AI and human touch combine to revolutionize chemical synthesis

10-Feb-2023

With a big assist from artificial intelligence and a heavy dose of human touch, Tim Cernak's lab at the University of Michigan made a discovery that dramatically speeds up the time-consuming chemical process of building molecules that will be tomorrow's medicines, agrichemicals or materials. The ...

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U-Michigan team discovered a way to chemically recycle PVC into usable material

06-Dec-2022

PVC, or polyvinyl chloride, is one of the most produced plastics in the United States and the third highest by volume in the world. PVC makes up a vast amount of plastics we use on a daily basis. Much of the plastic used in hospital equipment—tubing, blood bags, masks and more—is PVC, as is most ...

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The new approach moves energy efficiently and could reduce energy losses converting light into electricity

08-Sep-2022

A relatively new kind of semiconductor, layered atop a mirror-like structure, can mimic the way that leaves move energy from the sun over relatively long distances before using it to fuel chemical reactions. The approach may one day improve the efficiency of solar cells. "Energy transport is one ...

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New catalyst, which can make propylene from natural gas, is at least 10 times more efficient than current commercial catalysts

12-Jul-2021

In a year that has already battered manufacturing supply chains, yet another shortage is complicating manufacturers' and consumers' lives: plastics, and the food packaging, automotive components, clothing, medical and lab equipment and countless other items that rely on them. But a new chemical ...

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07-Dec-2020

A new tool that uses light to map out the electronic structures of crystals could reveal the capabilities of emerging quantum materials and pave the way for advanced energy technologies and quantum computers, according to researchers at the University of Michigan, the University of Regensburg and ...

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25-Jun-2018

It can repel water, oil, alcohol and even peanut butter. And it might save the U.S. Navy millions of dollars in ship fuel costs, reduce the amount of energy that vessels consume and improve operational efficiency. The Office of Naval Research (ONR) is sponsoring work by Dr. Anish Tuteja, an ...

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15-Nov-2017

New research from the University of Michigan Life Sciences Institute is building a bridge from nature's chemistry to greener, more efficient synthetic chemistry. Researchers in the lab of Alison Narayan analyzed biocatalysts evolved by nature for their effectiveness in a variety of synthetic ...

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Platform-independent solution to integrate future developments

26-Oct-2017

Since physicists have been dealing with the theoretical description of molecules, the solving of quantum mechanical equations has been a major obstacle. This is supposed to be a thing of the past with the release of an open source based system. Google has introduced such a system to the public ...

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02-Feb-2017

Snow falls in winter and melts in spring, but what drives the phase change in between? Although melting is a familiar phenomenon encountered in everyday life, playing a part in many industrial and commercial processes, much remains to be discovered about this transformation at a fundamental ...

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25-Jan-2017

When a material is made, you typically cannot change whether that material is hard or soft. But a group of University of Michigan researchers have developed a new way to design a "metamaterial" that allows the material to switch between being hard and soft without damaging or altering the ...

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