Chemistry News

How size matters for catalysts

Monday, November 09, 2009 00:00 MST

University of Utah chemists demonstrated the first conclusive link between the size of catalyst particles on a solid surface, their electronic properties and their ability to speed chemical reactions. The study is a step toward the goal of designing cheaper, more efficient catalysts to increase energy production, reduce Earth-warming gases and manufacture a wide variety of goods from medicines to gasoline.

Materials scientists find better model for glass creation

Sunday, November 08, 2009 00:00 MST

Harvard materials scientists have come up with what they believe is a new way to model the formation of glasses, a type of amorphous solid that includes common window glass.

Mimicking nature, scientists can now extend redox potentials

Friday, November 06, 2009 00:00 MST

New insight into how nature handles some fundamental processes is guiding researchers in the design of tailor-made proteins for applications such as artificial photosynthetic centers, long-range electron transfers, and fuel-cell catalysts for energy conversion.

Lab leads hunt for new zeolites

Thursday, November 05, 2009 00:00 MST

In all the world, there are about 200 types of zeolite, a compound of silicon, aluminum and oxygen that gives civilization such things as laundry detergent, kitty litter and gasoline. But thanks to computations by Rice University professor Michael Deem and his colleagues, it appears there are -- or could be -- more types of zeolites than once thought.

Not just bleach: Hydrogen peroxide may tell time for living cells

Thursday, November 05, 2009 00:00 MST

Common household chemical, also made naturally by living cells, appears to be involved in regulation of circadian rhythms, according to new study in PLoS ONE.

Start-up company prepares to commercialize novel detector for medical, military applications

Friday, October 30, 2009 00:00 MST

PAIR Technologies, a start-up company established by University of Delaware researchers and a former DuPont scientist, is preparing to commercialize a high-precision detector -- a planar array infrared spectrograph -- that can identify biological and chemical agents in solids, liquids and gases, in quantities as small as an atom, and in less than a second.

Researchers make key step towards turning methane gas into liquid fuel

Wednesday, October 28, 2009 00:00 MST

Scientists take an important step in converting methane gas to a liquid, giving the potential of making it more useful as a fuel and as a source for making other chemicals.

Scientist shines laser light on methane in pursuit of clean fuel

Wednesday, October 28, 2009 00:00 MST

Rochester Institute of Technology professor Roger Dube is exploring a novel technique using laser light that could someday convert methane to liquid fuel and prevent the potent greenhouse gas from entering the atmosphere.

Seeing previously invisible molecules for the first time

Tuesday, October 27, 2009 00:00 MST

A team of Harvard chemists led by X. Sunney Xie has developed a new microscopic technique for seeing, in color, molecules with undetectable fluorescence. The room-temperature technique allows researchers to identify previously unseen molecules in living organisms and offers broad applications in biomedical imaging and research.

Synthetic cells shed biological insights while delivering battery power

Tuesday, October 27, 2009 00:00 MST

A new paper from researchers at Yale University and the National Institute of Standards and Technology describes a highly simplified model cell that not only sheds light on the way certain real cells generate electric voltages, but also acts as a tiny battery that could offer a practical alternative to conventional solid-state energy-generating devices.

Checkered history of mother and daughter cells explains cell cycle differences

Monday, October 26, 2009 00:00 MST

New research reveals that regulatory differences between mother and daughter cells during cell division are directly linked to how they prepare for their next split.

New molecules have wide applications

Monday, October 26, 2009 00:00 MST

Researchers at the University of California, Riverside, have successfully created in the laboratory a class of carbenes used to make catalysts. Until now, chemists believed these carbenes, called "abnormal N-heterocyclic carbenes" or aNHCs, were impossible to make. The aNHCs are stable at room temperature both in the solid state and in solution, which means their application as metal-free catalysts is extremely wide, greatly benefiting industry by making possible scores of new chemical reactions.

New artificial enzyme safer for nature

Sunday, October 25, 2009 00:00 MST

Breakthrough for man-made enzymes.Perilous and polluting industrial processes can be made safer with enzymes. But only a short range of enzymes have been available for the chemical industry. Recently a group of researchers at University of Copenhagen succeeded in producing an artificial enzyme that points the way to enzymes tailor-made for any application. News of this is published in the European journal ChemBioChem under the title "Cyclodextrin Aldehydes are Oxidase Mimics."

New material could boost data storage, save energy

Saturday, October 24, 2009 00:00 MST

North Carolina State University engineers have created a new material that would allow a fingernail-size computer chip to store the equivalent of 20 high-definition DVDs or 250 million pages of text, far exceeding the storage capacities of today's computer memory systems.

Designer molecule detects tiny amounts of cyanide, then glows

Friday, October 23, 2009 00:00 MST

A small molecule designed to detect cyanide in water samples works quickly, is easy to use, and glows under ultraviolet or "black" light. Although the fluorescent molecule is not yet ready for market, its Indiana University Bloomington creators report in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (now online) that the tool is already able to sense cyanide below the toxicity threshold established by the World Health Organization.