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Category: chemistry

Researchers at the University of Turku, Finland, have succeeded in producing sensors from single-wall carbon nanotubes that could enable major advances in health care, such as continuous health monitoring. Single-wall carbon nanotubes are nanomaterial consisting of a single atomic layer of graphene.

A long-standing challenge in developing the material has been that the nanotube manufacturing process produces a mix of conductive and semi-conductive nanotubes which differ in their chirality, i.e., in the way the graphene sheet is rolled to form the cylindrical structure of the nanotube. The electrical and chemical properties of nanotubes are largely dependent on their chirality.

Han Li, Collegium Researcher in materials engineering at the University of Turku, has developed methods to separate nanotubes with different chirality. In the current study, published in Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, the researchers succeeded in distinguishing between two carbon nanotubes with very similar chirality and identifying their typical electrochemical properties.

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Demand for lithium is rising due to its use in batteries for mobile devices, cars and clean energy storage. Securing access to natural deposits of the mineral is now a matter of strategic importance, but lithium can be found elsewhere in nature.

As an alternative to mining, Imperial researchers have created a technology that could be used to efficiently extract it from saltwater sources such as salt-lake brines or geothermal brine solutions.

Conventional extraction from brines takes months and uses significant amounts of water and chemicals, generating greenhouse gas emissions in the process. The alternative developed by Dr. Qilei Song and his team in the Department of Chemical Engineering uses a membrane that separates lithium from by filtering it through tiny pores.

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A research team led by the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has discovered “berkelocene,” the first organometallic molecule to be characterized containing the heavy element berkelium.

Organometallic molecules, which consist of a metal ion surrounded by a carbon-based framework, are relatively common for early actinide elements like uranium (atomic number 92) but are scarcely known for later actinides like berkelium (atomic number 97).

“This is the first time that evidence for the formation of a chemical bond between berkelium and carbon has been obtained. The discovery provides new understanding of how berkelium and other actinides behave relative to their peers in the periodic table,” said Stefan Minasian, a scientist in Berkeley Lab’s Chemical Sciences Division and one of four co-corresponding authors of a new study published in the journal Science.

Breakthrough in heavy-element chemistry shatters long-held assumptions about transuranium elements.

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Much of cell behavior is governed by the actions of biomolecular condensates: building block molecules that glom together and scatter apart as needed. Biomolecular condensates constantly shift their phase, sometimes becoming solid, sometimes like little droplets of oil in vinegar, and other phases in between.

Understanding the electrochemical properties of such slippery molecules has been a recent focus for researchers at Washington University in St. Louis.

In research published in Nature Chemistry, Yifan Dai, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at the McKelvey School of Engineering, shares the rules involving the intracellular electrochemical properties that affect movement and chemical activities inside the cell and how that might impact cell processes as a ages. The research can inform the development of treatments for diseases like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or cancer.

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Organolithium compounds, molecules containing a carbon–lithium bond, are excellent precursors for building new carbon–carbon and other carbon–heteroatom bonds. They are widely utilized in both academia and industry for their applications in polymer synthesis, pharmaceuticals, and general organic synthesis.

A conventional method for generating organolithium compounds is done by reacting organohalide compounds, molecules containing a carbon–halogen bond, with lithium metal in an organic solvent. For example, a reaction between 1-bromobutane and lithium metal produces n-butyllithium.

Organolithiums are typically unstable and are therefore rapidly converted into a new product in situ after generating them.

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We evaluated the long-term treatment outcomes and toxicities in patients with clinically localized and locally advanced prostate cancer (PC) who underwent high-dose-rate brachytherapy (HDR-BT) with external beam radiotherapy (EBRT). We retrospectively analyzed 417 patients with PC who underwent HDR-BT with EBRT. The treatment dose was 19-and 13-Gy HDR-BT in two and single fractions, respectively, both combined with external irradiation of 46 Gy in 23 fractions, and hormonal therapy (HT). The median observation period was 7.2 (range, 2.0–17.6) years. The 7-year recurrence-free, PC-specific, and overall survival rates were 93.3%, 99.1%, and 94.8%, respectively, with only six PC mortalities. Multivariable analysis showed that pre-radiotherapy prostate-specific antigen (PSA) of 0.05 ng/mL after neoadjuvant HT was an independent poor prognostic factor of recurrence (HR, 4.44; 95% CI 1.56–12.63; p = 0.005) and overall mortality (HR, 2.20; 95% CI 1.11–4.39; p = 0.025). The 7-year cumulative incidence rate of grade ≥ 2 toxicities in genitourinary and gastrointestinal tracts were 15.7% and 2.0%, respectively. HDR-BT combined with EBRT shows promising disease control and tolerant toxicities for PC. Poor PSA response to neoadjuvant androgen deprivation predicts worse survival measures. These patients may require more intensive multidisciplinary treatment in combination with radiotherapy.

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In anticipation for my next public lecture, the organizer requested the title of my lecture. I suggested: “Hunting for Aliens.” The organizer expressed concern that some members of the audience might confuse me for a U.S. government employee in search of illegal aliens near the southern border wall. I explained that no two-dimensional wall erected on Earth would protect us from extraterrestrials because they will arrive from above. It is just a matter of time until we notice interstellar travelers arriving without a proper visa. A policy of deporting them back to their home exoplanet will be expensive — over a billion dollars per flight. The trip will also take a long time — over a billion years with conventional chemical propulsion. We will have to learn how to live with these aliens, and promote diversity and inclusion in a Galactic context.

The Sun formed in the last third of cosmic history, so we are relatively late to the party of interstellar travelers. Experienced travelers might have been engaged in their interstellar journeys for billions of years. To properly interpret their recorded diaries and photo albums in terms of the specific stars they visited, we would need to accurately interpret their time measurements.

Imagine an interstellar tourist wearing a mechanical analog watch. Such a timepiece is at best accurate to within 3 seconds per day, or equivalently 30,000 years per billion years. This timing error is comparable to the amount of time it takes to hop from one star to another with chemical propulsion. Interstellar travelers must wear better clocks in order to have a reliable record of time.

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A study conducted by researchers from the University of São Paulo sheds light on new discoveries about the mechanisms of oxidative phosphorylation in ATP production. Recent findings highlight the involvement of sodium in mitochondrial respiration.

In an article published in Trends in Biochemical Sciences, Alicia Kowaltowski, a full professor at the University of São Paulo’s Institute of Chemistry (IQ-USP) in Brazil, calls for a “rewriting” of textbooks regarding the location of the electron transport chain in mitochondria and the role of sodium in mitochondrial respiration.

Kowaltowski is also a member of the Research Center for Redox Processes in Biomedicine (Redoxoma), a Research, Innovation, and Dissemination Center (RIDC) funded by FAPESP and based at IQ-USP.

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Scientists have identified an enzyme from soil bacteria that can turn air into electricity. They believe it might be transformed into a renewable power source for small devices.

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The Monash University study, published in the peer-reviewed magazine Nature, demonstrates that the enzyme “Huc” can convert small amounts of hydrogen in the air into an electrical current. An enzyme is a protein that can accelerate chemical reactions in cells.

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Countries worldwide are continuously pursuing green and hygienic technology to generate power from limited natural resources. Power generation from renewable energy sources has reached equality with conventional forms. However, the portability of energy derived from cleaner sources has always been challenging.

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Conventional batteries use elements such as lithium-ion and lead acid, which are toxic, have a serious risk of explosion, and are expensive and harmful to the environment.

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