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Categories: Chemistry: Organic Chemistry, Environmental: Water
Published Engineers design more powerful RNA vaccines


By adding synergistic self-adjuvanting properties to COVID-19 RNA vaccines, researchers showed they could significantly boost the immune response generated in mice.
Published Revolutionizing lithium production on a string


Researchers have developed a new approach that slashes the land and time needed to extract lithium from brine, which could dramatically expand access to the critical mineral.
Published Bursting air bubbles may play a key role in how glacier ice melts



New research has uncovered a possible clue as to why glaciers that terminate at the sea are retreating at unprecedented rates: the bursting of tiny, pressurized bubbles in underwater ice.
Published Stability inspection for West Antarctica shows: marine ice sheet is not destabilized yet, but possibly on a path to tipping



Antarctica's vast ice masses seem far away, yet they store enough water to raise global sea levels by several meters. A team of experts has now provided the first systematic stability inspection of the ice sheet's current state. Their diagnosis: While they found no indication of irreversible, self-reinforcing retreat of the ice sheet in West Antarctica yet, global warming to date could already be enough to trigger the slow but certain loss of ice over the next hundreds to thousands of years.
Published Extending the playing field for organosulfurs: a new way to synthesize sulfinate esters


Sulfinate esters, a type of organosulfur compounds, are typically synthesized using thiols. However, these substances are difficult to work with due to their unpleasant smell and oxidizability in air. Now, a research team has found a way to produce sulfinate esters through the direct oxidation of thioesters, which are easily accessible and stable. Their findings will help expand the field of organosulfur chemistry and hopefully lead to new applications in pharmaceuticals.
Published New battery holds promise for green energy


A chemist envisions a future where every house is powered by renewable energy stored in batteries. He has created a new battery that could have profound implications for the large-scale energy storage needed by wind and solar farms.
Published Chemists devise a method for C-H activation of alcohols


Chemists have extended a powerful molecule-building method -- called C-H activation -- to the broad class of chemicals known as alcohols.
Published Researchers develop highly efficient and stable photoelectrode for water splitting using organic semiconductors


A recent study has unveiled a significant breakthrough in photoelectrode development.
Published Rubber plumbing seals can leak additives into drinking water


As drinking water flows through pipes and into a glass, it runs against the rubber seals inside some plumbing devices. These parts contain additives that contribute to their flexibility and durability, but these potentially harmful compounds can leak into drinking water, according to a small-scale study. The authors report that the released compounds, which are typically linked to tire pollution, also transformed into other unwanted byproducts.
Published Water-quality risks linked more to social factors than money



When we determine which communities are more likely to get their water from contaminated supplies, median household income is not the best measure. That's according to a recent study that found social factors -- such as low population density, high housing vacancy, disability and race -- can have a stronger influence than median household income on whether a community's municipal water supply is more likely to have health-based water-quality violations.
Published Fossil spines reveal deep sea's past



Right at the bottom of the deep sea, the first very simple forms of life on earth probably emerged a long time ago. Today, the deep sea is known for its bizarre fauna. Intensive research is being conducted into how the number of species living on the sea floor have changed in the meantime. Some theories say that the ecosystems of the deep sea have emerged again and again after multiple mass extinctions and oceanic upheavals. Today's life in the deep sea would thus be comparatively young in the history of the Earth. But there is increasing evidence that parts of this world are much older than previously thought.
Published New ribozyme can make RNA molecules accessible for click chemistry in living cells


Important progress for RNA research: A team has discovered a new ribozyme that can label RNA molecules in living cells.
Published Efficient and mild: Recycling of used lithium-ion batteries


Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) provide our portable devices like tablets and mobiles -- and increasingly also vehicles -- with power. As the share of volatile renewable energy needing electricity storage increases, more and more LIBs are needed, lithium prices rise, resources dwindle, and the amount of depleted batteries that contain toxic substances increases. Researchers introduce a novel approach for the recovery of lithium from used LIBs.
Published 3D-printed 'living material' could clean up contaminated water


A 'living material,' made of a natural polymer combined with genetically engineered bacteria, could offer a sustainable and eco-friendly solution to clean pollutants from water. Researchers developed their living material using a seaweed-based polymer and bacteria that have been programmed to produce an enzyme that transforms various organic pollutants into harmless compounds. In tests, heir material decontaminated water solutions tainted with a pollutant from textile manufacturing: indigo carmine, a blue dye that is used to color denim.
Published Striking gold with molecular mystery solution for potential clean energy


Hydrogen spillover is exactly what it sounds like. Small metal nanoparticles anchored on a thermally stable oxide, like silica, comprise a major class of catalysts, which are substances used to accelerate chemical reactions without being consumed themselves. The catalytic reaction usually occurs on the reactive -- and expensive -- metal, but on some catalysts, hydrogen atom-like equivalents literally spill from the metal to the oxide. These hydrogen-on-oxide species are called 'hydrogen spillover.'
Published Growing triple-decker hybrid crystals for lasers


By controlling the arrangement of multiple inorganic and organic layers within crystals using a novel technique, researchers have shown they can control the energy levels of electrons and holes (positive charge carriers) within a class of materials called perovskites. This tuning influences the materials' optoelectronic properties and their ability to emit light of specific energies, demonstrated by their ability to function as a source of lasers.
Published New blood test for noncoding RNA significantly improves cancer detection


A lab is developing more accurate and powerful liquid biopsy technologies that take advantage of signals from RNA 'dark matter,' an understudied area of the genome.
Published Taking photoclick chemistry to the next level


Researchers have been able to substantially improve photoclick chemistry. They were able to boost the reactivity of the photoclick compound in the popular PQ-ERA reaction through strategic molecular substitution. They now report a superb photoreaction quantum yield, high reaction rates and notable oxygen tolerance.
Published Direct formation of sulfuric acid in the atmosphere


In the atmosphere, gaseous sulfuric acid can form particles that influence the physical properties of clouds. Thus, the formation of sulfuric acid in the gas phase directly affects the radiative forcing and Earth's climate. In addition to the known formation from sulfur dioxide, researchers have now been able to demonstrate through experiments that there is another formation pathway that has been speculated about for decades. Sulfuric acid in the atmosphere can also be formed directly by the oxidation of organic sulfur compounds. This new production pathway can be responsible for up to half of the gaseous sulfuric acid formation over the oceans and is thus of high importance for climate projections -- especially over the oceans of the Southern Hemisphere.
Published Energy storage in molecules


Molecular photoswitches that can both convert and store energy could be used to make solar energy harvesting more efficient. A team of researchers has used a quantum computing method to find a particularly efficient molecular structure for this purpose. Their procedure was based on a dataset of more than 400,000 molecules, which they screened to find the optimum molecular structure for solar energy storage materials.