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Dec 9, 2024 | 
chemistryworld.com | Fernando Gomollón-Bel
Entirely inorganic perovskites are a promising alternative to traditional perovskite solar cells, which present bottlenecks in terms of efficiency and stability. However, inorganic salts face fabrication and scalability issues. Now, a simple stabilising ligand allows all-inorganic perovskite cells with an efficiency of up to 22%, surpassing previous records and paving the way towards scalable solar cells.
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Nov 20, 2024 | 
chemistryworld.com | Fernando Gomollón-Bel
A new colour-changing cloth combines cooling and heating without the need for an external energy supply. This adaptive material has already found different functional formats, such as fabrics for smart-clothing and tents, offering efficient temperature regulations in extreme conditions. Moreover, the manufacturing process seems scalable and, most importantly, adaptable to other materials, such as wood, metals and paper, meaning it could find many uses.
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Aug 19, 2024 | 
chemistryworld.com | Fernando Gomollón-Bel
Source: © Henning Dalhoff/Science Photo Library
New research shows how complex molecules that were key to kickstarting life on the early Earth could have survived, despite their inherent instability. The findings suggest that self-assembly processes could have boosted RNA sequences’ resistance to hydrolysis, helping to ‘tame the chemical chaos’ in prebiotic mixtures.
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Jul 12, 2024 | 
chemistryworld.com | Fernando Gomollón-Bel
On 20 June, the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, announced a new initiative to promote links between politicians and scientists. ONAC – the national office for scientific advice – will work directly with the prime minister’s office to coordinate the scientific advisers in each government ministry.
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Jun 27, 2024 | 
chemistryworld.com | Fernando Gomollón-Bel
A new photochemical reaction can create glycosidic bonds in ‘naked’, native sugars, without the need of protecting groups.
Source: © Yi Jiang et al/Springer Nature Limited 2024
Whereas state-of-the-art synthetic methods use several steps, researchers have developed a ‘reactive intermediate’ that’s stable under bench conditions and easily couples with a variety of nucleophiles, including proteins.
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Jun 19, 2024 | 
chemistryworld.com | Fernando Gomollón-Bel
Charcoal ‘sponges’ that are charged with hydroxide ions offer a low-cost, energy-efficient way to capture carbon dioxide directly from air. The researchers behind the finding decided to explore activated carbon because it is ‘cheap, stable and made at scale’. The material’s electrical conductivity also permits a rapid release of captured carbon dioxide, allowing the charcoal-based sorbent to easily be reused.
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Jun 7, 2024 | 
chemistryworld.com | Fernando Gomollón-Bel
A new redox method can extract and recycle europium from real-life waste such as compact fluorescent lamps. in just three simple steps this protocol yields the lanthanide in quantities at least 50 times higher than state-of-the-art solutions used by the chemical industry. Researchers have already patented the technology and created a start-up to commercialise it.
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Apr 9, 2024 | 
chemistryworld.com | Fernando Gomollón-Bel
A new roll-to-roll system that can print perovskite solar cells could streamline the scale-up of the technology. ‘It marks a pivotal milestone in the field, showcasing the potential for the cost-effective production of high-performance solar cells,’ says lead author Doojin Vak from CSIRO Manufacturing in Victoria, Australia.
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Mar 28, 2024 | 
chemistryworld.com | Fernando Gomollón-Bel
Crystalline cages that adsorb water have found an unexpected application in the field of sensors. These supramolecular structures serve as ‘touchless’ sensors, by simply detecting the humidity that naturally surrounds the skin. The sensor ‘exhibits an exceptional responsiveness to humidity changes’, explains lead author Niveen Khashab, who works at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia. ‘It’s a more promising avenue for touchless technology,’ she adds.
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Feb 28, 2024 | 
chemistryworld.com | Fernando Gomollón-Bel
For the first time, researchers have observed communication between the rotors in a molecular motor. Although the exact mechanism is still a mystery, communicating components could convey complex and controlled movements to molecular machines, better mimicking biological systems.
Source: © Carlijn LF van Beek and Ben L Feringa
In molecular motors, external stimuli such as light or heat activate movement.
