Researchers create new chemical compound to solve 120-year-old problem

Accessing these molecules can have major impacts on agriculture, pharmaceuticals, and electronics

06-May-2024 - For the first time, chemists in the University of Minnesota Twin Cities College of Science and Engineering have created a highly reactive chemical compound that has eluded scientists for more than 120 years. The discovery could lead to new drug treatments, safer agricultural products, and better ...

Catalyst to make renewable paints, coatings, and diapers discovered

Groundbreaking discovery will enable the manufacturing of biorenewable materials from trees and corn: A Startup wants to make it possible

11-Jan-2023 - A team led by University of Minnesota Twin Cities researchers has invented a groundbreaking new catalyst technology that converts renewable materials like trees and corn to the key chemicals, acrylic acid, and acrylates used in paints, coatings, and superabsorbent polymers. The new catalyst ...

Shining light on why plastics turn yellow

Insights could help researchers design plastic products that last longer before becoming unsightly or unusable

08-Sep-2022 - If you own a retro gaming console or have an old roll of packing tape, you’ve seen how plastics turn yellow as they age. Though the cause of this color change has long been attributed to the formation of molecules that act as dyes — the actual chemical changes that take place remained ...

Energy researchers invent chameleon metal that acts like many others

Research could improve efficiency for storing renewable energy, making carbon-free fuels, and manufacturing sustainable materials

12-May-2022 - A team of energy researchers led by the University of Minnesota Twin Cities have invented a groundbreaking device that electronically converts one metal into behaving like another to use as a catalyst for speeding chemical reactions. The fabricated device, called a “catalytic condenser,” is the ...

First fully 3D-printed, flexible OLED display

Technology opens door to ubiquitous, more easily fabricated electronic screens

12-Jan-2022 - In a groundbreaking new study, researchers at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities used a customized printer to fully 3D print a flexible organic light-emitting diode(OLED) display. The discovery could result in low-cost OLED displays in the future that could be widely produced using 3D ...

Exploding and weeping ceramics

Researchers discover a path to a shape-shifting ceramic material

23-Nov-2021 - From coffee cups to bathroom tiles, ceramics are brittle. Subject to the slightest deformation, they shatter. On the other end of the spectrum of materials, some of the most deformable materials known - that also support large stresses while they deform - are shape memory alloys. The origin of ...

New technology will allow important metals to be made more efficiently

Patented technology will improve production of many electronic and computer components

11-Aug-2021 - University of Minnesota Twin Cities College of Science and Engineering researchers have invented a cheaper, safer, and simpler technology that will allow a “stubborn” group of metals and metal oxides to be made into thin films used in many electronics, computer components, and other ...

Researchers uncover unique properties of a promising new superconductor

Material could be used in future quantum computing applications

18-Jun-2021 - An international team of physicists led by the University of Minnesota has discovered that a unique superconducting metal is more resilient when used as a very thin layer. The research is the first step toward a larger goal of understanding unconventional superconducting states in materials, ...

Energy researchers break the catalytic speed limit

31-May-2019 - A team of researchers from the University of Minnesota and University of Massachusetts Amherst has discovered new technology that can speed up chemical reactions 10,000 times faster than the current reaction rate limit. These findings could increase the speed and lower the cost of thousands of ...

2018 WITec Paper Award for Outstanding Scientific Publications

31-May-2018 - Every year WITec, the Raman imaging company, recognizes three peer-reviewed publications that stand out in terms of originality and significance and feature data acquired with a WITec microscope. This year, scientists from universities and institutes in Bochum, Bayreuth and Minneapolis received ...