Liquid metals shake up century-old chemical engineering processes

Offering the chemical industry an ‘unparalleled possibility’ for changing the future of chemical processes

13-Nov-2023 - Liquid metals could be the long-awaited solution to “greening” the chemical industry, according to researchers who tested a new technique they hope can replace energy-intensive chemical engineering processes harking back to the early 20th century. Chemical production accounts for approximately ...

Scientists use quantum device to slow down simulated chemical reaction 100 billion times

What happens in femtoseconds in nature can now be observed in milliseconds in the lab

31-Aug-2023 - Scientists at the University of Sydney have, for the first time, used a quantum computer to engineer and directly observe a process critical in chemical reactions by slowing it down by a factor of 100 billion times. Joint lead researcher and PhD student, Vanessa Olaya Agudelo, said: “It is by ...

New, low-cost battery built with four times the capacity of lithium

New battery technology has potential to significantly reduce energy storage costs

09-Dec-2022 - An international team of researchers are hoping that a new, low-cost battery which holds four times the energy capacity of lithium-ion batteries and is far cheaper to produce will significantly reduce the cost of transitioning to a decarbonised economy. Led byDr Shenlong Zhaofrom the ...

Self-Assembly of Particles with Rough Edges

Polyhedrons with Potential for New Materials

22-Apr-2022 - In many processes in nature and industry, small objects form ordered layers in liquids on solid surfaces. Standard models describe the objects as spheres with homogeneous surfaces, but many particles have flattened sides - for example if they are made of metal. Scientists at the INM - Leibniz ...

Engineers use electricity to clean up toxic water

Powerful electrochemical process destroys water contaminants, such as pesticides

10-Jul-2020 - A team of engineers may be one step closer to cleaning up heavily contaminated industrial wastewater streams. Researchers from the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering developed an electrochemical oxidation process with the aim of cleaning up complex wastewater that contained a toxic ...

World's smelliest fruit could charge your mobile phone

Turn tropical fruits into super-capacitors

09-Mar-2020 - Imagine if we could use naturally-grown products, like plants and fruit, to store electricity that charges commonly used electronics like mobile phones, tablets, laptops or even electric cars? Researchers from the University of Sydney have done just that, and have developed a method that uses ...

Financial decisions influenced by intensity of light

08-Aug-2017 - A study of more than 2,500 people provides new evidence about the effects of luminance on the quality and consistency of our financial decision-making. Luminance is a measurement of the amount of light that falls on the earth's surface, which can be affected by cloud cover, humidity, suspended ...

Seeing the quantum future... literally

17-Jan-2017 - Scientists at the University of Sydney have demonstrated the ability to "see" the future of quantum systems, and used that knowledge to preempt their demise, in a major achievement that could help bring the strange and powerful world of quantum technology closer to reality. The applications of ...

Multimillion-dollar funding for commercial waste-to-biofuel plant

02-Jun-2016 - It's been a busy few days for Australian start-up Licella, whose innovative technology, developed in partnership with the University of Sydney, is the subject of new contracts with global investors that allow the re-imagining of the huge pulp and paper industry as biorefineries and the upgrading ...

Photochemical Turbo Power for Solar Cells

How organic molecules make yellow light from red

07-Mar-2012 - Modern silicon solar cells achieve a maximum efficiency of around 25 percent. Researchers around the world are running a race to increase this efficiency even further. However, a natural limit exists at around 30 percent because the laws of physics prevent solar cells from absorbing light of ...