http://phys.org/chemistry-news/materials-science/ en-us Phys.org Phys.Org provides the latest news on chemistry and materials science Many molecules have a right and a left form, just like shoes. In pharmaceuticals, it is important that the correct form of the molecule is used. Researchers at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, have been able to produce the one mirror image by using crystals with special properties. This can have a major impact on the production of pharmaceuticals. http://phys.org/news288431453.html Chemistry - Materials Science 2013-05-22T08:50:59-07:00 Removing excess carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere may be essential to curb severe climate change. Possible, but expensive, methods include burying the gas underground between rock layers or 'scrubbing' the CO2 in power station cooling towers before it is released. James Highfield at A*STAR's Institute of Chemical and Engineering Sciences, together with co-workers at the National Junior College of Singapore and Åbo Akademi University in Finland, has now described a cheaper and more permanent solution that would prevent the CO2 escaping back into the atmosphere. http://phys.org/news288424879.html Chemistry - Materials Science 2013-05-22T07:01:28-07:00 Duke University engineers have developed a novel method for producing clean hydrogen, which could prove essential to weaning society off of fossil fuels and their environmental implications. http://phys.org/news288368169.html Chemistry - Materials Science 2013-05-21T15:16:16-07:00 (Phys.org) —Waterproof fabrics that whisk away sweat could be the latest application of microfluidic technology developed by bioengineers at the University of California, Davis. http://phys.org/news288284578.html Chemistry - Materials Science 2013-05-20T16:20:06-07:00 Metal complexes are becoming increasingly important as the photochemical building blocks of functional molecular systems such as sensors and photoelectrochemical cells. Of particular interest are metal complexes that involve gold atoms in the +1 valence state, due to their ability to self-assemble into larger units. The assembly process, known as aurophilic interaction, is enhanced by photoexcitation—an effect recently exploited by chemists to link individual gold(I)–dicyanide complexes into phosphorescent oligomer chains through careful control of complex concentrations and light exposure. However, the fundamental structural details of this reaction have yet to be understood. http://phys.org/news288001383.html Chemistry - Materials Science 2013-05-17T09:24:01-07:00 By simply manipulating chemical gradients in a beaker of fluid, materials scientists at Harvard have found that they can control the growth behavior of crystals to create precisely tailored structures—such as delicate, micron-scale flowers. http://phys.org/news287931436.html Chemistry - Materials Science 2013-05-16T14:00:09-07:00 Amid concerns over the potential health effects of existing flame retardants for home furniture, fabrics and other material, scientists are reporting development of an "exceptionally" effective new retardant that appears safer and more environmentally friendly. Their report on the first-of-its-kind coating, ideal for the polyurethane foam in couches and bedding that causes many fire deaths, appears in ACS Macro Letters. http://phys.org/news287836968.html Chemistry - Materials Science 2013-05-15T12:00:08-07:00 With the Deepwater Horizon disaster emphasizing the need for better ways of cleaning up oil spills, scientists are reporting that unprocessed, raw cotton may be an ideal, ecologically friendly answer, with an amazing ability to sop up oil. Their report, which includes some of the first scientific data on unprocessed, raw cotton's use in crude oil spills, appears in the ACS journal Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research. http://phys.org/news287836751.html Chemistry - Materials Science 2013-05-15T11:39:35-07:00 Researchers with the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology have confirmed that a naturally occurring mineral, tetrahedrite, which mainly consists of non-toxic and earth-abundant elements, copper (Cu) and sulfur (S), exhibits high thermoelectric performance at approximately 400 ℃. They also clarified that the high performance is attributed to its extremely low lattice thermal conductivity caused by the complex crystal structure of tetrahedrite and the vibration of Cu atoms with anomalously large amplitude. These efforts will significantly contribute to realizing environmentally friendly thermoelectric power generation using materials composed of non-toxic and earth abundant elements. http://phys.org/news287827855.html Chemistry - Materials Science 2013-05-15T09:11:03-07:00 (Phys.org) —Using a powerful combination of microanalytic techniques that simultaneously image photoelectric current and chemical reaction rates across a surface on a micrometer scale, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have shed new light on what may become a cost-effective way to generate hydrogen gas directly from water and sunlight. http://phys.org/news287827698.html