More than meets the eye: New blue light nanocrystals

24-Jul-2009 - Berkeley Lab researchers have produced non-toxic magnesium oxide nanocrystals that efficiently emit blue light and could also play a role in long-term storage of carbon dioxide, a potential means of tempering the effects of global warming. In its bulk form, magnesium oxide is a cheap, white ...

NTU professor discovers method to efficiently produce less toxic drugs using organic molecules

10-Jul-2009 - Nanyang Technological University (NTU)'s Associate Professor Zhong Guofu has made a significant contribution to the field of organic chemistry, in particular the study of using small organic molecules as catalysts, in the synthesis process called organocatalysis. Such synthesis process takes ...

Professor Ulrich Schubert receives 2009 Wacker Silicone Award

09-Jul-2009 - This year’s €10,000 Wacker Silicone Award was presented to Professor Ulrich Schubert, who holds the Vienna University of Technology’s chair of inorganic chemistry. Dr. Rudolf Staudigl, President and CEO of Wacker Chemie AG, said that Schubert had been chosen because of his trailblazing work on ...

Catalyst releases hydrogen from the ultimate renewable source: urine

06-Jul-2009 - You do two things at motorway services: fill up one tank and empty another. US chemists have combined refuelling your car and relieving yourself by creating a new catalyst that can extract hydrogen from urine. Chemistry World reports that the catalyst could not only fuel the hydrogen-powered ...

hte celebrates its 10 year anniversary

06-Jul-2009 - This year hte Aktiengesellschaft based in Heidelberg, Germany, celebrates its 10 year anniversary. Over the last decade hte has grown from a start-up company with 7 founding members and developed into a highly efficient partner for high throughput experimentation and a leading provider of ...

First step to converting solar energy using 'artificial leaf'

Structure of artificial light harvesting antenna determined

01-Jul-2009 - An international team of researchers has modified chlorophyll from an alga so that it resembles the extremely efficient light antennae of bacteria. The team was then able to determine the structure of these light antennae. This is the first step to converting sunlight into energy using an ...

Bonds going for gold!

Simultaneous cleavage of C-H, C-C single and C-C triple bonds under mild conditions has been developed by scientists in Taiwan

19-Jun-2009 - Rai-Shung Liu and co-workers at the National Tsing-Hua University, in Hsinchu, have reported a gold-catalysed procedure for the oxidative cleavage of aryl-substituted alkynyl ethers using molecular oxygen. ‘This work serves the first example that a C-H, single and triple carbon-carbon bonds can ...

The modern gold rush

19-Jun-2009 - Chemists in the UK have sythesised stable cationic gold(I) alkene complexes using a bulky phosphine ligand and strained alkenes. Alkenes are major products of the petrochemical industry and the way they interact with metals often dictates their chemistry. There has been extensive research ...

LANXESS steps up research and development

2009 research and development budget of specialty chemicals group up 10 percent

15-Jun-2009 - Specialty chemicals group LANXESS AG is stepping up its research and development activities. Around 200 experts from the company presented their latest projects at the company’s second Innovation Day. “Innovation is an essential prerequisite if the company is to achieve sustainable long-term ...

Committed to sustainability and innovation: Cognis adopts 24 principles of Green Chemistry and Green Engineering

08-Jun-2009 - As part of its ongoing commitment to sustainability and innovation, specialty chemicals supplier Cognis has adopted a new set of guidelines that combine the internationally recognized 24 principles of Green Chemistry and Green Engineering. By doing so, the company is both reducing its ...