Tiny porous crystals change the shape of water to speed up chemical reactions

The new approach is poised to play a role in helping chemical manufacturers move away from harmful solvent catalysts in favor of water

22-Sep-2021 - Chemical engineers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign now understand how water molecules assemble and change shape in some settings, revealing a new strategy to speed up chemical reactions critical to industry and environmental sustainability. The new approach is poised to play a role ...

Nanoparticle gel unites oil and water in manufacturing-friendly approach

Novel gel-creation method could open applications in water filtration, other applications

15-Feb-2021 - Oil and water may not mix, but adding the right nanoparticles to the recipe can convert these two immiscible fluids into an exotic gel with uses ranging from batteries to water filters to tint-changing smart windows. A new approach to creating this unusual class of soft materials could carry them ...

How to make it easier to turn plant waste into biofuels

Innovative process to rapidly dissolve plant fibers

16-Jan-2020 - Researchers have developed a new process that could make it much cheaper to produce biofuels such as ethanol from plant waste and reduce reliance on fossil fuels. Their approach, featuring an ammonia-salt based solvent that rapidly turns plant fibers into sugars needed to make ethanol, works well ...

Modern alchemists are making chemistry greener

18-Jun-2018 - Ancient alchemists tried to turn lead and other common metals into gold and platinum. Modern chemists in Paul Chirik's lab at Princeton are transforming reactions that have depended on environmentally unfriendly precious metals, finding cheaper and greener alternatives to replace platinum, ...

Making carbon nanotubes as usable as common plastics

17-May-2018 - Northwestern University's Jiaxing Huang is ready to reignite carbon nanotube research. And he's doing so with a common chemical that was once used in household cleaners. By using an inexpensive, already mass produced, simple solvent called cresol, Huang has discovered a way to make disperse ...

Clean water that's 'just right' with Sandia sensor solution

13-Jul-2017 - Water utilities have a Goldilocks problem: If they don't add enough chlorine, nasty bacteria that cause typhoid and cholera survive the purification process. Too much chlorine produces disinfection byproducts such as chloroform, which increase cancer risks. The amount of chlorine needs to be ...

ORNL licenses rare earth magnet recycling process to Momentum Technologies

06-Sep-2016 - The Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Momentum Technologies have signed a non-exclusive licensing agreement for an ORNL process designed to recover rare earth magnets from used computer hard drives. The patent-pending process developed as part of DOE's Critical Materials ...

Oxea announces global price increases for solvents

15-Apr-2014 - Oxea will increase off-list prices on the following products effective May 1, 2014, or as contracts allow. Oxea has implemented a 100% sales control on all products in the Intermediates portfolio. The sales control will be based on the average monthly consumption over the last 6 months or as ...

Oxea announces global price increases for solvents

20-Mar-2014 - Oxea will increase off-list prices on the following products effective April 1, 2014, or as contracts allow: USA, Canada, and Mexico Product April 1, 2014 Increase US$/lb n Propanol $0.03 n Propyl Acetate $0.03 South & Central America, Asia, Africa, and ...

'Ship in a bottle' detects dangerous vapors

Rice University lab traps metallic compounds to sniff out signs of hazardous solvents

14-Oct-2013 - Rice University scientists took a lesson from craftsmen of old to assemble microscopic compounds that warn of the presence of dangerous fumes from solvents. The researchers combined a common mineral, zeolite, with a metallic compound based on rhenium to make an "artificial nose" that can sniff ...