The mechanism behind ice-forming bacteria

Researchers unlock mechanism of ice-nucleating bacteria

05-Nov-2024 - Particular „Ice-nucleating proteins“ produced by certain bacteria have the ability to control the freezing point of water – so efficiently that no other known material can compete. An interdisciplinary team led by Konrad Meister from the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research has now uncovered ...

Plant-inspired polymers for water purification

German-Japanese research team takes inspiration from nature, creating a polymer that selectively removes toxic heavy metal ions from water

31-Jul-2024 - Clean drinking water is a basic demand for our health and wellbeing. However, as the global population grows, achieving this for all communities worldwide becomes more challenging. Now, in a study published in Nature Communications, researchers from the HeKKSaGOn Alliance – involved were ...

Europe at forefront of innovation in water technologies

Large companies dominate but university innovation on the rise

22-Jul-2024 - Europe is leading globally in the development of new technologies in the water sector, according to a study published by the European Patent Office (EPO). The report, which looks at international patent families (IPFs)[i], finds that companies, researchers and inventors from theEPO’s 39 member ...

How many water molecules does it take to dissolve hydrochloric acid?

13-Jun-2024 - Scientists from DESY have made a significant step towards understanding the solvation processes of hydrochloric acid (HCl) at the molecular scale. HCI is a prototypical acid that is often used for research and in industry and also plays a part in atmospheric chemistry – for example in the growth ...

First-ever X-ray attosecond experiment on liquids provides new insights into water’s molecular properties

Theorists explain how X-ray measurement freezes hydrogen motion, with implications on other areas of chemistry

19-Feb-2024 - An international team has performed an attosecond-scale experiment at an X-ray free-electron laser on liquid water for the first time, and the results may change our interpretation of water’s behaviour. The experiment team, led by scientist Linda Young from Argonne National Laboratory in the US, ...

Electron bubbles modelled from X-ray laser data

An international team of scientists uncovers a groundbreaking model for the effects of radiation in water systems

06-Feb-2024 - What happens when radiation hits water? This is a question that has an impact every time you get an X-ray at the doctor’s office, given you are mostly made of water. A team of theoretical physicists at DESY has worked on data taken by colleagues from Argonne National Laboratory in the US at the ...

A microscopic look at atmospheric chemistry

New discovery contradicts textbook models

19-Jan-2024 - Many important reactions related to climate and environmental processes take place where water molecules interface with air. For example, the evaporation of ocean water plays an important role in atmospheric chemistry and climate science. Understanding these reactions is crucial to efforts to ...

How to capture water from air

Researchers decipher the underlying adsorption mechanism of special microporous material

09-Jan-2024 - Researchers from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) and Dresden University of Technology (TUD) have unraveled the water adsorption mechanism in certain microporous materials – so-called hierarchical metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) – while probing them on the atomic scale. Discovered ...

PFAS contaminated water becomes clean again

Promising and environmentally friendly process developed

25-Jul-2023 - There are many man-made environmental pollutants. One of the most serious is pollution with the harmful perpetual chemical PFAS, which can be found in many soils and waters and thus also in our food. Although it is possible to remove it, it is costly and produces hazardous waste. Now, researchers ...

Experiments reveal that water can “talk” to electrons in graphene

Results could lead to applications in water purification and desalination processes and maybe even to liquid-based computers

27-Jun-2023 - Water and carbon make a quantum couple: the flow of water on a carbon surface is governed by an unusual phenomenon dubbed quantum friction.A work published in ‘Nature Nanotechnology’ experimentally demonstrates this phenomenon – which was predicted in a previous theoretical study— at the ...