The sweet smell of strawberries and other fruits is thanks to a chemical compound called ester, which is also found in many fats and polyesters. The ubiquitous compound can be broken down to produce desirable alcohols and other chemicals for use across industries, including pharmaceuticals and cosmetics, but the process can be costly, both financially … Read more
A groundbreaking technology has been developed to address the limitations of current catalyst electrodes, facilitating the large-scale production of green hydrogen at a relatively low cost. This significant advancement was published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. The innovative project was led by Professor Han Gi Chae from the Department of Materials Science … Read more
The rapid increase in global industrialization in the past centuries has resulted in the disposal of excessive toxic pollutants into the environment, seriously threatening the aquatic ecosystem and human health. Peroxymonosulfate-based advanced oxidation processes (PMS-AOPs) are appealing techniques to treat these toxic pollutants. Leveraging diverse reactive oxygen species (ROS), AOPs are sought to oxidize or … Read more
In recent years, global environmental concerns have prompted a significant shift toward eco-friendly manufacturing processes in organic synthetic chemistry. One such advancement is the use of photoredox catalytic reactions, which leverage light to drive redox reactions via a photoredox catalyst. This method reduces the reliance on harsh and toxic reagents, utilizing visible light as a … Read more
A team of scientists led by the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has found an unconventional way to improve catalysts made of more than one material. The solution demonstrates a path to designing catalysts with greater activity, selectivity and stability. A catalyst normally uses a support to stabilize nanometer-sized metal particles that speed … Read more
Biotechnology is a rapidly evolving field that harnesses biological processes and systems to develop innovative solutions for various applications in medicine and industry. It encompasses a diverse range of techniques, including genetic engineering, fermentation, and cell culture, to manipulate biological systems for practical purposes. Biotechnology has revolutionized healthcare, agriculture, environmental science, and industrial manufacturing, offering … Read more
In most industrial chemical reactions, catalysts combine with the starting materials and accompany them through intermediate stages to the product. In chemistry, this pathway is known as the reaction mechanism, and it is a kind of black box: nobody knows what is happening at the molecular level at first. If the reaction result in the … Read more
Researchers led by Ryuhei Nakamura at the RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science (CSRS) in Japan have improved on their green and sustainable method of extracting hydrogen from water by using a custom-made catalyst for the chemical reaction. Published in Nature Catalysis, the study details how they manipulated the catalyst’s 3D structure, which led to improved stability and … Read more
The selective oxidation of aromatic C-H bonds has drawn significant attention in both industrial and fine chemistry due to its crucial role in converting readily- and cheaply-available aromatic hydrocarbons into high-value-added oxygenated products for diverse fields such as biology, medicine, fragrance, and agriculture. The traditional methods of acetophenone (ACP) production suffer from numerous limitations, such … Read more
DGIST Professor In Su-il’s research team has developed a high-efficiency photocatalyst that utilizes sunlight to convert carbon dioxide (CO2), the primary cause of global warming, into methane (CH4) fuel. The research team expects that this environmentally friendly technology can be applied to Carbon Capture and Utilization (CCU) technology. According to a US university research team, … Read more
Researchers have taken a significant step towards a cleaner future by developing a new catalyst that harnesses the power of sewage for efficient hydrogen production. This innovation, detailed in a recent study published in Advanced Functional Materials, addresses the crucial challenge of sluggish oxygen evolution during the hydrogen generation process. Hydrogen, a clean-burning fuel, has … Read more
A new, greener, and cheaper method to accelerate chemical reactions has been developed by scientists at King’s College London in collaboration with the University of Barcelona and ETH Zurich. Instead of using polluting and expensive metal-based catalysts, the team proved that electric fields can catalyze reactions to produce chemical compounds. Building on previous research published … Read more
The periodic table is a tabular arrangement of chemical elements, organized by their atomic number, electron configuration, and recurring chemical properties. It provides a systematic way to categorize and understand the behavior of elements based on their shared characteristics. Dmitri Mendeleev is credited with developing the first periodic table in 1869, arranging elements by their … Read more
Single-atom catalysts (SACs), due to their excellent catalytic activity, have been a hot topic in the field of energy catalysis. In SACs, the metal atoms are able to directly interact with the supports, thus maximizing the metal-support interface. The metal-support interactions (MSIs) largely affect the electronic properties of single-atom catalysts and catalytic performance. Currently, the … Read more
The search for sustainable and affordable energy conversion technologies has highlighted the importance of the oxygen reduction and oxygen evolution reactions (ORR and OER). These processes are crucial for the efficiency of devices such as fuel cells and electrolyzers but have traditionally relied on costly noble metals as catalysts. This dependency poses significant barriers to … Read more
A discovery in the field of catalysis has emerged from the laboratories of Professor Jaeheung Cho and his team in the Department of Chemistry at UNIST. Their pioneering work has led to the development of a copper(II)–alkylperoxo complex that could revolutionize the realms of synthetic chemistry and industrial applications. The study is published in ACS Catalysis. The … Read more
Professor Jian He, from the Department of Chemistry at The University of Hong Kong (HKU), has spearheaded a research endeavor aimed at revolutionizing organic synthesis. His research team has successfully developed a novel heterogeneous copper photocatalyst that enables the efficient formation of cyclobutane rings, a crucial structural element in a vast array of bioactive molecules. … Read more
Nitrogenases are considered promising candidates for the sustainable enzymatic production of ammonia and carbon compounds. Unfortunately, one bottleneck in this complex process, the supply of electrons to the enzymes, has remained a mystery until now. A team at the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg has discovered two essential electron carriers that play … Read more
In a study published in the journal Science China Chemistry and led by Prof. Rengui Li (State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences), a distinct charge separation difference has been found via rationally tailoring the morphology symmetry of BiVO4 photocatalyst. Interestingly, for octahedral BiVO4 crystals, photogenerated electrons and … Read more
Intense research efforts have been directed toward studying the electrochemical conversion of CO2, a major greenhouse gas, into platform chemicals and fuels. The success of this technology can enable the decarbonization of some of the largest CO2 emitters, including steel, cement, and chemical manufacturing industries. Copper is unique in its ability to convert CO2 at … Read more