Lifeboat Foundation

Adopting electrostatic assembly processes where the nanoparticles attach themselves to an oppositely charged surface is a possible way out of this dilemma. Once a monolayer is formed, the nanoparticles self-limit further assembly by repelling other similarly charged nanoparticles away from the surface. Unfortunately, this process can be very time-consuming.

While artificial methods struggle with these drawbacks, underwater adhesion processes found in nature have evolved into unique strategies to overcome this problem. In this regard, a team of researchers from Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, led by Ph.D. student Doeun Kim (first author) and Assistant Professor Hyeon-Ho Jeong (corresponding author), developed a “mussel-inspired” one-shot nanoparticle assembly technique that transports materials from water in microscopic volumes to 2-in. wafers in 10 seconds, while enabling 2D mono-layered assembly with excellent surface coverage of around 40%. Their work was published in Advanced Materials on April 18, 2024, and highlighted as a frontispiece.

“Our key approach to overcome the existing challenge came from observing how mussels reach the target surface against water. We saw that mussels simultaneously radiate amino acids to dissociate water molecules on the surface, enabling swift attachment of the chemical adhesive on the target surface. We realized that an analogous situation where we introduce excess protons to remove hydroxyl groups from the target surface, thus increasing the electrostatic attraction force between the nanoparticles and the surface and accelerating the assembly process,” said Ms. Kim when asked about the motivation behind the unique nature-inspired approach.

Professor Junsuk Rho from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, and Electrical Engineering, Hyunjung Kang and Nara Jeon, PhD candidates, from Department of Mechanical Engineering and Dongkyo Oh, a PhD student, from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) successfully conducted a thorough quantitative analysis. Their aim is to determine the ideal printing material for crafting ultraviolet metasurfaces.

Their findings featured in the journal Microsystems & Nanoengineering (“Tailoring high-refractive-index nanocomposites for manufacturing of ultraviolet metasurfaces”).

Diagram illustrating the composition of nanocomposites for ultraviolet metasurface fabrication. (Top) Diagram illustrating the ZrO 2 nanocomposite’s role in achieving high transfer fidelity ultraviolet metaholograms. (Bottom) Comparison of UV holograms under various solvent conditions. (Image: POSTECH)

Boronic acid has been used in organic chemistry for decades, even though it is not present in any organism. “It gives rise to different chemical reactions than those we find in nature,” explains Gerard Roelfes, Professor of Biomolecular Chemistry & Catalysis at the University of Groningen.

“As long as the pharmaceutical companies quest for innovation is solely driven by intellectual property rights, they will keep failing in the war on cancer.”-Sylvie Beljanski.

Dr. Mirko Beljanski PhD, was a molecular biologist at the Pasteur Institute in Paris who investigated how environmental toxins damage DNA leading to cancer as well as natural compounds with protective anticancer properties. His research eventually led him to the discovery of two unique and powerful anticancer plant extracts: Pao pereira and Rauwolfia vomitoria.

Continue reading “Dr. Mirko Beljanski’s incredible story and research on natural anticancer compounds Pao Pereira and Rauwolfia” »

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are nanometer-scale structures with immense potential to improve different materials, but inconsistencies in their chemical and electrical properties, purity, cost, and concerns over possible toxicity present ongoing challenges. CNTs are a one-dimensional carbon allotrope made of an sp2 hybridized carbon lattice in a cylindrical shape. Single-walled CNTs are a simple tube, while multi-walled CNTs are nested concentrically or wrapped like a scroll (Figure 1).

These nanoscale materials feature a high Young’s modulus and tensile strength and can have either metallic or semiconducting electrical properties. Controlling their atomic arrangement (chirality) affects their conductivity, and because of this, researchers have been trying to understand how synthesis parameters can be used to generate CNTs with predictable electrical properties. The development of various chemical vapor deposition (CVD)-based recipes within the last 20 years to synthesize CNTs has improved this situation.

As we’ve seen in our analysis of the CAS Content Collection™, the world’s largest human-curated collection of published scientific information, the increase in patent activity indicates a high amount of interest in commercial applications for CNTs (Figure 2).

A flow-through redox-neutral electrochemical reactor–electrodialysis system has been developed to recover water, alkali and acids from hypersaline wastewaters. This accelerates a shift in ‘zero-discharge’ technology from energy-intensive steam-driven to energy-efficient electrically driven processes.

ChemCrow, an AI developed by researchers at EPFL, integrates multiple expert tools to perform chemical research tasks with unprecedented efficiency.

Chemistry, with its intricate processes and vast potential for innovation, has always been a challenge for automation. Traditional computational tools, despite their advanced capabilities, often remain underutilized due to their complexity and the specialized knowledge required to operate them.

AI Revolution in Chemistry.

A team led by Prof Frank Glorius from the Institute of Organic Chemistry at the University of Münster has developed an evolutionary algorithm that identifies the structures in a molecule that are particularly relevant for a respective question and uses them to encode the properties of the molecules for various machine-learning models.

A pressure of 3,000 bar is applied to the cold shock protein B of Bacillus subtilis in a small tube in the NMR spectroscopy laboratory at the University of Konstanz. This is roughly three times the water pressure at the deepest point of the ocean. The pressure is so intense that the highly dynamic protein shows structural features that would not be sufficiently visible under normal pressure. But why do scientists apply such high pressure, which does not occur anywhere else on our planet under natural conditions? The answer is: To study processes and properties that are too volatile to be observed under normal conditions.

“This high pressure allows us to make states visible that actually do exist at 1 bar, but which we can only observe directly at 3,000 bar”, explains Frederic Berner, University of Konstanz. Literally “under high pressure”, the doctoral researcher investigates the properties of a protein determined by its structure, and how changes in the structure in turn influence its properties. In the research group Physical Chemistry and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance at the University of Konstanz, led by Michael Kovermann, he recently implemented a new method for analyzing the structural properties of proteins at 3,000 bar with as little influence as possible from surrounding effects. The two researchers now present their new methodological approach in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition.