Convergence of semiconductor physics and electrochemistry leads to effective inhibition of dendrite formation using semiconducting passivation layers

17-Jun-2021

Despite rapid development of electric vehicles (EVs), the safety of the lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries remains a concern as they are as a fire and explosion risk. Among the various approaches to tackle this issue, Korean researchers have used semiconductor technology to improve the safety of ...

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A three-shell nanoreactor for funktionalised fullerene

19-Apr-2021

A Catalan-German research team has succeeded in using a three-shell 'matryoshka' architecture to solve a long-standing problem in chemical synthesis. The researchers from Girona and Ulm have developed a three-dimensional construct of nested molecules, which is best imagined as a soccer ball stuck ...

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Pathbreaking advance: Short flashes of light with sustaining impact

09-Feb-2021

Superconductivity – the ability of a material to transmit an electric current without loss – is a quantum effect that, despite years of research, is still limited to very low temperatures. Now a team of scientists at the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD) in ...

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Study shows effect of X-ray flashes on sensitive biomolecules

26-Sep-2019

An international research team has observed in real time how football molecules made of carbon atoms burst in the beam of an X-ray laser. The study shows the temporal course of the bursting process, which takes less than a trillionth of a second, and is important for the analysis of sensitive ...

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Efficient cathode interlayers made of ionene polymers refined with pendant fullerenes

29-Mar-2019

Organic photovoltaics have achieved remarkably high efficiencies, but finding optimum combinations of materials for high-performance organic solar cells, which are also economically competitive, still presents a challenge. Researchers from the United States and China have now developed an ...

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"Golden fullerene": ligand-protected nanocluster made of 32 gold atoms

25-Mar-2019

Researchers have synthesized a tiny structure from 32 gold atoms. This nanocluster has a core of 12 gold atoms surrounded by a shell of 20 additional gold atoms. As the scientists report in the journal Angewandte Chemie, the unusual stability of this cluster results from electronic interactions ...

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Nanometer-sized tubes made from simple benzene molecules

14-Jan-2019

For the first time, researchers used benzene - a common hydrocarbon - to create a novel kind of molecular nanotube, which could lead to new nanocarbon-based semiconductor applications. Researchers from the Department of Chemistry have been hard at work in their recently renovated lab in the ...

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Supramolecular complex formation: Anthracene macrocycle and C60 fullerene

11-Jun-2018

Saturn is the second largest planet in our solar system and has a characteristic ring. Japanese researchers have now synthesized a molecular “nano-Saturn”. As the scientists report, it consists of a spherical C60 fullerene as the planet and a flat macrocycle made of six anthracene units as the ...

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14-May-2018

A team of scientists of the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD) at the Center for Free-Electron Laser Science in Hamburg investigated optically-induced superconductivity in the alkali-doped fulleride K3C60under high external pressures. This study allowed, on one ...

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20-Apr-2018

Grow Monsters. Expandable water toys. Whatever you call them, they're plastic-like figurines that swell when placed in water. New materials science research borrows from this concept; only instead of water, engineers discovered that tiny crystal lattices called "self-assembling molecular ...

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