Organic Materials
Can seaweed be used as a building material?
March 8, 2013 10:22 am | News | Comments
For many coastal dwellers, seaweed washed up on the shore is nothing but a nuisance. But this raw material has proven itself capable of keeping buildings well insulated. Washed up on shore, it is generally regarded as a waste product and ends up as landfill. Together with industry partners, researchers in Germany have succeeded in turning it into insulation.
Effective, inexpensive concrete made with ash from olive residue
May 2, 2013 2:10 pm | News | Comments
Researchers in Spain report they have produced self-compacting concrete with ash from...
A greener method for making popular nanoparticle
April 24, 2013 10:37 am | News | Comments
Already renowned for its beneficial effects on human health, green tea could have a...
Team creates potential food source from non-food plants
April 16, 2013 8:25 am | News | Comments
Starch is one of the most important components of the human diet and provides 20 to 40...
Injectable nanonetwork controls blood sugar in diabetics
May 3, 2013 11:11 am | News | CommentsIn a promising development for diabetes treatment, researchers have developed a network of nanoscale particles that can be injected into the body and release insulin when blood-sugar levels rise, maintaining normal blood sugar levels for more than a week in animal-based laboratory tests.
Researchers engineer plant cell walls to boost sugar yields for biofuels
March 29, 2013 1:21 pm | News | CommentsLignocellulosic biomass is the most abundant organic material on Earth and could supply the sugars needed to produce advanced biofuels that can supplement or replace fossil fuels. One of the challenges is finding ways to more cost-effectively extract those sugars. Through the tools of synthetic biology, Joint BioEnergy Institute scientists have engineered healthy plants whose lignocellulosic biomass can more easily be broken down into simple sugars for biofuels.
Scientists create flexible mineral inspired by deep-sea sponges
March 15, 2013 11:10 am | News | CommentsImitating the structural elements found in most sea sponges, researchers in Germany have created a new synthetic hybrid material that is extremely flexible yet has a mineral content of almost 90%. They recreated the sponge’s spicules using natural calcium carbonate and integrated a protein of the sponge. The invention is even more flexible than its natural counterpart.
Metal-organic framework offers efficient carbon capture
March 5, 2013 2:31 pm | by Vickie Chachere, University of South Florida | News | CommentsChemists at the University of South Florida and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia have discovered a more efficient, less expensive and reusable material for carbon dioxide capture and separation. The highly efficient mechanism utilizes a previously underused material—known as SIFSIX-1-Cu—that attracts carbon atoms.
Spiderman’s webbing could stop moving train, say physics students
February 25, 2013 9:58 am | News | CommentsIn Spiderman 2, the superhero uses his webbing to bring a runaway train to a standstill moments before it plummets over the end of the track. But could a material with the strength and toughness of spiders’ web really stop four crowded subway cars? According to University of Leicester physics students, the answer is yes.
Supramolecular “Velcro” aids underwater adhesion
February 22, 2013 8:50 am | News | CommentsWhen gluing things together, both surfaces usually need to be dry. Gluing wet surfaces or surfaces under water is a challenge. Korean scientists have now introduced a completely new concept. They were able to achieve reversible underwater adhesion by using supramolecular "Velcro".
Organic electronics: Better contact between carbon compounds and metals
February 18, 2013 9:00 am | News | CommentsA recurring problem in organic electronics technology has been the difficulty in establishing good electrical contact between the active organic layer and metal electrodes. Organic molecules are frequently used for this purpose, but, until recent research at the Helmholtz Center in Germany unraveled this mystery, it was practically impossible to accurately predict which molecules performed well on the job.
Single molecule sieves separate complex molecular mixtures
February 15, 2013 12:38 pm | News | CommentsDistillation techniques for commonly used feedstocks, such as those containing benzene, can be expensive and involve large amounts of energy for hard-to-separate mixtures. A team of chemists in the U.K. have created organic molecular crystals that are able to separate important organic aromatic molecules by their molecular shape. The technique could be used in industry to separate complex organic chemical mixtures.
Engineers show feasibility of superfast materials
February 13, 2013 1:44 pm | News | CommentsUniversity of Utah engineers demonstrated it is feasible to build the first organic materials that conduct electricity on their edges, but act as an insulator inside. These materials, called organic topological insulators, could shuttle information at the speed of light in quantum computers and other high-speed electronic devices.
Pathway found for membrane building blocks
January 30, 2013 8:55 am | News | CommentsBiomembranes consist of a mosaic of individual, densely packed lipid molecules. These molecules are formed inside the cells. But how do these building blocks move to the correct part of the membrane? Researchers in Germany have discovered the bilayer structural mechanism that demonstrates how this is done.
Sensors from a spray can: Organic materials increase camera sensitivity
January 23, 2013 5:41 pm | News | CommentsResearchers in Germany have developed a new generation of image sensors that are more sensitive to light than the conventional silicon versions. Simple and cheap to produce, they consist of electrically conductive plastics which are sprayed onto the sensor surface in an ultra-thin layer. The chemical composition of the polymer spray coating can be altered so that even the invisible range of the light spectrum can be captured.
