Photosynthesis-inspired process makes commodity chemicals

New strategy is less expensive, less energy intensive than current industrial processes

14-Jun-2022 - Northwestern University chemists have taken inspiration from plants to revolutionize the way an important industrial chemical is made. In a first for the field, the Northwestern team used light and water to convert acetylene into ethylene, a widely used, highly valuable chemical that is a key ...

Crystals Made to Fit

Induced-fit adsorbent for acetylene

16-Aug-2021 - We often say that a substrate fits into its enzyme like a key in a lock, but this metaphor is imperfect. Substrate binding can also change the lock (the structure of the enzyme) to induce a perfect fit. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, an international team of researchers has now introduced a ...

'Opposite action' could improve industrial gas separation

A design concept changes how materials separate gaseous mixtures

22-Mar-2021 - A more energy-efficient method improves how an industrial gas is purified by reversing the traditional process. The concept was developed and successfully tested by scientists at Kyoto University's Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS) in Japan and colleagues.Acetylene is a gas ...

Trapping of Acetylene

Separation of Trace Acetylene from Ethylene in Ultramicroporous Metal–Organic Frameworks

31-Aug-2020 - Ethylene, a key feedstock in the chemical industry, often includes traces of acetylene contaminants, which need to be removed. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, researchers describe a robust and regenerable porous metal–organic framework that captures acetylene with extraordinary efficiency and ...

Conjugated tetraenes from butadiene and alkynes

Ruthenium catalysts opens mild, efficient synthesis route

16-Jan-2018 - Conjugated tetraenes are important key substructures in electronic materials, natural products and pharmaceutical molecules. However, they are difficult to synthesize. They are conventionally prepared by repetitions of the stoichiometric reactions using phosphorus reagents and subsequent ...

Atomic-level activity of green catalyst used in PVC production revealed

03-Apr-2017 - An international group of scientists has unlocked the secret of a gold-based catalyst that is responsible for a new, environmentally friendly method of producing the vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) that is used to manufacture polyvinyl chloride (PVC), the world's third-most widely used ...

Detonation technique to mass-produce graphene patented

27-Jan-2017 - Forget chemicals, catalysts and expensive machinery -- a Kansas State University team of physicists has discovered a way to mass-produce graphene with three ingredients: hydrocarbon gas, oxygen and a spark plug. Their method is simple: Fill a chamber with acetylene or ethylene gas and oxygen. Use ...

Molecular selfie reveals how a chemical bond breaks

Proton is seen escaping the molecule

24-Oct-2016 - Imagine what it would be like to watch how the individual atoms of molecules rearrange during a chemical reaction to form a new substance, or to see the compounds of DNA move, rearrange and replicate. Such capability would give unprecedented insight to understand and potentially control the ...

Rice's 'antenna-reactor' catalysts offer best of both worlds

20-Jul-2016 - In a find that could transform some of the world's most energy-intensive manufacturing processes, researchers at Rice University's Laboratory for Nanophotonics have unveiled a new method for uniting light-capturing photonic nanomaterials and high-efficiency metal catalysts. Each year, chemical ...

Synthesized microporous 3-D graphene-like carbons

Research team create carbon synthesis using zeolites as a template

30-Jun-2016 - Graphene, an allotrope of carbon, discovered more than a decade ago has led to myriad research that seeks to unlock its vast potential. Zeolites, commonly used microporous solid catalysts in the petrochemical industry, have recently attracted attention in the field of material science as a ...