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Archive for the ‘chemistry’ category: Page 28

Apr 27, 2024

A New Cathode for Rechargeable Magnesium Batteries

Posted by in categories: chemistry, sustainability

This article is part of a series of pieces on advances in sustainable battery technologies that Physics Magazine is publishing to celebrate Earth Week 2024. See also: Q&A: Electrochemists Wanted for Vocational Degrees; Research News: Lithium-Ion “Traffic Jam” Behind Reduced Battery Performance; Q&A: The Path to Making Batteries Green; News Feature: Sodium Batteries as a Greener Lithium Substitute.

Since the first prototype made its debut in 2000, rechargeable magnesium batteries have continued to be both technologically attractive and commercially out of reach. The attraction arises from magnesium’s advantages over lithium: it is 1,000 times more abundant in Earth’s crust and is chemically less hazardous. The unrealized commercialization is largely down to the difficulty in identifying a material to serve as an effective and robust cathode. Tomoya Kawaguchi of Tohoku University in Japan and his collaborators may now have solved that problem through their demonstration of a material that satisfies one of the most important requirements of a good cathode: it can reversibly accept and release ions over repeated charging cycles [1].

The discharge of an electrochemical battery releases electrons that flow through the connected circuit. It also releases ions from the battery’s anode that flow through the battery’s electrolyte, in the opposite direction to the electrons, and then lodge in the cathode. The flows reverse directions during recharging. In a lithium-ion battery, the cathode is made from a lithium oxide and takes the form of either a layered material or a crystalline solid known as a spinel.

Apr 26, 2024

AI-designed gene editing tools successfully modify human DNA

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical, chemistry, food, genetics, robotics/AI

Medically, AI is helping us with everything from identifying abnormal heart rhythms before they happen to spotting skin cancer. But do we really need it to get involved with our genome? Protein-design company Profluent believes we do.

Founded in 2022 in Berkeley, California, Profluent has been exploring ways to use AI to study and generate new proteins that aren’t found in nature. This week, the team trumpeted a major success with the release of an AI-derived protein termed OpenCRISPR-1.

The protein is meant to work in the CRISPR gene-editing system, a process in which a protein cuts open a piece of DNA and repairs or replaces a gene. CRISPR has been actively in use for about 15 years, with its creators bagging the Nobel prize in chemistry in 2020. It has shown promise as a biomedical tool that can do everything from restoring vision to combating rare diseases; as an agricultural tool that can improve the vitamin D content of tomatoes, and slash the flowering time of trees from decades to months; and much more.

Apr 26, 2024

More efficient molecular motor widens potential applications

Posted by in categories: chemistry, nanotechnology

Light-driven molecular motors were first developed nearly 25 years ago at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. This resulted in a shared Nobel Prize for Chemistry for Professor Ben Feringa in 2016. However, making these motors do actual work proved to be a challenge. A new paper from the Feringa lab, published in Nature Chemistry on 26 April, describes a combination of improvements that brings real-life applications closer.

First author Jinyu Sheng, now a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA), adapted a “first generation” light-driven molecular motor during his Ph.D. studies in the Feringa laboratory. His main focus was to increase the efficiency of the motor molecule. “It is very fast, but only 2% of the photons that the molecule absorbs drive the rotary movement.”

This poor efficiency can get in the way of real-life applications. “Besides, increased efficiency would give us better control of the motion,” adds Sheng. The rotary motion of Feringa’s molecular motor takes place in four steps: two of them are photochemical, while two are temperature-driven. The latter are unidirectional, but the photochemical steps cause an isomerization of the molecule that is usually reversible.

Apr 25, 2024

Scientists find one of the oldest stars in the universe in a galaxy right next to ours

Posted by in categories: alien life, chemistry

An ancient star discovered in the Large Magellanic Cloud has revealed the chemical fingerprint of the early universe. It hints that conditions were not the same everywhere when the first stars forged the elements for life.

Apr 25, 2024

Buried in the Cat’s Paw Nebula lies one of the largest space molecules ever seen

Posted by in categories: chemistry, space

The molecule 2-methoxyethanol could reveal how the cosmos grew so complex.

Apr 25, 2024

Scientists discover method to prevent coalescence in immiscible liquids

Posted by in category: chemistry

A team of chemical engineers from Université PSL, CNRS, Harvard University and chemical company Calyxia, has discovered a way to prevent or delay coalescence in some immiscible liquids.

In their published in the journal Science, the group describes how experiments they conducted led to the discovery of a way to get some fluids such as water and oil, to remain as an emulsion for long periods of time without the use of surfactants.

It is widely known that when two immiscible liquids, such as water and oil are mixed, they do not remain so for very long—they slowly separate into two layers. This is because they never really mix to begin with; instead, they coexist as droplets that coalesce when they come into contact with one another.

Apr 24, 2024

Xaira launches with $1bn for AI drug discovery and development

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, chemistry, robotics/AI

Xaira has recruited a group of researchers who developed the leading models for protein and antibody design while in Baker’s lab. The company aims advance these models and develop new methods that can “connect the world of biological targets and engineered molecules to the human experience of disease.”

“Driven by growing data sets and new methods, there has been accelerating progress in artificial intelligence and its applications to medicine, biology and chemistry, including seminal work from David Baker’s lab at the Institute for Protein Design,” said Foresight’s Dr Vikram Bajaj. “In starting Xaira, we have brought together incredible multidisciplinary talent and capabilities at the right time to reimagine our entire approach, from drug discovery to clinical development.”

Boasting proficiency in handling vast and multidimensional datasets, Xaira claims it will enable comprehensive characterization of disease biology at various levels, from molecular to clinical. Drawing from Illumina’s functional genomics R&D effort and integrating a key proteomics group from Interline Therapeutics, the company aims to gain new insights into disease mechanisms.

Apr 24, 2024

Researchers detect a new molecule in space

Posted by in categories: chemistry, space travel

New research from the group of MIT Professor Brett McGuire has revealed the presence of a previously unknown molecule in space. The team’s open-access paper, “Rotational Spectrum and First Interstellar Detection of 2-Methoxyethanol Using ALMA Observations of NGC 6334I,” was published in the April 12 issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Zachary T.P. Fried, a graduate student in the McGuire group and the lead author of the publication, worked to assemble a puzzle comprised of pieces collected from across the globe, extending beyond MIT to France, Florida, Virginia, and Copenhagen, to achieve this exciting discovery.

“Our group tries to understand what molecules are present in regions of where stars and solar systems will eventually take shape,” explains Fried. “This allows us to piece together how chemistry evolves alongside the process of star and planet formation. We do this by looking at the rotational spectra of molecules, the unique patterns of light they give off as they tumble end-over-end in space.

Apr 24, 2024

E. coli engineered to become methanol addict to make industry feedstocks

Posted by in categories: chemistry, energy, food

Bacterium could head off food versus fuel dilemma by producing chemicals from agricultural waste.

Apr 23, 2024

MXenes-based energy storage devices could be charged in seconds

Posted by in categories: chemistry, energy, engineering

A team at Texas A&M University is taking significant steps for the development of a new generation of energy storage devices. They aim to develop a device that can combine the benefits of current technologies while addressing their limitations.

Dr. Abdoulaye Djire, a chemical engineering professor at Texas A&M University, as well as a few chemistry engineering graduates are focusing on MXenes, which is expected to be a compelling alternative to conventional lithium-ion batteries. Currently, the team is exploring the major advantages of nitride MXenes.

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