News by Subject Chemistry & Physics

Maintaining a high negative pressure in airborne infection isolation rooms of hospitals (over -10 Pa) and in renovation sites (over -5 Pa) effectively limits the dispersion of airborne contaminants and dust, a new study from the University of Eastern Finland shows.

Slimy, hard-to-clean bacterial mats called biofilms cause problems ranging from medical infections to clogged drains and fouled industrial equipment. Now, researchers at Princeton have found a way to cleanly and completely peel off these notorious sludges.

Researchers have combined artificial neural networks with infrared thermal imaging to control and interpret chemical reactions with new precision and speed. Novel microreactors allow chemical discoveries to take place quickly and with far less environmental waste than standard large-scale reactions. The system can reduce the decision-making process about certain chemical manufacturing processes from one year to a matter of weeks, saving tons of chemical waste and energy in the process.

What if, instead of turning up the thermostat, you could warm up with high-tech, flexible patches sewn into your clothes -- while significantly reducing your electric bill and carbon footprint? Engineers at Rutgers and Oregon State University have found a cost-effective way to make thin, durable heating patches by using intense pulses of light to fuse tiny silver wires with polyester. Their heating performance is nearly 70 percent higher than similar patches created by other researchers, according to a study in Scientific Reports.

A future powered by carbon-free fuel depends on our ability to harness and store energy from renewable but intermittent sources, such as solar and wind. Now, a new catalyst developed at U of T Engineering gives a boost to a number of clean energy technologies that depend on producing hydrogen from water.

Researchers at ETH have developed and manufactured a family of architectures that maximises the stiffness of porous lightweight materials. It's practically impossible to develop stiffer designs.

Washington State University researchers have reverse engineered the way a pine tree produces a resin, which could serve as an environmentally friendly alternative to a range of fossil-fuel based products worth billions of dollars.

Researchers at Kanazawa University report in The Journal of Organic Chemistry that carboxylic acids, functional groups contained in biomolecules, drugs, and materials can be readily modified by light-induced organic reactions using an aminocyclopropenone. This discovery opens up new pathways for carboxylic acid modification with potential applications including determination of drug target proteins, elucidation of protein function, and synthesis of functionalized polymer materials.