Using metabolomics for assessing safety of chemicals may reduce the use of lab rats

"We hope that learnings from this research will be included in new guidance for the chemical industry to allow commercial laboratories to provide these services widely"

26-Feb-2024 - Scientists have discovered a more robust way of grouping chemicals and using read-across for toxicological data to meet regulatory requirements, which could greatly reduce animal testing. The safety of chemicals is taken incredibly seriously by regulators and as such industry must meet certain ...

Let it glow: Scientists develop new approach to detect ‘forever chemicals’ in water

18-Jan-2024 - Scientists at the University of Birmingham in collaboration with scientists from the Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM) have developed a new approach for detecting pollution from ‘forever chemicals’ in water through luminescence. PFAS or ‘forever chemicals’ are manufactured ...

New method to promote biofilm formation and increase efficiency of biocatalysis

Researchers identified synthetic polymers that induce biofilm formation in E. coli, a bacterium commonly used in biocatalysis

04-Aug-2022 - Birmingham scientists have revealed a new method to increase efficiency in biocatalysis, in a paper published in Materials Horizons. Biocatalysis uses enzymes, cells or microbes to catalyse chemical reactions, and is used in settings such as the food and chemical industries to make products that ...

Research paves the way for stronger alloys

High-speed synchrotron X-ray tomography ‘photograph’ the changing crystal structures in molten alloys as they cool

07-Jun-2022 - Scientists from the University of Birmingham have described how microscopic crystals grow and change shape in molten metals as they cool, in research that is breaking new ground in alloy research and paves the way for improving the tensile strength of alloys used in casting and welding. Their ...

Birmingham spinout begins commercialisation for a technology that will make manufacturing more sustainable

Technology allows to monitor what is going on inside production pipes in real-time, without having to halt production

25-Jan-2022 - University of Birmingham spinout Rheality has partnered with Clean Engineering to commercialise a ‘smart’ AI-based system that will significantly optimise fluid production by reducing power consumption and raw material wastage while maximising throughput and product quality in the Food, Oil & ...

Using a game of physical skill to explain lithium-ion batteries

Educational tool to explain the processes at work inside the battery cells and the electrochemistry behind them

18-Jun-2020 - Tower block games can be used to explain to schoolchildren how lithium-ion batteries work, meeting an educational need to better understand a power source that has become vital to everyday life. While lithium-ion batteries are abundant in so many of our electronic devices, from smart phones to ...

Chemical recycling makes useful product from waste bioplastic

Chemical process can be used to break down real consumer plastics and produce green solvent

25-May-2020 - A faster, more efficient way of recycling plant-based "bioplastics" has been developed by a team of scientists at the Universities of Birmingham and Bath. The team has shown how their chemical recycling method not only speeds up the process, it can also be converted into a new product - a ...

MRI scanning assists with next generation battery design

Technique will enable faster evaluation of new battery materials

04-May-2020 - Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can provide an effective way of supporting the development of the next generation of high-performance rechargeable batteries, according to research led by the University of Birmingham. The technique, which was developed to detect the movement and deposition of ...

Scientists find a way to extract color from black

31-Mar-2020 - Scientists have developed a way of extracting a richer palette of colours from the available spectrum by harnessing disordered patterns inspired by nature that would typically be seen as black. Colours that we see in nature often come from nanoscale patterns that reflect light back in particular ...

Secrets of fluorescent microalgae could lead to super-efficient solar cells

13-May-2019 - Tiny light-emitting microalgae, found in the ocean, could hold the secret to the next generation of organic solar cells, according to new research carried out at the Universities of Birmingham and Utrecht. Microalgae are probably the oldest surviving living organisms on the planet. They have ...