News by Subject Chemistry & Physics

Using machine learning methods, researchers at TU Graz can predict the structure formation of functionalized molecules at the interfaces of hybrid materials. Now they have also succeeded in looking behind the driving forces of this structure formation.

Researchers in Sweden have developed a more eco-friendly way to remove heavy metals, dyes and other pollutants from water. The answer lies in filtering wastewater with a gel material taken from plant cellulose and spiked with small carbon dots produced in a microwave oven.

Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) researchers developed a class of molecules that mimic the structure of the CD4 proteins to divert HIV attachment to T helper cells. This work may lead to more effective treatments that are less likely to be affected by resistance mutations.

Removing salt is only one step in creating clean water from ocean or brackish water. Toxic compounds, from metals to human-made carcinogens, must be removed by subsequent processing. UC Berkeley chemists have invented a technique to remove salt and toxic ions in one step. They create porous nanoparticles, PAFs, with added functional groups that selectively absorb ionic compounds, like metals, or neutral species, like boron, then add them to the polymer membranes used in electrodialysis.

Researchers from Osaka University took advantage of chemical processes that occur on timescales 10,000 times broader than seen in conventional fluorescence phototransfer research. In so doing, they quantitated the subnanometer conformational dynamics of DNA molecules, and detected a cancer RNA biomarker at single-molecule resolution. Their innovative use of fluorescence blinking--commonly viewed as a nuisance--will advance biomedical diagnostics and fundamental biochemical research.

Researchers at the Laboratory of Cluster Catalysis at St Petersburg University have synthesised polymers from biomass. The synthesised polymers may well be used for primary and secondary recycling. During secondary recycling, the polymer-based products can be converted into the primary compounds. This may be further followed by polymerisation. These polymers can be recycled at moderate temperatures.