystal structures in molten alloys as they cool

07-Jun-2022

Scientists from the University of Birmingham have described how microscopic crystals grow and change shape in molten metals as they cool, in research that is breaking new ground in alloy research and paves the way for improving the tensile strength of alloys used in casting and welding. Their ...

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Technology allows to monitor what is going on inside production pipes in real-time, without having to halt production

25-Jan-2022

University of Birmingham spinout Rheality has partnered with Clean Engineering to commercialise a ‘smart’ AI-based system that will significantly optimise fluid production by reducing power consumption and raw material wastage while maximising throughput and product quality in the Food, Oil & ...

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Educational tool to explain the processes at work inside the battery cells and the electrochemistry behind them

18-Jun-2020

Tower block games can be used to explain to schoolchildren how lithium-ion batteries work, meeting an educational need to better understand a power source that has become vital to everyday life. While lithium-ion batteries are abundant in so many of our electronic devices, from smart phones to ...

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Chemical process can be used to break down real consumer plastics and produce green solvent

25-May-2020

A faster, more efficient way of recycling plant-based "bioplastics" has been developed by a team of scientists at the Universities of Birmingham and Bath. The team has shown how their chemical recycling method not only speeds up the process, it can also be converted into a new product - a ...

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Technique will enable faster evaluation of new battery materials

04-May-2020

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can provide an effective way of supporting the development of the next generation of high-performance rechargeable batteries, according to research led by the University of Birmingham. The technique, which was developed to detect the movement and deposition of ...

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31-Mar-2020

Scientists have developed a way of extracting a richer palette of colours from the available spectrum by harnessing disordered patterns inspired by nature that would typically be seen as black. Colours that we see in nature often come from nanoscale patterns that reflect light back in particular ...

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13-May-2019

Tiny light-emitting microalgae, found in the ocean, could hold the secret to the next generation of organic solar cells, according to new research carried out at the Universities of Birmingham and Utrecht. Microalgae are probably the oldest surviving living organisms on the planet. They have ...

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12-Dec-2017

A new technique by which to 3D print metals, involving a widely used stainless steel, has been show to achieve exception levels of both strength and ductility, when compared to counterparts from more conventional processes. The findings outline how a joint research team from the University of ...

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14-Sep-2016

Scientists have developed a method of allowing materials, commonly used in aircraft and satellites, to self-heal cracks at temperatures well below freezing. The paper, published in Royal Society Open Science, is the first to show that self-healing materials can be manipulated to operate at very ...

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