Tennesine - Periodic science news

Take a look inside the cap of your favorite toothpaste, and you might see hard, white residue, a firm version of the smooth paste you squeeze onto your brush.

Thomas Heine, professor of theoretical chemistry at TU Dresden, together with his team, first predicted a topological 2-D polymer in 2019. Only one year later, an international team led by Italian researchers was able to synthesize these materials and experimentally prove their topological properties. For the renowned journal Nature Materials, this was the occasion to invite Thomas Heine to a News and Views article, which was published this week. Under the title "Making 2-D Topological Polymers a reality," Prof. Heine describes how his theory became a reality.

High-entropy alloys (HEAs) are at the frontier of the metal materials community. They are used as alternative materials in the production of high-temperature turbine blades, high-temperature molds and dies, hard coatings on cutting tools or even components of 4th generation nuclear reactors.

Researchers have succeeded in detecting anti-avian influenza virus antibody in blood serum within 20 minutes, using a portable analyzer they have developed to conduct rapid on-site bio tests. If a suitable reagent is developed, this technology could be used to detect antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, the causative virus of COVID-19.

A crystalline compound called ruthenium dioxide is widely used in industrial processes, where it's particularly important for catalyzing a chemical reaction that splits molecules of water and releases oxygen. But the exact mechanism that takes place on this material's surface, and how that reaction is affected by the orientation of the crystal surfaces, had never been determined in detail. Now, a team of researchers at MIT and several other institutions has for the first time been able to directly study the process at an atomic level.

Experts predict that producing meat in a lab using tissue engineering techniques—or lab-cultured meat—will one day be a much more sustainable, nutritionally equivalent and without the ethical concerns of typical meat production. However, producing meat economically in a lab remains a problem.

The use of carbon dioxide (CO2), which is an ideal one-carbon (C1) building block and is sustainable, abundant, low-cost and nontoxic, has attracted great attention in fine chemical synthesis. However, traditional CO2 fixation usually suffers from high temperature, high pressure of CO2 and the use of strong base.

Researchers have developed a visualization method that will determine the distribution of components in battery electrodes using atomic force microscopy. The method provides insights into the optimal conditions of composite electrodes and takes us one step closer to being able to manufacture next-generation all-solid-state batteries.

Materials scientists study metals, polymers, and other substances at the atomic level in order to find new ways to control a material's physical properties, such as how strong or how malleable it is. One key aspect of this line of study is better understanding how a material's atoms are spatially arranged—most metals, for example, consist of atoms that are arranged in a lattice-like pattern that regularly repeats.

A team of researchers from the University of Lille, CNRS, Centrale Lille, University of Artois, in France, and Keele University in the U.K has developed a way to produce ethane from methane using a photochemical looping strategy. In their paper published in the journal Nature Energy, the group describes their process. Fumiaki Amano with the University of Kitakyushu in Japan has published a News & Views piece on the work done by the team in the same journal issue.

The high cost of platinum catalysts used in hydrogen fuel cells limits the commercialization of fuel cell electric vehicles. Scientists are studying alternative catalysts to increase cost-effectiveness and maintain efficiency of hydrogen fuel cells.

In daily life we are surrounded by fossil raw materials, from products in our cars, insulations in buildings to kitchenware, like pan handles. Society needs to find new ways to unlock the hidden potential of renewable raw materials.

A group of scientists from Osaka University, in cooperation with Kaneka Corporation, evaluated the interplanar bond strength of graphene by measuring the elastic constant of graphite, demonstrating that the elastic constant of monocrystalline graphite (Figure 1, top) was above 45 gigapascal (GPa), which was higher than conventionally believed. Their research results were published in Physical Review Materials.

A group of Hokkaido University researchers has developed a paper-based device that can easily and cheaply measure lithium ion concentration in blood, which could greatly help bipolar disorder patients.

New research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences describes how external forces drive the rearrangement of individual particles and shape microlevel structures in disordered materials. The study, conducted by graduate student Larry Galloway, postdoc Xiaoguang Ma, and faculty members Paulo Arratia, Douglas Jerolmack, and Arjun Yodh, provides new insights into how the microscopic structure of disordered, glass-like solids is related to external stressors and the resulting shifts in the motions of individual particles. These findings provide potential new approaches for creating customizable materials that have unique mechanical properties.

Renewable technologies are a promising solution for addressing global energy needs in a sustainable way.

A faster, more efficient way of recycling plant-based "bioplastics" has been developed by a team of scientists at the Universities of Birmingham and Bath.

Photosystem II is a protein complex in plants, algae and cyanobacteria that is responsible for splitting water and producing the oxygen we breathe. Over the past few years, an international collaboration between scientists at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and several other institutions have been able to observe various steps of this water-splitting cycle at the temperature at which it occurs in nature.

Organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) are the heart of plastic electronics. Doping has been shown to improve the performance of OFETs effectively. There are two major ways of doping OSCs.

It might sound like science fiction, but scientists are preparing to build colonies on the moon and, eventually, Mars. With NASA planning its next human mission to the moon in 2024, researchers are looking for options to power settlements on the lunar surface. According to a new article in Chemical & Engineering News, the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society, nuclear fission reactors have emerged as top candidates to generate electricity in space.