New path to more efficient organic solar cells
January 7, 2013 1:11 pm | News | CommentsWorking at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's Advanced Light Source (ALS), an international team of scientists found that for highly efficient polymer/organic solar cells, size matters. Impure domains if made sufficiently small can lead to improved performances in polymer-based organic photovoltaics.
Paper waste used to make bricks
December 20, 2012 11:06 am | News | CommentsResearchers in Spain have mixed waste from the paper industry with ceramic material used in the construction industry. The result is a brick that has low thermal conductivity. Despite is good insulating properties, however, its mechanical resistance still requires improvement.
Deuterium produced from a quantum sieve
December 6, 2012 9:52 am | News | CommentsThe double mass of deuterium and its relative scarcity make it a valuable research tool for chemists hoping to trace hydrogen reactions or analyze metabolic processes. A team of scientists in Europe have applied a new method that more efficiently separates hydrogen and its heavier isotope deuterium, and it involve the use of a metal-organic framework as a quantum sieve to isolate the isotope.
Deuterium produced from a quantum sieve
December 6, 2012 9:42 am | News | CommentsThe double mass of deuterium and its relative scarcity make it a valuable research tool for chemists hoping to trace hydrogen reactions or analyze metabolic processes. A team of scientists in Europe have applied a new method that more efficiently separates hydrogen and its heavier isotope deuterium, and it involve the use of a metal-organic framework as a quantum sieve to isolate the isotope.
Building bones from wood
November 9, 2012 8:42 am | News | CommentsA research project in Europehas the aim of building bone implants that have been sourced from wood. The wood serves as a scaffolding that transforms to a ceramic identical to the mineral part of bone tissue: hydroxyapatite. The researchers believe the approach could appear in a clinical setting within ten years.
Researchers gain new insights into membrane-assisted self-assembly
October 24, 2012 12:02 pm | News | CommentsInterest and research into self-assembly has accelerated in recent years, and much of this effort based on natural biological processes that involve proteins and capsids (complex protein structures). New research, using computational simulation techniques, is now showing how membranes influence and modify crucial biological self-assembly processes.
Absorbent nanomaterial cleans up toxic water
October 15, 2012 2:14 pm | News | CommentsScience is full of surprises. College of Wooster chemist Paul Edminston's search for a new way to detect explosives at airports instead led to the creation of what's now called "Osorb," swellable, organically modified silica, or glass, capable of absorbing oil and other contaminants from water.
Synchrotrons play role in Nobel prize research
October 12, 2012 12:04 pm | by Glenn Roberts Jr., SLAC | News | CommentsThe winners of the 2012 Chemistry Nobel Prize won for their work in revealing the structure and functioning of a key protein complex on the surface of human cells that has been a target for drug development. Their main tool for this research was X-ray crystallography, which is performed with X-ray synchrotrons. But as the researchers would discover, not all synchrotrons are created equal.
Spider silk’s hidden talents may produce eco-friendly optics
October 11, 2012 12:25 pm | News | CommentsAt this week’s Frontiers in Optics 2012, physicists are presenting possible applications based on research that uses natural spider silk to catch light. Recent findings could present an eco-friendly alternative to glass or plastic fiber optics: the traditional materials for manipulating light. Silk-enabled implantable biosensors, lasers, and microchips could result.
Scientists simultaneously measure electronic and optical properties of OLEDs
October 9, 2012 3:35 pm | News | CommentsA research team in Japan has succeeded in developing equipment that enables simple, high speed measurement of the band diagrams of organic semiconductor materials in atmospheric conditions. The device essentially combines a spectrophotometer system for studying band gaps with a photoemission yield system to examine ionized potential.
Licorice offers clue to cleaner medical implants
October 8, 2012 12:11 pm | News | CommentsConventional sterilization techniques based on a blast of radiation, or exposure to toxic gas, can damage the functional biological components of certain medical devices. According to a team of researchers from Germany and Austria, materials containing an extract from licorice can be used to sterilize and protect medical devices and implants which include biological components.
Sea urchin's spiny strength revealed
October 4, 2012 4:54 am | News | CommentsUsing a process known as microtomography, a team of Australian engineers have created a high-resolution 3D microscopic image of a segment of spine of a sea urchin. This allowed them to identify unique features in the architecture of the spine, which is a single crystal of calcite that supplies an advantageous mix of elasticity and brittleness.
Luminescent ink produced from eggs
September 13, 2012 7:51 am | News | CommentsA variety of processes have been developed to make miniature objects known as carbon dots or C-dots, which are valued in imaging for their optical properties. Researchers in China have now introduced a new method for making them quickly and inexpensively. These fluorescent carbon dots are made by plasma pyrolysis from egg yolk or egg white and can be used as printer ink.
Enzymatic etching used to build nanoscale surface topologies
September 11, 2012 4:04 am | News | Comments2D micro- and nanoscale patterns found in living systems can be recreated fairly well with techniques like microlithography. But 3D structures represent a big challenge. Researchers have now reported a new method for the lithography-free etching of complex surface motifs with the use of biodegradable polymers and enzymes.
