Discovering new leads for functional materials guided by artificial intelligence

22-Jun-2021

Searching for lead materials with specific properties, researchers have developed a workflow that incorporates artificial intelligence to guide discovery of a new ceramic structure with particularly low thermal conductivity. As they explain in the journal Angewandte Chemie, the material has an ...

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22-Jun-2021

A new era for energy recycling, which refers to the energy recovery process of utilizing indoor lights that would usually be wasted by converting them into electricity, will soon unfold. Thanks to the newly-developed electrode material, the charging efficiency was found to be significantly ...

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"We are excited of the prospect of creating new materials that are designed starting at the atomic level, based on this method"

22-Jun-2021

Properties of materials are often defined by imperfections in their atomic structure, especially when the material itself is just one atom thick, such as graphene. Researchers at the University of Vienna have now developed a method for controlled creation of such imperfections into graphene at ...

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Robert Grass and Wendelin Stark receive European Inventor Award 2021 in the "Research" category: Technology since commercialized through ETH spin-off

21-Jun-2021

The European Patent Office (EPO) honoured Austrian and Swiss researchers Robert N. Grass and Wendelin Stark with the European Inventor Award 2021 in the "Research" category. Their technology for encapsulating data in DNA inside tiny glass spheres provides a novel means of preserving information, ...

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Chemists prevent dendrite formation in lithium metal batteries

21-Jun-2021

The energy density of traditional lithium-ion batteries is approaching a saturation point that cannot meet the demands of the future – for example in electric vehicles. Lithium metal batteries can provide double the energy per unit weight when compared to lithium-ion batteries. The biggest ...

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Hiding in the midst of trash are valuable bacteria that can degrade environmental toxins

21-Jun-2021

Bacteria from an Indian landfill could help eliminate contaminated chemicals. The focus is on pesticides or brominated flame retardants, which accumulate in nature and in food chains. Researchers at Empa and Eawag used these bacteria to generate enzymes that can break down these dangerous ...

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Award winners come from Austria, Germany, India, Norway, Serbia, Sweden, Switzerland, and the US

18-Jun-2021

The European Patent Office (EPO) announced the winners of the European Inventor Award 2021, its prestigious annual innovation prize. The individuals and teams were recognised for their innovative contributions in the fields of nasal drug delivery, DNA-based data storage, nanomaterials in ...

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“Strategically, BASF remains fully committed to divest its share in Wintershall Dea”

18-Jun-2021

With the merger of Wintershall Holding GmbH and DEA Deutsche Erdoel AG in May 2019, two companies with a long tradition have formed the independent natural gas and oil company Wintershall Dea. Based on the current market conditions, the shareholders of Wintershall Dea –BASF and LetterOne – have ...

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New material can be reused many times over

18-Jun-2021

Researchers at TU Bergakademie Freiberg developed an innovative material from a cultured marine sponge. When the fibers of the sponge react with a copper-containing ammonia solution, such as that found in the electronics industry, the mineral atacamite is formed. This mineral, which occurs only ...

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Material could be used in future quantum computing applications

18-Jun-2021

An international team of physicists led by the University of Minnesota has discovered that a unique superconducting metal is more resilient when used as a very thin layer. The research is the first step toward a larger goal of understanding unconventional superconducting states in materials, ...

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