Bio- and chemocatalysis combined for green chemistry

07-Aug-2023 - Chemist Professor Dr. Harald Gröger of Bielefeld University is a pioneer in the field of so-called one-pot chemoenzymatic synthesis. The concept describes the performance of several reactions without separation steps in one reactor, combining conventional chemocatalysts and environmentally ...

Nanomembranes with pore molecules for efficient filtration

Method offers the promise of many possible applications across the chemical and pharmaceutical industries

05-Sep-2022 - A team from Bielefeld University, Queen Mary University of London, Imperial College London (both United Kingdom) and Northwestern University in Evanston (USA) have produced a new breed of polymer nanomembranes with aligned supramolecular macrocycle molecules. These new nanomembranes demonstrate ...

A sieve for molecules

“Materials like this with selective permeability are in high demand in industry”

09-Mar-2022 - Scientists have long tried to use graphene, which is composed of carbon, as a kind of sieve. But this material doesn’t have any pores. Now, a team has found an alternative material which comes with pores from the outset. Researchers from Bielefeld, Bochum and Yale have succeeded in producing a ...

Tiny nanoparticles improve charge transport

"Our special material design has made it possible for us to tease out properties that we know from theory but could not see before"

23-Sep-2021 - Three-dimensional topological insulators are materials that can conduct electric current without resistance—but only on their surface. However, this effect is difficult to measure. This is because these materials usually have little surface area in relation to their volume, which means their ...

Graphene: Everything under control

Research team demonstrates control mechanism for quantum material

12-Apr-2021 - How can large amounts of data be transferred or processed as quickly as possible? One key to this could be graphene. The ultra-thin material is only one atomic layer thick, and the electrons it contains have very special properties due to quantum effects. It could therefore be very well suited ...

Spin current from heat

New material increases efficiency

22-Nov-2017 - Electronic devices such as computers generate heat that mostly goes to waste. Physicists at Bielefeld University have found a way to use this energy: They apply the heat to generate magnetic signals known as 'spin currents'. In future, these signals could replace some of the electrical current in ...

Chip-based nanoscopy: Microscopy in HD quality

27-Apr-2017 - This information can be used to produce images with a resolution of about 20 to 30 nanometres, and thereby ten times that of conventional light microscopy. Until now, this method has required the use of expensive special instruments. Bielefeld University and the University of Tromsø have filed a ...

Hot electrons point the way to perfect light absorption

02-Sep-2015 - Light-absorbing films can be found in many everyday applications such as solar cells or sensors. They are used to convert light into electrical current or heat. The films literally trap the light. Although such absorber films are applied widely, scientists still do not know which mechanism ...

New modular system for controlled synthesis of metal/metal oxide nanocomposite thin films

Concept is based on research at Bielefeld University

22-Sep-2011 - Semiconductor thin films with special electronic, magnetic or optical functions are widely demanded for technical applications in increasingly smaller and efficient devices - they are indispensable in high-efficiency solar cells, bright light-emitting diodes and magneto-electronic devices. ...

High-tech microscope measures electron oscillations

22-Aug-2011 - Researchers from Bielefeld, Kaiserslautern and Würzburg have developed a novel high-tech microscope: It magnifies objects a million times and shows movements with a retardation of one million billion times. The new technology allows tracking extremely fast processes in miniature objects – with an ...