Towards new reaction pathways

Insights on molecular dynamics in the ultrashort time window following UV excitation

30-Oct-2024 - The Attosecond Science group at the Center for Free-Electron Laser Science at DESY has developed a novel light source capable of producing extremely short pulses for the investigation of UV-induced molecular dynamics with unprecedented temporal resolution. Scientists from DESY and the University ...

Using light to produce medication and plastics more efficiently

How the energy efficiency of photochemical reactions can be increased tenfold

20-Mar-2024 - Anyone who wants to produce medication, plastics or fertilizer using conventional methods needs heat for chemical reactions – but not so with photochemistry, where light provides the energy. The process to achieve the desired product also often takes fewer intermediate steps. Researchers from the ...

Optical Frequency Combs Make Ultraviolet Spectroscopy More Sensitive and More Precise

The development promises advances in several scientific and technological fields

18-Mar-2024 - In a recent publication in Nature, researchers at the Max Born Institute (MBI) in Berlin, Germany, and at Max-Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in Garching report on a new technique for deciphering the properties of matter with light, that can simultaneously detect and precisely quantify many ...

Molecular manganese complex as superphotooxidant

Scientists developed a new molecular system made from the abundant element manganese for photooxidations

13-Feb-2024 - Highly reducing or oxidizing photocatalysts are a fundamental challenge in photochemistry. Only a few transition metal complexes with Earth-abundant metal ions have so far advanced to excited state oxidants, including chromium, iron, and cobalt. All these photocatalysts require high energy light ...

Low-cost molybdenum complex paves the way for sustainable photochemistry

Scientists use molybdenum for photocatalysis and photon upconversion

06-Sep-2023 - Given the urgent need for transforming how we use and produce energy, researchers are working hard to find sustainable and cost-effective materials for light-driven chemical applications. To date, this research field heavily relies on expensive precious metal or rare-earth metal complexes with ...

Light and milling balls for greener chemical processes

Reactions without solvents

16-Mar-2023 - A combination of photochemistry and mechanochemistry saves 98 per cent solvent and 80 per cent energy in a number of reactions. What’s more, the process takes less time than it does in solution. Light-driven chemical reactions so far were usually conducted with large amounts of solvents that are ...

It takes two: cooperating catalysts provide new route for utilizing formate salts

“Creating efficient synthesis methods such as this one is important for working towards a sustainable society”

08-Feb-2023 - Two catalysts working in tandem enable inexpensive formate salts to perform difficult dearomative reactions, giving products potentially useful for drug development. Researchers at the Institute for Chemical Reaction Design and Discovery (WPI-ICReDD) have developed a method that uses cooperating ...

Lab lights way to simple chemical synthesis

Photochemistry method eases manufacture of drug, chemical precursors

11-Jan-2023 - Inexpensive iron salts are a key to simplifying the manufacture of essential precursors for drugs and other chemicals, according to scientists at Rice University. They’ve refined the process of producing diazides, building-block molecules in the production of drugs and agricultural chemicals. ...

Discovery overturns major assumptions in crystal photochemistry!

Molecular crystal exhibits propagation of photochemical reaction

14-Dec-2022 - Stimuli-responsive materials, whose physical properties change in response to external stimuli such as light and heat, are being widely studied as next-generation functional materials. Especially, photo-responsive materials are attracting much attention because their physicochemical properties ...

From a greenhouse gas to an industrial raw material

06-Dec-2022 - Rather than being released into the atmosphere and exacerbating the problem of climate change, CO2 can also be used as a raw material for substances required in industrial processes, such as formic acid or methanol. The conversion of CO2 has already been investigated in detail in laboratory ...