Aerogel – the micro structural material of the future

Numerous new application possibilities in the high-tech industry, for example in microelectronics, robotics, biotechnology and sensor technology

25-Aug-2020 - Aerogel is an excellent thermal insulator. So far, however, it has mainly been used on a large scale, for example in environmental technology, in physical experiments or in industrial catalysis. Empa researchers have now succeeded in making aerogels accessible to microelectronics and precision ...

Porous Liquids Allow for Efficient Gas Separation

New material opens up the possibility of saving up to 80 percent of energy when separating raw materials for the plastics industry

14-Aug-2020 - Jointly with cooperation partners, a researcher of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) has developed “porous liquids”: Nanoparticles, that are able to separate gas molecules of different sizes from each other, float – finely distributed – in a solvent. This is because the particles have empty ...

LANXESS realigns water treatment business

Sale of the reverse osmosis membrane business to SUEZ

17-Jul-2020 - Specialty chemicals company LANXESS continues to develop its portfolio and is reorganizing its water treatment technologies business: the company will focus on the ion exchange resins business and intends to grow here primarily in markets for high-end applications. As part of this realignment, ...

Carbon-loving materials designed to reduce industrial emissions

Novel fabrication method for affordable gas membranes

06-Jul-2020 - Researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, are advancing gas membrane materials to expand practical technology options for reducing industrial carbon emissions. Results published in Chem demonstrate a fabrication method for ...

Sweet or Sour Natural Gas

Polyimide membranes for the purification of natural gas

26-Jun-2020 - Natural gas that contains larger amounts of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and carbon dioxide (CO2) is termed sour gas. Before it can enter a pipeline, it must be “sweetened” by removal of its acidic impurities. Through fine tuning of the ratios of two molecular components, it is possible to produce ...

Evonik wants to make green hydrogen more affordable

Polymer chemistry is the key to efficient electrolysis

19-Jun-2020 - Green hydrogen is a beacon of hope in the energy transition, both as a carbon-free fuel for industry and transportation, and as a key raw material for the chemical industry. Green hydrogen is produced from water by electrolysis using electricity generated from renewable resources. It is still ...

Big data and synthetic chemistry could fight climate change and pollution

Chemists look to the future of materials design

19-May-2020 - Scientists at the University of South Carolina and Columbia University have developed a faster way to design and make gas-filtering membranes that could cut greenhouse gas emissions and reduce pollution. Their new method, published in Science Advances, mixes machine learning with synthetic ...

How new materials increase the efficiency of direct ethanol fuel cells

Composite membrane consists of Nafion with embedded nanoparticles

06-May-2020 - A group from Brazil and an HZB team have investigated a novel composite membrane for ethanol fuel cells. It consists of the polymer Nafion, in which nanoparticles of a titanium compound are embedded by the rarely explored melt extrusion process. At BESSY II they were able to observe in detail, ...

New membrane separates small organic molecules

The electrical charge is what makes the difference

05-Mar-2020 - A new membrane developed at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht (HZG) separates small dye particles or drug substances not only by size but also by their electrical charge. This additional function enables organic molecules with lateral dimensions of one to two nanometres to be such high-efficiently ...

A composite membrane for long-life zinc-based flow batteries

26-Feb-2020 - Researchers led by Profs. LI Xianfeng from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences recently developed a composite membranefor long-life zinc-based flow batteries. The zinc-based flow battery (ZFB) has capturedmuch attention as a stationary energy ...