Chemistry - Materials Science 2013-05-15T09:08:25-07:00 (Phys.org) —Engineers combine layers of flexible materials into pressure sensors to create a wearable heart monitor thinner than a dollar bill. The skin-like device could one day provide doctors with a safer way to check the condition of a patient's heart. http://phys.org/news287827126.html Chemistry - Materials Science 2013-05-15T08:58:55-07:00 Purple bacteria are among Earth's oldest organisms, and among its most efficient in turning sunlight into usable chemical energy. Now, a key to their light-harvesting prowess has been explained through a detailed structural analysis by scientists at MIT. http://phys.org/news287822654.html Chemistry - Materials Science 2013-05-15T07:44:24-07:00 (Phys.org) —Paper is becoming a high-tech material. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam-Golm have created targeted conductive structures on paper using a method that is quite simple: with a conventional inkjet printer, they printed a catalyst on a sheet of paper and then heated it. The printed areas on the paper were thereby converted into conductive graphite. Being an inexpensive, light and flexible raw material, paper is therefore highly suitable for electronic components in everyday objects. http://phys.org/news287821826.html Chemistry - Materials Science 2013-05-15T07:30:38-07:00 (Phys.org) —A new process for generating nanometer-scale oil droplets in water has been reported in the journal Angewandte Chemie by Japanese researchers, who have developed a technique they named MAGIQ (monodisperse nanodroplet generation in quenched hydrothermal solution). Under standard conditions, hydrocarbons and water do not mix; however, at high temperatures and high pressures near the critical point of water, they freely mix. Quenching homogeneous solutions of dodecane and water under these conditions in the presence of a detergent produces nanoemulsions in just ten seconds. http://phys.org/news287821647.html Chemistry - Materials Science 2013-05-15T07:27:36-07:00 In new research published online May 13, 2013 in Advanced Materials, researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) are the first to report that synthetic silicate nanoplatelets (also known as layered clay) can induce stem cells to become bone cells without the need of additional bone-inducing factors. Synthetic silicates are made up of simple or complex salts of silicic acids, and have been used extensively for various commercial and industrial applications, such as food additives, glass and ceramic filler materials, and anti-caking agents. http://phys.org/news287757506.html Chemistry - Materials Science 2013-05-14T13:38:35-07:00 Northwestern University scientists have struck gold in the laboratory. They have discovered an inexpensive and environmentally benign method that uses simple cornstarch—instead of cyanide—to isolate gold from raw materials in a selective manner. http://phys.org/news287688981.html Chemistry - Materials Science 2013-05-14T11:00:04-07:00 At seven times the toughness of Kevlar, a silk produced by the Caerostris darwini spider of Madagascar is more robust than any other material—synthetic or natural. Most spider silks are about two times tougher than Kevlar, and have long been considered an intriguing alternative for bulletproof vests and other protective gear. There's only one problem: producing spider silk on demand is a tricky task. http://phys.org/news287649960.html Chemistry - Materials Science 2013-05-13T07:46:11-07:00 (Phys.org) —Ripening fruit, vegetables, and flowers release ethylene, which works as a plant hormone. Ethylene accelerates ripening, so other unripened fruit also begins to ripen—fruit and vegetables quickly spoil and flowers wilt. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, Japanese researchers have now introduced a new catalytic system for the fast and complete degradation of ethylene. This system could keep the air in warehouses ethylene-free, keeping perishable products fresh longer. http://phys.org/news287648547.html Chemistry - Materials Science 2013-05-13T07:23:02-07:00 From microscopes to MRI scanners, imaging technology is growing ever more vital in the world's hospitals, whether for the diagnosis of illness or for research into new cures. Imaging technology requires dyes or contrast agents of some sort. Current contrast agents and dyes are expensive, difficult to work with and far from ideal. Now, Danish chemists have discovered a new dye and proved its worth against any of the dyes currently available. http://phys.org/news287552048.html Chemistry - Materials Science 2013-05-12T05:13:03-07:00 Chemical compounds that can efficiently capture and convert light energy are in high demand as key components of inexpensive solar cells and advanced optical sensors. Carbon-based organic dyes are particularly strong candidates for such applications due to their low cost compared with the conventionally used silicon, but the lackluster performance of organic dyes has so far hindered their uptake by industry. Shuichi Enomoto, Shinichiro Kamino and colleagues at the RIKEN Center for Life Science