news, journals and articles from all over the world.
Chemists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have developed a new theoretical framework for more accurately predicting the behavior of catalysts. The study reveals how conditions such as temperature and pressure can change a catalyst’s structure, efficiency, and even the products it makes — and can potentially be used to control reaction outcomes.
As winners of the 2024 U.S. Department of Energy’s Early Career Research Program, four scientists from Argonne National Laboratory are each receiving an award of $550,000 a year for five years to help them answer complex questions.
The Blavatnik Family Foundation and the New York Academy of Sciences have recognized chemical engineer Juan Jimenez as a Finalist in the 2024 Blavatnik Regional Awards for Young Scientists. Jimenez’s catalysis science research at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory opens doors for turning climate change-driving gases into industrially useful materials.
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and collaborating institutions have engineered a highly selective catalyst that can convert methane, a major component of natural gas, into methanol, an easily transportable liquid fuel, in a single, one-step reaction.
A research team led by Iowa State’s Qi An has developed artificial intelligence technology that could find ways to improve researchers’ understanding of the chemical reactions involved in ammonia production and other complex chemical reactions.
The reactivity of zirconium on silicon nitride enhances the conversion of propane into propylene, a key commodity chemical needed to make polypropylene. This finding hints at the reactivity researchers might achieve with other nontraditional catalysts.
Researchers used complementary imaging techniques to explore the impact of synthesis approaches on the nanoscopic internal structure of apparently perfect calcite particles, which has implications for contaminant sequestration and carbon storage.
Scientists have developed a new efficient catalyst for the most challenging part of “water splitting,” a series of two simultaneous electrochemical reactions that generate hydrogen gas, a green energy source, from water. The new catalyst was designed based on theoretical predictions and validated in laboratory tests and industrially relevant demonstrations.
Chemists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, Stony Brook University (SBU), and their collaborators have uncovered new details of the reversible assembly and disassembly of a platinum catalyst. The new understanding may offer clues to the catalyst’s stability and recyclability.
Ammonia is the starting point for the fertilizers that have secured the world’s food supply for the last century. It’s also a main component of cleaning products, and is even considered as a future carbon-free replacement for fossil fuels in vehicles.
Researchers have developed an automated workflow that could accelerate the discovery of new pharmaceutical drugs and other useful products. The new approach could enable real-time reaction analysis and identify new chemical-reaction products much faster than current laboratory methods.
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill (UNC) have demonstrated the selective conversion of carbon dioxide (CO2) into methanol using a cascade reaction strategy. The two-part process is powered by sunlight, occurs at room temperature and at ambient pressure, and employs a recyclable organic reagent that’s similar to a catalyst found in natural photosynthesis.
Scientists from the National University of Singapore have developed an innovative catalyst that achieves a significantly lower carbon footprint, paving the way for greener chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturing processes.
Transition metals form catalytic complexes that can speed up various chemical processes, especially in the production of pharmaceuticals as well as various pigments, dyes, and laboratory reagents like sulfuric acid.
A novel catalysis scheme enables chemical reactions that were previously virtually impossible. The method developed at the University of Bonn is also environmentally friendly and does not require rare and precious metals.
Introduced in 2004, high-entropy alloys (HEAs) are alloys composed of multiple principal elements in nearly equiatomic proportions.
Researchers have modified the surface of nickel-platinum nanoparticles to improve their ability to act as catalysts to make reactive oxygen ions. Using a specialized X-ray scattering imaging technique, the researchers examined the modified nanoparticles and discovered a platinum-rich outer layer.
Research in the Energy Sciences Center explores how heat changes in chemical reactions, paving the way for more efficient fuels and processes.
Today’s catalysts for removing unburnt methane from natural-gas engine emissions are either inefficient at low, start-up temperatures or break down at higher operating temperatures. A new single-atom catalyst solves both these problems and removes 90% of the methane.
PNNL scientists investigate the promising properties of a common, Earth-abundant salt.
Chemists at the University of Kansas and Brookhaven National Laboratory have unraveled the entire reaction mechanism for a key class of water-splitting catalysts. Their work could help pure hydrogen be produced from renewable energy sources such as solar power.
Researchers at Binghamton University led research partnering with the Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN)—a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility at Brookhaven National Laboratory—to get a better look at how peroxides on the surface of copper oxide promote the oxidation of hydrogen but inhibit the oxidation of carbon monoxide, allowing them to steer oxidation reactions.
A team of researchers from the College of Design and Engineering at the National University of Singapore, led by Professor Ho Ghim Wei from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, has developed a revolutionary technique for producing ultrathin inorganic membranes.
