Chemistry 2023, March
A superlattice connecting two bismuth-based components turns out to be an excellent thermal insulator
Chinese chemists have learned how, at the atomic level, to make glass like diamond and even harder
Engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have discovered a new way to generate electricity. They created particles based on carbon nanotubes that, when trapped in an "electron-hungry" organic solvent, generate a current. In the experiment, the created voltage was enough to start and maintain the alcohol oxidation reaction
Biologists have studied the lubricant with which insects "lubricate" their exoskeleton, and found that this material reduces friction even more than the famous Teflon
Despite its low concentration in the earth's crust, gold often forms rich deposits - veins. The processes by which this happens have long remained a mystery to geologists. However, the clue came from where the least expected: the sample was fermented milk products resulting from flocculation (during fermentation) of the colloidal system (milk)
Another allotropic modification of carbon - a flat crystal lattice of squares, hexagons and octagons - exhibits pronounced metallic properties
Employees of St. Petersburg State University have created a new type of polymer battery cells. Batteries based on it charge an order of magnitude faster than modern lithium batteries, are resistant to cold and contain a minimum amount of substances hazardous to the environment. At the same time, there is nothing in such a battery that could catch fire or explode if the operating conditions are violated
American oceanographers have shared the first results of a detailed survey of the strait between San Catalina Island and Los Angeles, located on the US West Coast. They found 27,345 objects on the seabed, at least 25,000 of which were unambiguously identified as barrels. Until 1972, industrial waste was dumped in this area, including such a dangerous insecticide as DDT
American scientists managed to conduct a series of chemical and physical experiments with a record low amount of einsteinium: they had less than 200 nanograms of this radioactive metal at their disposal. Experts have discovered several new and clarified the already known properties of the transuranic element. The knowledge gained will help in working with other actinides, and also shed light on a number of common properties for elements at the end of the periodic table
Scientists in Singapore have learned how to cure epoxy without heating in an oven - using a weak and fast magnetic field
A breakthrough algorithm can solve the Schrödinger equation for arbitrary molecules within a reasonable time frame and without involving supercomputers. This makes it possible, without laborious and costly field experiments, to determine the basic properties of a substance with a high probability
British multimillionaire and eco-activist Dale Vince has announced that his business is ready to produce sustainable diamonds. The energy required for this comes from green power plants, and the raw materials come directly from the air
Using 12 qubits of a quantum processor, researchers were able to simulate isomerization of diazene
Indian chemists have obtained porous solid acids that can be a safe replacement for conventional liquid acids used in the catalysis of many industrially important reactions
The metal used in psychotropic drugs can have ubiquitous effects on people's mood and suicidal thoughts through drinking water
The names of this year's Nobel Prize winners in chemistry have been announced in Stockholm. They are Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna, creators of CRISPR / Cas9 technology
Developers from Germany demonstrated a "biohybrid composite" that allows direct collection of electrical charges from bacterial cells
New conditions showed how the reaction depends on the size of micropores in candies, and made it more understandable at the micro level
The material based on egg white retained the properties and presentation of strawberries, papaya, bananas and avocados for seven days
The ability to determine the freshness of prints is very important, for example, for forensics. If successful, the refinement of the new assessment method, the practices based on it can seriously help the experts
Scientists have developed an environmentally friendly gel-like liquid that helps fire retardants last longer on vegetation
An international team of scientists has discovered a compound never seen before - plutonium pentoxide. It turned out to be very stable
Chemists from the USA and China have synthesized a new form of carbon with mixed hybridization
The number of known modifications of carbon has grown again: scientists were able to obtain from it stable rings containing 18 covalently bonded atoms at once
Physicists have long studied the atomic-scale processes that govern chemical reactions, but never before have they been able to observe the motion of an electron in real time
Scientists have used carbon nanotubes to create a material ten times darker than anything humans know today
Replenishment is expected in the periodic table of D. I. Mendeleev. New evidence presented by researchers from the Swiss University of Lund
Physicists have modeled the structure of a new material based on fullerite and diamond with which they have shown how the material acquires ultra-high mechanical rigidity
Electrocatalysts are the first materials, besides enzymes, that can convert carbon dioxide and water into carbon building blocks containing one to four carbon atoms with an efficiency of over 99 percent
A team of American scientists has developed a material that can self-recover using carbon dioxide from the air
Scientists have invented a device based on carbon nanotubes that can convert thermal radiation into a narrow beam of light, which can then be converted into electricity
The new technology makes it possible to obtain a composite material based on gold - the same ductile and sparkling, but several times lighter than the precious metal itself
Researchers from Russia and Germany explained the mystery of the crystal structure of the mineral calaverite, and also predicted the possibility of the existence of a new, previously unknown to chemists compound of gold
A group of scientists from Russia and Sweden have shown that if a sample with silicon quantum dots is coated with thin strips of gold, the optical properties of the quantum dots will change
Experts from Skoltech and the Joint Institute for High Temperatures of the Russian Academy of Sciences have proposed an effective approach to recycling food waste by converting it into biofuel
Scientists have synthesized a solid electrolyte for lithium batteries that will make them safer and increase the maximum capacity
One of the new superheavy elements of the periodic table, number 113, was officially named nichonium and the symbol Nh. It was discovered by scientists from Japan
Skoltech scientists have demonstrated high-temperature superconductivity for actinium hydrides and discovered a general principle by which their superconductivity can be calculated using only the periodic table
The laureates in this field were: German John B. Goodenough, Englishman M. Stanley Whittingham and Japanese Akira Yoshino
Scientists at the California Institute of Technology were able to obtain oxygen by "bombarding" a gold plate with carbon dioxide molecules