Chemistry

A new study has found that palladium-gold nanoparticles are excellent catalysts for cleaning polluted water - and can even convert biodiesel waste into valuable chemicals. In dozens of studies, Rice University chemical engineer Michael Wong and colleagues have focused on using the tiny metallic specks to break down carcinogenic and toxic compounds and have now examined whether palladium-gold nanocatalysts could convert glycerol, a waste byproduct of biodiesel production, into high-value chemicals. In scientific parlance, the data from the study produced a "volcano plot," a graph with a sharp…

Chemists have constructed liquid crystals with optical properties that can be instantly and reversibly controlled by an external magnetic field and that paves the way for display applications using instantaneous and contactless nature of magnetic manipulation - like a poster that customizes based on the people around it. Commercially available liquid crystals in electronic displays are composed of rod-like or plate-like molecules. When an electric field is applied, the molecules rotate and align themselves along the field direction, resulting in a rapid tuning of transmitted light. "The…

Recently, Subway declared they would stop using a chemical because a food activist convinced people it was in yoga mats, and was therefore dangerous. What's really dangerous are the toxic chemicals in solar panels. Soon, they could have the same ingredient as tofu, though you shouldn't stop eating tofu just because Vani Hari, the "Food Babe", can't pronounce any of the the chemicals it contains. Cadmium chloride is currently a key ingredient in solar cell technology used in millions of solar panels around the world. This soluble compound is highly toxic and expensive to produce,…

If there is a spill, the chemical makeup of wastewater generated by fracking could cause the release of tiny particles in soils that might bind heavy metals and pollutants, Cornell University researchers have found. The obvious response is 'don't do that' but the researchers were analyzing a possible risk scenario. Though it is contained, 10 percent of the water and chemical solution mixture injected at high pressure into deep rock strata surges back to the surface during well development. Scientists at Cornell studying the environmental impacts of this "flowback fluid" found that the…

Biological membranes are like a guarded border. They separate the cell from the environment and at the same time control the import and export of molecules. The nuclear membrane can be crossed via many tiny pores. Scientists have discovered that proteins found within the nuclear pore function similar to a velcro. In a new paper, they report how these proteins can be used for controlled and selective transport of particles. There is much traffic in our cells. Many proteins, for example, need to travel from their production site in the cytoplasm to the nucleus, where they are used to read…

Erythritol is the sweetener most people in the western world have never heard about. It can only be produced with the help of special kinds of yeast in highly concentrated molasses but it has a number of advantages: it does not make you fat, it does not cause tooth decay, it has no effect on the blood sugar and, unlike other 'artificial' sweeteners, it does not have a laxative effect. Erythritol is more common in Asia and researchers at TU Vienna have developed a method that could make it popular in the US and Europe - they can produce it from ordinary straw with the help of a mold…

Scientists have created a one-step process for producing highly efficient materials that let the maximum amount of sunlight reach a solar cell - by finding a simple way to etch nanoscale spikes into silicon that allows more than 99 percent of sunlight to reach the cells' active elements, where it can be turned into electricity. The more light absorbed by a solar panel's active elements, the more power it will produce. But the light has to get there. Coatings in current use that protect the active elements let most light pass but reflect some as well. Various strategies have cut reflectance…

An imbalance of female sex hormones caused by vegetarian foods like soy may be contributing to high levels of male obesity, according to a recent paper. Like all epidemiological studies that are implying correlation and causation, some skepticism is warranted. The authors note that products having higher levels of the female sex hormone estrogen are more often found in affluent societies, so they compared obesity rates among men and women from around the world with measures such as Gross Domestic Product to determine the impact of affluence on obesity. They found that while it was…

Glen Tickle, a comedian and Senior Editor at Geekosystem, recently received a lovely gift: a note card with a recipe for a chemical-free weedkiller. A note card recipe! How grandmotherly! Except there is nothing chemical-free about it. And Dawn dishwashing liquid was nothing my grandmother ever used, when it came out it was so quasi-futuristic and chemical-company new that it might as well have had a platinum blonde in a shiny costume for its advertisements:  Dawn came out in 1973, it was created by Procter&Gamble, a chemical company. What is so 'natural', much less chemical-free…

Agricultural science has made magnificent strides in the last few decades. Where once was rampant concern about mass starvation and food riots, farmers in developed nations are now producing more food on more land than once thought possible. But the quest to use even fewer pesticides continues. Products need to protect plants against fungal and insect attack but the goal is to do that with fewer negative effects on the environment. Researchers are working to improve plant protection and one strategy is optimizing the interaction between the plant's barrier, plant protection products and…