New “one-pot” technique a breakthrough for material synthesis

Research created inorganic and polymer battery electrolytes simultaneously, with potential applications across chemistry

17-Mar-2025 - Creating battery electrolytes – the component that carries the charged particles back and forth between a battery’s two terminals – has always been a tradeoff. Solid-state inorganic electrolytes move the particles extremely efficiently, but being solid and inorganic means they’re also brittle, ...

Bubble findings could unlock better electrode and electrolyzer designs

A new study of bubbles on electrode surfaces could help improve the efficiency of electrochemical processes that produce fuels, chemicals, and materials

14-Oct-2024 - Industrial electrochemical processes that use electrodes to produce fuels and chemical products are hampered by the formation of bubbles that block parts of the electrode surface, reducing the area available for the active reaction. Such blockage reduces the performance of the electrodes by ...

New material for optically-controlled magnetic memory discovered

PME researchers were carrying out basic research on a magnetic topological insulator when they realized it had the potential to build optical storage devices.

14-Aug-2024 - Researchers at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME) have made unexpected progress toward developing a new optical memory that can quickly and energy-efficiently store and access computational data. While studying a complex material composed of manganese, ...

Using electricity, scientists find promising new method of boosting chemical reactions

Chemists hope to lay foundation for greener chemistry

09-Jan-2024 - As the world moves away from gas towards electricity as a greener power source, the to-do list goes beyond cars. The vast global manufacturing network that makes everything from our batteries to our fertilizers needs to flip the switch, too. A study from UChicago chemists found a way to use ...

Emerging technology could help extract lithium from new sources

29-Jul-2022 - As more drivers adopt plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles, the demand for lithium-ion batteries will continue to explode over the next decade. But processes for extracting lithium can be time-consuming and chemical-intensive, and traditional sources—including brine and hard rock—could ultimately ...

On the road to conductors of the future

Superconductivity in hydrogen sulfide

16-Sep-2020 - Superconducting wires can transport electricity without loss. This would allow for less power production, reducing both costs and greenhouse gasses. Unfortunately, extensive cooling stands in the way, because existing superconductors only lose their resistance at extremely low temperatures. In ...

Scientists break record for highest-temperature superconductor

Experiment produces new material that can conduct electricity perfectly

24-May-2019 - University of Chicago scientists are part of an international research team that has discovered superconductivity--the ability to conduct electricity perfectly--at the highest temperatures ever recorded. Using advanced technology at UChicago-affiliated Argonne National Laboratory, the team ...

Breakthrough could enable cheaper infrared cameras

12-Mar-2019 - There's an entire world our eyes miss, hidden in the ranges of light wavelengths that human eyes can't see. But infrared cameras can pick up the secret light emitted as plants photosynthesize, as cool stars burn and batteries get hot. They can see through smoke and fog and plastic. But infrared ...

Less is more when it comes to predicting molecules’ conductivity

04-Jun-2018 - The smaller and smarter that phones and devices become, the greater the need to build smaller circuits. Forward-thinking scientists in the 1970s suggested that circuits could be built using molecules instead of wires, and over the past decades that technology has become reality. The trouble is, ...

What happens when electrons get wet?

31-Jan-2018 - There's a particular set of chemical reactions that governs many of the processes around us--everything from bridges corroding in water to your breakfast breaking down in your gut. One crucial part of that reaction involves electrons striking water, and despite how commonplace this reaction is, ...