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Rice University engineers can turn sunlight into hydrogen with record-breaking efficiency thanks to a device that combines next-generation halide perovskite semiconductors with electrocatalysts in a single, durable, cost-effective and scalable device.

The new technology is a significant step forward for clean energy and could serve as a platform for a wide range of chemical reactions that use solar-harvested electricity to convert feedstocks into fuels.

The lab of chemical and biomolecular engineer Aditya Mohite built the integrated photoreactor using an anticorrosion barrier that insulates the semiconductor from water without impeding the transfer of electrons. According to a study published in Nature Communications, the device achieved a 20.8% solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency.

A team of researchers from the Instituto de Carboquímica of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) has made a remarkable step forward in the development of efficient and sustainable electronic devices. They have found a special combination of two extraordinary nanomaterials that successfully results in a new hybrid product capable of turning light into electricity, and vice-versa, faster than conventional materials.

The research is published in the journal Chemistry of Materials.

This new material consists of a one-dimensional conductive polymer called polythiophene, ingeniously integrated with a two-dimensional derivative of graphene known as graphene oxide. The unique features exhibited by this hybrid material hold incredible promise for improving the efficiency of optoelectronic devices, such as smart devices screens, and solar panels, among others.

A researcher has used the technique of chemical mapping to study the spiral arms of our home galaxy: the Milky Way. According to Keith Hawkins, assistant professor at The University of Texas at Austin, chemical cartography might help us better grasp the structure and evolution of our galaxy.

“Much like the early explorers, who created better and better maps of our world, we are now creating better and better maps of the Milky Way,” mentioned Hawkins in an official release.

NASA/JPL-Caltech.

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Built using inexpensive semiconductors, the device packs all components to make hydrogen and can be scaled.

A research team led by Aditya Mohite, a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Rice University in the US, has designed a device that can use sunlight to generate hydrogen, with a record efficiency of 20.8 percent, a press release said.

Hydrogen is being touted as the future of clean energy due to its high energy density that could be deployed even to fly large planes. However, the process of generating hydrogen is currently heavily dependent on fossil fuels. For hydrogen to herald a new future in clean energy, it needs to be produced sustainably and without carbon emissions.

One of the central challenges for synthetic chemists is to impose control over free radicals. Highly reactive molecules with an unpaired electron, free radicals, may be familiar to you; these are the type of molecules we take antioxidant supplements for, in an effort to tame oxidative stress.

In the world of synthetic chemistry, however, free radicals hold a lot of promise.

“Free radical chemistry is very useful for the synthesis of both bioactive small molecules and everyday polymers,” said UC Santa Barbara chemistry professor Yang Yang, an author of a paper on the matter that appears in Nature Catalysis. “However, imposing stereocontrol over free-radical mediated reactions has eluded the asymmetric catalysis community for decades. We’re trying to develop biocatalytic strategies to further push the boundaries of free radical chemistry.”

A newly described type of chemistry in fungi is both surprisingly common and likely to involve highly reactive enzymes, two traits that make the genes involved useful signposts pointing to a potential treasure trove of biological compounds with medical and chemical applications.

It was also nearly invisible to scientists until now.

In the last 15 years, the hunt for molecules from living organisms—many with promise as drugs, antimicrobial agents, chemical catalysts and even food additives—has relied on computer algorithms trained to search the DNA of bacteria, fungi and plants for genes that produce enzymes known to drive biological processes that result in interesting compounds.

Identifying regions of the Milky Way’s spiral arms that have previously gone undetected.

EMBARGO Wednesday 19 July 1,600 BST | 1,500 GMT | Thursday 20 July 100 AEST

Back when the Universe was still just a wee baby Universe, there wasn’t a lot going on chemically. There was hydrogen, with some helium, and a few traces of other things. Heavier elements didn’t arrive until stars had formed, lived, and died.

Imagine, therefore, the consternation of scientists when, using the James Webb Space Telescope to peer back into the distant reaches of the Universe, they discovered significant amounts of carbon dust, less than a billion years after the Big Bang.

In a groundbreaking study, researchers have unlocked a new frontier in the fight against aging and age-related diseases. The study, conducted by a team of scientists at Harvard Medical School, has published the first chemical approach to reprogram cells to a younger state. Previously, this was only achievable using a powerful gene therapy.

The team’s findings build upon the discovery that the expression of specific genes, called Yamanaka factors, could convert adult cells into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). This Nobel Prize-winning discovery raised the question of whether it might be possible to reverse cellular aging without causing cells to become too young and turn cancerous.

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