The Institute for the Cooperative Upcycling of Plastics (iCOUP) is helping to address the plastic waste accumulation problem by developing the science needed to turn used plastic into valuable materials.
Argonne researchers have developed an artificial intelligence-based model to greatly speed up the process for engineering a low-cost catalyst that converts biomass into fuels and useful chemicals with many possible applications.
John Mitchell, Valerie Taylor and Lisa Utschig were selected by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) to be inducted as fellows.
Just as a choreographer’s notation tells a dancer to strike a particular pose, an enzyme newly discovered by Rice University scientists is able to tell specific molecules precisely how to arrange themselves, down to the angle of single hydrogen bonds.
A team led by University of Minnesota Twin Cities researchers has invented a groundbreaking new catalyst technology that converts renewable materials like trees and corn to the key chemicals, acrylic acid, and acrylates used in paints, coatings, and superabsorbent polymers.
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Institute for Cooperative Upcycling of Plastics (iCOUP) have developed a new method for recycling high-density polyethylene (HDPE).
Researchers have used gold extracted from electronic waste as catalysts for reactions that could be applied to making medicines.
Argonne chemist Karen Mulfort and her research team were awarded $3.8 million across three years to study clean energy.
In light of vehicular pollutants contributing to decreasing air quality, governments across the globe are posing stricter emission regulations for automobiles.
Binghamton University Assistant Professor of Chemistry Jennifer Hirschi recently received a Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award for $1.93 million from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences to study the mechanisms involved in catalytic reactions.
Chain Reaction Innovations, the entrepreneurship program at Argonne National Laboratory, is accepting applications for its next fellowship cohort.
Understanding the fundamentals of these emerging technologies will help design improved systems for chemical recycling and upcycling of waste plastics.
As part of National Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Day, Argonne answers common questions surrounding hydrogen as an energy carrier.
R&D Magazine has recognized four Argonne projects with R&D 100 Awards.
Plastic upcycling efficiently converts plastics to valuable commodity chemicals while using less of the precious metal ruthenium. The method could recycle waste plastic pollution into useful products, helping keep it out of landfills.
Tiffany Kaspar’s work has advanced the discovery and understanding of oxide materials, helping develop electronics, quantum computing, and energy production. She strives to communicate her science to the public.
The Washington State Academy of Sciences added six people from PNNL to its 2022 class of inductees.
An international team of researchers, led by scientists at the University of Manchester, has developed a fast and economical method of converting methane, or natural gas, into liquid methanol at ambient temperature and pressure. The method takes place under continuous flow over a photo-catalytic material using visible light to drive the conversion.
To help observe how the process works and how selective it is, the researchers used neutron scattering at the VISION instrument at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Spallation Neutron Source.
Adding water to the catalytic reaction that converts methane into useful methanol makes the process more effective, but it creates challenges for industry due to steam from the water. Now scientists have identified a common industrial catalyst, copper-zinc oxide, that completes the conversion along different pathways depending on whether water is present or not. This could potentially keep methane, a potent greenhouse gas, out of Earth’s atmosphere and instead turn it into useful products.
The 2022 Robert B. Anderson Catalysis Award from the Chemical Institute of Canada’s Catalysis Division was presented to University of Oklahoma engineering professor Daniel Resasco, Ph.D., for his research that deepens the understanding of chemical reactions in the production of sustainable energy.
Chemists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have developed a new machine-learning (ML) framework that can zero in on which steps of a multistep chemical conversion should be tweaked to improve productivity. The approach could help guide the design of catalysts — chemical “dealmakers” that speed up reactions.
Morris Bullock has led PNNL’s pursuit of the efficient conversion of electrical energy and chemical bonds through control of electron and proton transfers.
UPTON, NY — Chemists have been searching for efficient catalysts to convert methane — a major component of abundant natural gas — into methanol, an easily transported liquid fuel and building block for making other valuable chemicals. Adding water to the reaction can address certain challenges, but it also complicates the process.
Fundamental research conducted at the $90-million research facility will help the nation meet its clean energy goals.
An international collaboration of scientists has taken a significant step toward the realization of a nearly “green” zero-net-carbon technology that will efficiently convert carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas, and hydrogen into ethanol, which is useful as a fuel and has many other chemical applications.
Engineers at the University of Illinois Chicago have created a solar-powered electrochemical reaction that not only uses wastewater to make ammonia — the second most-produced chemical in the world — but also achieves a solar-to-fuel efficiency that is 10 times better than any other comparable technology.
Anchoring individual iridium atoms on the surface of a catalyst made them a lot better at splitting water – a reaction that’s been a bottleneck in making sustainable energy production more competitive.
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