Technologies have now discovered an organic dye that overcomes one of the major hurdles of this promising technology. http://phys.org/news287394053.html Chemistry - Materials Science 2013-05-10T09:00:01-07:00 (Phys.org) —Researchers at the University of Bristol have led a new enquiry into how extremely small particles of silica (sand) can be used to design and construct artificial protocells in the laboratory. The work is described in an article published in Nature Chemistry. http://phys.org/news287389386.html Chemistry - Materials Science 2013-05-10T07:23:30-07:00 (Phys.org) —Advanced biofuels – liquid fuels synthesized from the sugars in cellulosic biomass – offer a clean, green and renewable alternative to gasoline, diesel and jet fuels. Bringing the costs of producing these advanced biofuels down to competitive levels with petrofuels, however, is a major challenge. Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI), a bioenergy research center led by Berkeley Lab, have taken another step towards meeting this challenge with the development of a new technique for pre-treating cellulosic biomass with ionic liquids - salts that are liquids rather than crystals at room temperature. This new technique requires none of the expensive enzymes used in previous ionic liquid pretreatments, and makes it easier to recover fuel sugars and recycle the ionic liquid. http://phys.org/news287334247.html Chemistry - Materials Science 2013-05-09T16:04:16-07:00 (Phys.org) —Given two catalysts for the job of turning intermittent wind or solar energy into chemical fuels, scientists chose the material that gets the job done quickly and uses the least energy. A catalyst that quickly produces fuel but uses far more energy than it stores won't get the job. Scientists could measure the wasted energy, also known as overpotential, in water but not in other liquids, until researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory devised a quick, elegant technique. http://phys.org/news287301368.html Chemistry - Materials Science 2013-05-09T06:57:22-07:00 Anyone who has seen pictures of the giant, red-hot cauldrons in which steel is made—fed by vast amounts of carbon, and belching flame and smoke—would not be surprised to learn that steelmaking is one of the world's leading industrial sources of greenhouse gases. But remarkably, a new process developed by MIT researchers could change all that. http://phys.org/news287237532.html Chemistry - Materials Science 2013-05-08T13:12:20-07:00 (Phys.org) —Carbon dioxide is the most common source of carbon in nature and an inexpensive building block that is useful for the chemical industry. However, because of its high stability, it is not easy to induce CO2 to react. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, German scientists have now reported a universally applicable method for the catalytic methylation of amines with CO2. http://phys.org/news287220163.html Chemistry - Materials Science 2013-05-08T08:23:01-07:00 (Phys.org) —Fact or fiction? Stained glass found in medieval cathedrals becomes thicker at the bottom because glass moves over time. For years researchers have had their doubts, now a team at Texas Tech University has further evidence that the glass is not going anywhere. http://phys.org/news287164832.html Chemistry - Materials Science 2013-05-07T17:01:11-07:00 (Phys.org) —The search for cleaner, low temperature nuclear fuels has produced a shock result for a team of experts at The University of Nottingham. http://phys.org/news287148089.html Chemistry - Materials Science 2013-05-07T12:22:58-07:00 Over 20 million people in Europe suffer from osteoarthritis which can lead to extensive damage to the knee and hip cartilage. Stem cells offer a promising way forward but a key challenge has been to design a 'smart material' that is biologically effective for cartilage tissue regeneration. Now researchers have identified a blend of naturally occurring fibres such as cellulose and silk that makes progress towards affordable and effective cell-based therapy for cartilage repair a step closer. http://phys.org/news287144606.html Chemistry - Materials Science 2013-05-07T11:23:39-07:00 (Phys.org) —North Carolina State University researchers have identified a new mechanism to convert natural gas into energy up to 70 times faster, while effectively capturing the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2). http://phys.org/news287142696.html Chemistry - Materials Science 2013-05-07T10:51:47-07:00 (Phys.org) —How does one separate a mixture of components with very similar properties? In the journal Angewandte Chemie, Croatian researchers have introduced a new approach to the separation of organic compounds. In their process, a "host compound" recognizes the desired "guest molecules", not only in solution, but also when the host and mixtures of competitive guest are milled together in the solid state. For the separation of maleic acid, this recognition through mechanochemistry delivers selectivity equal to that achieved by crystallization from a solution. http://phys.org/news286791137.html Chemistry - Materials Science 2013-05-03T09:13:37-07:00