News by Subject Chemistry & Physics

Fuel cells that work with the enzyme hydrogenase are, in principle, just as efficient as those that contain the expensive precious metal platinum as a catalyst. However, the enzymes need an aqueous environment, which makes it difficult for the starting material for the reaction -- hydrogen -- to reach the enzyme-loaded electrode. Researchers solved this problem by combining previously developed concepts for packaging the enzymes with gas diffusion electrode technology.

Researchers at The University of Texas at Arlington have filed a provisional patent application on a new copper compound that can be used to purify ethylene for use as a raw material in the production of plastics such as polyethylene or PVC, as well as other industrial compounds.

Scientists from the Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN)--a US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility at Brookhaven National Laboratory--have dramatically improved the response of graphene to light through self-assembling wire-like nanostructures that conduct electricity.

Scientists from Russia found a way of improving the crystal structure prediction algorithms, making the discovery of new compounds multiple times faster.

Protein nanopores can be found naturally in cell membranes, and act as biological gateways. Yet they can also be useful for the detection of specific bioactive molecular chains, like sugar chains, which are responsible for key interactions at the cell level, such as molecules from the glycosaminoglycan family.

Andre Taylor, associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering and collaborators fashioned low-cost EMI-blocking composite films, employing spin-spray layer-by-layer processing (SSLbL), a method pioneered by Taylor, letting them produce high-quality films in less time than traditional methods, such as dip coating.

Researchers have developed safer alternatives to the phthalate plasticizers used to enhance the suppleness, flexibility, and longevity of plastics. Phthalates leach out of plastics into food, water, and the environment, and there is mounting evidence suggesting that phthalate exposure can lead to a variety of health problems. The new chemicals are effective as plasticizers for polyvinyl chloride (PVC) but can't leach out of PVC products because they are chemically bonded to the polymer chain.

A fragment of a single strand of DNA, built of the nucleobases cytosine and guanine, can be imprinted in a polymer - this has been shown by chemists from Warsaw, Denton and Milan. The resulting artificial negative, with a record-long length, functions chemically like a normal strand of deoxyribonucleic acid. This achievement finally confirms the possibility of creating polymer imprints of DNA, functionally corresponding to DNA fragments containing all four nucleobases.