Chemistry News

Carbonized coffee grounds remove foul smells

Friday, February 10, 2012 00:00 MST

In research to develop a novel, eco-friendly filter to remove toxic gases from the air, scientists at The City College of New York found that a material made from used coffee grounds can sop up hydrogen sulfide gas, the chemical that makes raw sewage stinky.

Copper + love chemical = big sulfur stink

Wednesday, February 08, 2012 00:00 MST

When Hiroaki Matsunami, Ph.D., at Duke set out to study a chemical in male mouse urine called MTMT that attracts female mice, he didn't think he would stumble into a new field of study. But the research has led scientists at Duke University Medical Center and the University of Albany to the discovery that it's the copper in our bodies that makes mammals recoil from sulfur chemical smells.

Plant power: The ultimate way to 'go green'?

Monday, February 06, 2012 00:00 MST

Researchers are turning to plants and solar power in the search for new sources of renewable and sustainable energy that can support the transition from rapidly depleting fossil fuels to a bio-based society. An article published by Cell Press in the Feb. 8 issue of Trends in Plant Science discusses innovative strategies for harnessing and re-routing the chemical reactions associated with photosynthesis to efficiently produce highly valuable products.

New zeolite material may solve diesel shortage

Sunday, February 05, 2012 00:00 MST

World fuel consumption is shifting more and more to diesel at the expense of gasoline. A recently published article in Nature Chemistry by a research team at Stockholm University and the Polytechnic University of Valencia in Spain presents a new porous material that evinces unique properties for converting gasoline directly into diesel. The material has a tremendously complex atomic structure that could only be determined with the aid of transmission electron microscopy.

Researchers develop new drug release mechanism utilizing 3-D superhydrophobic materials

Friday, February 03, 2012 00:00 MST

According to a recent study, there is a new mechanism of drug release using 3-D superhydrophobic materials that utilizes air as a removable barrier to control the rate at which drug is released.

UK researchers shed light on magnetic mystery of graphite

Thursday, February 02, 2012 00:00 MST

The physical property of magnetism has historically been associated with metals such as iron, nickel and cobalt; however, graphite -- an organic mineral made up of stacks of individual carbon sheets -- has baffled researchers in recent years by showing weak signs of magnetism.

Catalyzing new uses for diesel by-products

Monday, January 30, 2012 00:00 MST

A new catalytic process discovered at Cardiff University could unleash a range of useful new by-products from diesel fuel production.

Capsules that clean: New-look laundry detergents head for supermarket shelves

Friday, January 27, 2012 00:00 MST

Consumers who remember laundry detergents from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s are about to get deja vu -- and younger people quite a surprise -- as detergent manufacturers try a major repackaging of their products. Laundry capsules that contain single doses of detergent are set to make a comeback. That's the topic of an article in the current edition of Chemical and Engineering News, the weekly news magazine of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society.

Metadynamics technique offers insight into mineral growth and dissolution

Thursday, January 26, 2012 00:00 MST

By using a novel technique to better understand mineral growth and dissolution, researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory are improving predictions of mineral reactions and laying the groundwork for applications ranging from keeping oil pipes clear to sequestering radium.

UK scientists produce world's first magnetic soap

Wednesday, January 25, 2012 00:00 MST

University of Bristol team dissolve iron in liquid surfactant to create a soap that can be controlled by magnets. The discovery could be used to create cleaning products that can be removed after application and used in the recovery of oil spills at sea.

The great gas hydrate escape

Monday, January 23, 2012 00:00 MST

A computer analysis of gas hydrates reveals key details of their structure. The results show that hydrates can hold hydrogen at an optimal capacity of 5 weight-percent, a value that meets the goal of a Department of Energy standard, making gas hydrates practical. The analysis is the first time researchers have accurately quantified the molecular-scale interactions between the gases -- either hydrogen or methane -- and the water molecules that form cages around them.

Researchers uncover transparency limits on transparent conducting oxides

Sunday, January 22, 2012 00:00 MST

Computational Materials researchers at UC Santa Barbara use cutting-edge calculations to determine fundamental optical transparency limits in conducting oxide material tin oxide.

A baby crystal is born

Saturday, January 21, 2012 00:00 MST

Scientists determine the smallest possible cubic lead sulfide cluster that exhibits the same coordination (a key structural property) as bigger bulk crystals.

Flaky graphene makes reliable chemical sensors

Friday, January 20, 2012 00:00 MST

Researchers demonstrate that films made of randomly stacked graphene flakes can detect lower concentrations of some chemicals than films made of graphene crystals.

Researchers discover novel chemical route to form organic molecules

Thursday, January 19, 2012 00:00 MST

An international team of scientists led by University of Hawai'i at Msnoa professor Ralf I. Kaiser, Alexander M. Mebel of Florida International University, and Alexander Tielens of Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands, discovered a novel chemical route to form polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons -- complex organic molecules such as naphthalene carrying fused benzene rings -- in ultra-cold regions of interstellar space.