News by Subject Chemistry & Physics

Researchers at the University of Liverpool and the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology have made reported some exciting findings relating to metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), a class of porous materials, which could benefit a wide range of important gas separation processes.

Scientists at the Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) have come up with a simple method to evaluate the strength and performance of polymer materials. They present their innovation in the latest issue of Angewandte Chemie International Edition, and hope that their work will enable scientists and engineers to better evaluate the polymers they work with, and eventually synthesize better ones.

Multifunctional materials were designed to allow self-diagnostic monitoring through an inexpensive technique. These materials were created by adding the carbon nanoparticles to polymer matrices. Essentially, the use of such materials has the potential to replace sensors in weight critical systems such as aircraft structures, with the material itself being able to provide measurements.

Protocell compartments used as models for an important step in the early evolution of life on Earth can be made from short polymers.

Oil droplets can be made to act like predators, chasing down other droplets that flee like prey mimicking behavior seen among living organisms.

Personal protective equipment, like face masks and gowns, is generally made of polymers. But not much attention is typically given to the selection of polymers used beyond their physical properties. To help with the identification of materials that will bind to a virus and speed its inactivation for use in PPE, researchers have developed a high-throughput approach for analyzing the interactions between materials and viruslike particles. They report their method in the journal Biointerphases.