New Real-time Method for Environmental Monitoring

Hyperspectral imaging

24-Mar-2025 - Detecting microplastics and identifying plant stress at an early stage – this and much more can now be done thanks to a new method based on near-infrared light measurements. It is inexpensive and works in real time. Researchers from Bochum, Duisburg, Karlsruhe and Münster have developed a new ...

Structure of Supercritical Water Decoded

19-Mar-2025 - When exposed to high temperatures and pressure, water enters a state in which liquid and gas can no longer be distinguished. For a long time, there has been controversy about how this looks like on a molecular level. Researchers at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, have shed light on the structure ...

Salts as Building Blocks for Organocatalysis

A research team is using a new type of salt to specifically produce one of two possible mirror-image molecules

10-Mar-2025 - In scenarios where two mirror-image molecules are possible, special catalysts are required to produce only the desired one. A research team from the Ruhr Explores Solvation RESOLV Cluster of Excellence at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, and the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung in Mülheim, ...

How to recycle CO2 from flue gases

Design and process control are the be-all and end-all when it comes to reducing CO2 from flue gases or the atmosphere

22-Jan-2025 - In order to protect the climate, the aim is to recover CO2 from combustion processes for valuable materials. This is challenging because there are other gases in flue gases besides CO2. An international research team led by Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schuhmann from the Center for Electrochemistry at ...

Inorganic and biocatalysts work together to reduce CO2

In a hybrid cascade, climate-damaging CO2 is turned back into valuable methanol

15-Jan-2025 - In order to recover valuable substances from CO2, it must be reduced in many individual steps. If electrocatalysis is used for this, many potentially different potential molecules are formed, which cannot necessarily be used. Biocatalysts, on the other hand, are selective and only produce one ...

How catalysts secretly lose their stability

Covalent organic framework compounds are more active as catalysts than one would expect

28-Nov-2024 - Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) are less stable as catalysts than previously thought but remain highly active. COFs are promising designer catalysts, for example for the sustainable production of chemicals and fuels. Their properties can be adjusted very specifically to catalyze a desired ...

New Insights Into the Hydrogen Bonding of Hydrogen Sulphide

What do ice cubes in a drink have to do with the smell of grandma's famous egg salad?

15-Nov-2024 - Water and the bad smelling molecule hydrogen sulphide do not seem to have a lot in common at first sight. However, when investing a little energy, some differences disappear. At first glance, the ice cube in your soft drink and the smell of grandma’s famous egg salad don’t seem to have much in ...

Start-up Mechanolution wants to revolutionize the chemical industry

In an interview, the founding team reveals what makes their collaboration successful

01-Nov-2024 - At first glance, you might think that Desislava Dobreva and Sebastian Grothaus' start-up project is primarily characterized by differences. While Bulgarian-born scientist Desislava Dobreva has a passion for chemistry, her co-founder Sebastian Grothaus has been an entrepreneur for many years. They ...

Surprise at the grain boundary

For the first time, an international research team has been able to observe how solute elements introduce new grain boundary phases using state-of-the-art microscopy and simulation techniques

31-Oct-2024 - Using state-of-the-art microscopy and simulation techniques, an international research team systematically observed how iron atoms alter the structure of grain boundaries in titanium. They were in for a surprise: “Iron atoms not only segregate to the interface, but they form entirely unexpected ...

Mechanism of Cobalt-Manganese Catalysts Deciphered

Combination of different methods was the key to success

22-Oct-2024 - The energy carrier hydrogen can be obtained from water by electrolysis. This works particularly well with Cobalt spinel electrocatalysts containing manganese. However, it was unclear why. Conventional catalysts for hydrogen production via water electrolysis usually contain precious metals and are ...